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You are here: Home / Reality Bites

Reality Bites

by John Cole|  May 14, 20159:56 pm| 210 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, Sociopaths, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot

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Orange Julius opens his piehole to spew more nonsense:

House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday dismissed a reporter’s question about Amtrak funding as authorities continued investigating the Tuesday derailment that killed eight people near Philadelphia.

“Are you really going to ask such a stupid question?” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said, cutting off the reporter mid-question during a briefing at the U.S. Capitol. “They started this yesterday, it’s all about funding, it’s all about funding.”

“The train was going twice the speed limit,” Boehner said. It is “hard for me to imagine that people take the bait on some of the nonsense that gets spewed around here.”

Well, yeah. Funding actually did have something to do with the crash:

Money has also been an issue in implementing positive train control.

The Federal Railroad Administration has calculated the cost of the system at $52,000 per mile of track. The railroads have put a total price tag of more than $9 billion on the system and said they have spent $5.2 billion so far. One of the biggest problems is that the system needs to be interoperable, meaning that communication is necessary between equipment used by different railroads, even if the railroads use different types of equipment.

The Federal Railroad Administration twice sought extra funding from Congress to finance the technology for Amtrak and other commuter rails. A first request for $825 million was ignored. A second request for extra funding was made this year for the 2016 budget as part of the Department of Transportation’s Grow America budget.

“Clearly, one of the hurdles that Amtrak has and the commuter rail industry has is that this is very expensive technology,” Mr. Szabo said. “It was never funded. The failure to invest in Amtrak’s capital program clearly has been a hindrance in more timely deployment. The way to make public rail a priority would be with public funding.”

I don’t understand how these guys continue to get elected when they clearly live in an alternate reality. Whenever someone proposes even the mildest cut to the obscenely bloated military budget, these guys fall over themselves running to microphones to detail the disastrous consequences of not shoveling over a couple hundred more billion to defense contractors. But with everything else, they think they can just slash and cut as much as they want and there are no consequences.

Infrastructure costs money. Roads and railways and airports and bridges deteriorate without repairs, and they don’t upgrade themselves. So yeah. When a bridge collapses in Wisconsin Minnesota or a train crashes in Philly or a coal mine blows up in West Virginia or planes collide on a runway, sure, there were other contributing factors, but lack of repair, overloaded systems, lack of oversight brought on by inadequate funding are at the forefront.

It’s just reality.

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Reader Interactions

210Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    May 14, 2015 at 10:00 pm

    Hope this comes back to bite them.

    How are our press corpse handling the issue? (I’m watching Mad Men. The Cuban Missile crisis is upon them. People wondering if they’re living their last weekend ever.)

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    When a bridge collapses in Wisconsin

    Wisconsin has its problems but that particular event happened next door in Minnesota.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    I don’t understand how these guys continue to get elected when they clearly live in an alternate reality.

    They’ve convinced people that other people are trying to take advantage of them.

    That, and society has decided that no Democrat is good enough to support

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel

    May 14, 2015 at 10:03 pm

    that bridge? it was in minnesota not wisconsin. little timmy pawlenty was third in line to know it needed to be replaced but refused to do it. He was preceded by jesse the boobie ventura and arne carlson, the last ‘reasonable’ republican in the state. even after the collapse timmy was sure more tax cuts would solve the problem because government is the problem.

  5. 5.

    jharp

    May 14, 2015 at 10:03 pm

    Sounds to me like John Boehner listens to The Rush Limbaugh Show and takes it seriously.

    Holy fuck.

  6. 6.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 14, 2015 at 10:11 pm

    @Baud:

    That, and societyDemocrats has have decided that no Democrat is good enough to support

  7. 7.

    jl

    May 14, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    @Baud: I agree with you. I think the fact that Boehner felt he had to bully and intimidate and ridicule to make this issue disappear for now shows that they know when their cynical stunts get too close to transparency.

    Otherwise, positive train control would have shown up in one of Jindal’s speeches or one of McCains dishonest lists of obvious government waste.

    “Fruit flies with curly wings! Volcano monitoring! Earthquake prediction! Positive Train Control!? Well, my friends, I am positive that we have trains under control now, and they are called engineers, that was good enough in my day and I don’t see why its not good enough now, har har har…”

    The con is to grind the faces of the lesser people and steal thousands of dollars form them in wages and benefits, and then inflame them with BS by misrepresenting useful government programs that cost them a few bucks and change.

  8. 8.

    fuckwit

    May 14, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    I love how he literally tries to bully his way out of answering a very smart question, by calling it stupid. And his great genius move is to spot a FOX talking point, next question.

    We need to pound on this hard. Speed controls on trains. Fund it now.

    And yes, this crash is the Rethug’s fault. Stop letting them shame and bully people to keep them from pointing that out.

  9. 9.

    Zinsky

    May 14, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    Just like the lack of funding by the Repukes led to the Benghazi debacle and the death of Ambassador Stevens. The rat bastards.

  10. 10.

    danielx

    May 14, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    It’s just reality.

    And reality bites.

    None of this comes as any kind of surprise; I’ve noted for quite some time that Republicans (at least some/most) and reality are on nodding acquaintance at best. There are exceptions to this, primarily amongst the financial/rich asshole faction of the party. They have to deal with reality on a daily basis, unlike Rush Limbaugh or White House political aides. Witness how W’s grand adventure was cheered by all parties until it started to affect international trade and the like, at which point his support in the business community started sinking like a submarine with screen doors.

    Naturally, the reaction among the faithful Republican base was the Clap Louder syndrome.

  11. 11.

    Aleta

    May 14, 2015 at 10:16 pm

    @Baud:

    They’ve convinced people that other people are trying to take advantage of them.

    This is true. I’ve seen it on the cartoons.

  12. 12.

    dp

    May 14, 2015 at 10:17 pm

    And infrastructure work HELPS THE ECONOMY! This is such a no-brainer that it’s surprising that Republicans with no brains can’t support it.

  13. 13.

    Scott S.

    May 14, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    Boehner and his pals should be invited to the funerals.

  14. 14.

    magurakurin

    May 14, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    What is the deal with the American Wingnut’s hatred of trains? I mean, when I was a kid the railroads and the Golden Spike…big points of pride in our history text books. What the hell happened? Why exactly do they hate trains so damn much? But then I realized that I could have answered my own question by remembering that America is a place where “rolling coal” is a real thing.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Sadly true.

  16. 16.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    we must send out for a new people, and then a new congress.

  17. 17.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    @dp:

    And infrastructure work HELPS THE ECONOMY!

    What makes you think that modern Republicans have any interest in helping the economy?

  18. 18.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    they love Chinese infrastructure, in fairness.

  19. 19.

    danielx

    May 14, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    @jharp:

    Actually, it’s more that John Boehner knows his party’s base (and congressional Teahadists) all too well and knows exactly what they’re expecting him to say. If he doesn’t say it, it gives them yet another reason to toss him out of his job. You gotta remember, this isn’t reality we’re dealing with, it’s theology. Just like tax cuts create jobs, and any form of guvmint spending other than on the national security state is bad, and….lather, rinse, repeat.

    If Boehner wasn’t such a colossal dick, I could almost feel sorry for him.

    Almost.

  20. 20.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    @magurakurin: Europeans ride trains. What’s worse, they take trains from one European city to another European city. Some of those cities are known for culture and good food. This is a terrible assault on freedom. To strive for anything better than 3rd rate is un-American.

  21. 21.

    Mike in NC

    May 14, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    @jharp: Every Republican in Congress bows before El Rushbo.

  22. 22.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    I’m not sure anyone wants to toss boehner out of anything. he is the perfect foil and the perfect tool. he may be the safest man in washington. the fact that he sucks at everything is a feature, not a bug.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Speaking of Reality Bites, the mobile site keeps redirecting me to Go Garden Club.

  24. 24.

    danielx

    May 14, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Every Republican in Congress bows before El Rushbo.

    And Grover Norquist and the NRA too. You’d think such a lot of self-proclaimed devout Christians would have taken that business about idol worship to heart, but such does not appear to be the case.

    Hey, new income sideline idea – little statuettes of El Rushbo, posed in the lotus position with a benevolent smile like Buddha! He’s got the stomach for it, although the benevolent smile would need a little work. Yes, yes, you can thank me later for the mental image of Rush in the lotus position with his stomach being the most prominent feature.

    But I bet they’d sell like girl scout cookies, although even the mention of Rush Limbaugh and Girl Scouts in the same post makes me mildy nauseous.

  25. 25.

    catclub

    May 14, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    OT: No one standing up for Bush
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/cleavage-and-confrontation

    What puzzles me is that I thought it was the Bush machine that clicked into action to tell Mitt that he was not needed.
    Now that machine has disappeared. Or I could have been wrong about it belonging to Bush.

  26. 26.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    @danielx:

    the gun nut thing drives me absolutely crazy. everything else is pretty much, well, okay, they do that, but the absolute, no holds barred, gun nut thing drives me crazy.

    maybe it’s me.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 14, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @magurakurin:

    What is the deal with the American Wingnut’s hatred of trains?

    It’s a mystery, isn’t it? You’d think they’d be panting to return to the glory days of Taggart Transcontinental.

    http://store.atlasshruggedmovie.com/official-taggart-transcontinental-lapel-pin-original/

    (Sorry for the ugly link. Whenever I try to embed a link recently, it crashes my iPad. Hope this is just a temporary by-product of the BJ site revamp.)

  28. 28.

    fuckwit

    May 14, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @magurakurin: Well, there are economic, cultural, and political reasons.

    The economic reasons are simply oil corporations, auto manufacturers, suburban house-building industry, and the whole carbon industry, pushing for highways and cars and suburbs and wanting to decimate trains. Simple enough, really: follow the money.

    The political and cultural reasons are more speculative, but I think are simply that when you have people from all walks of life mixing together in common cause– rich and poor stuck on a train together– it creates a more egalitarian society, a sense of common purpose. With people from different walks of life interacting, there’s an exchange of ideas and cultures. People who live in denser-populated environments trend more liberal. They’re more cosmopolitan. The Rethug machinery is built upon isolation, consumerism, and suburbia. Its strength is exurbs: two car garage, detached house, get in your car, get on the bumper-to-bumper freeway listening to Rushbo and being told what brown people to be angry about, go to your job, get back in your car, listen to more Rushbo, then turn on any of the idiotic cable channels and be told more people to be scared of and things to buy and more churches to donate money to, to relieve that fear and emptiness and anger– the emptiness of being a consumer and not a human being who has contact with other human beings, like you would be forced to do in an urban environment with public transportation.

    The thing I love most about public transportation, cities, hell about America itself at its best, is all these cultures from all over the place, all here, interacting. I’m a melting-pot kind of guy, and I think that’s what makes me liberal.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @efgoldman: There is something very, very wrong with some of the people around here.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @efgoldman:

    It’s frustrating.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 14, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @danielx:

    If Boehner wasn’t such a colossal dick, I could almost feel sorry for him.

    I felt that way a few years ago, but his colossal dickitude fixed that real fast.

  32. 32.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    except me.

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @Little Boots: Dude….

  34. 34.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s the price of admission.

  36. 36.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    May 14, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @dp:You would think business groups (especially to the large construction trades) would be slapping the GOP upside their heads. But I guess they are probably to much having their heads up their asses to notice.

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    @Baud: Oh, please don’t think that I was criticizing. Or exempting myself.

  38. 38.

    ms_canadada

    May 14, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    @beltane: Well, if they’re turning paved roads into gravel roads, what’s next, dirt roads?
    Stupid is as stupid does. Not crossing the border anymore. It’s too fcuking depressing.

  39. 39.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:42 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    no, not you.

  40. 40.

    jl

    May 14, 2015 at 10:42 pm

    @danielx: @efgoldman:

    I think you mean Budai, not Buddha.

    And Rush’s fat gut is the least unappetizing candidate I can think of for ‘most prominent feature’.

    Edit: if you rub Budei Rush’s fat belly, you become a delusional rage-a-holic, which is what seems to pass for happiness among the wingnuts.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:43 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    In the end, we’re all misfits in a world that doesn’t understand us.

  42. 42.

    sigaba

    May 14, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    @danielx:

    None of this comes as any kind of surprise; I’ve noted for quite some time that Republicans (at least some/most) and reality are on nodding acquaintance at best.

    I used to read Rod Dreher’s blog more but I’ve been staying away lately — this whole gay marriage thing is completely wrapped around his crankshaft and it’s a lot less interesting and trolling than it has been at other times. But before all that, one of the things he used to harp on was the idea of moral realism, the idea that right and wrong aren’t just social constructs or conventions but real, tangible things, and that right and wrong are deontological and can’t be based on any sort of innate sense of fairness or justice, or conscience. This is opposed to “emotivism”, the idea that people know right and wrong by their feelings or some a-rational volition. Emotivism is bad because, putatively, you can feel good about evil things, such as, as the Rod Drehers would assert, gay sex and abortion.

    So, if you’re a sufficiently ideological conservative, right and wrong, Job Creators and Leeches, Gummint and Socialism, those are the only actual real things. All of this talk liberals go into, wether things “work” or not, the question of what people actually do instead of what they ought to do, “empirical” reality, is beside the point, it’s just liberals being all liberal-ee and allowing their evil utilitarian amoral worldview to cloud their moral judgement. Amtrak is gummint and gummint must be cut, that’s all that is certain; sure, maybe automated train control would save lives, in this instance, but that’s just some technicality, and exception to the beauty and clarity of the underlying generality.

    A hallmark of a certain kind of republican argument is to assert something blatantly false (Amtrak cuts didn’t cause nothing), but then, upon being shown clearly that this is false, demanding that everyone admit that they just “know” that, maybe despite the details of this particular situation, they’re still right. What actually happens isn’t important, what’s important is everybody’s supposed to admit what everybody supposedly knows is true: Muslims are evil, poors are lazy, government never works.

  43. 43.

    pluege

    May 14, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    The MTA in NY just got a gubermint loan for PTC for Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road – $1 Billion…just two railroads.40 railroads nationwide are required to implement PTC.

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    @Baud: Or one that understands us all too well.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    We. Threaten. Everything.

  46. 46.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    I’m about to get maudlin. omnes, don’t let me get maudlin.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:49 pm

    @Baud: Well, I really do expect to be one of the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

  48. 48.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    @efgoldman:

    so no love?

    okay, fine, no love.

  49. 49.

    Bailey

    May 14, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Are you a first time viewer? Are you liking it?

    I’m going through pre-mature withdrawal for the series finale on Sunday and am barely holding it together. I love this show so damned much.

  50. 50.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    actually, that helped a lot.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It would be a honor to share a cigarette with you in those final moments.

  52. 52.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    seriously, nobody can have an emotion?

  53. 53.

    magurakurin

    May 14, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    @fuckwit: sounds like a reasonable explanation. But I still can’t get my mind around it. The 27% and their 1% overlords are some stone cold mutherfuckers.

  54. 54.

    Doug R

    May 14, 2015 at 10:55 pm

    some train operator texting killed about 25 people in a head on so what is Los Angeles do? Spend 200 million on a positive control system to fix it

  55. 55.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 10:56 pm

    fine.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    May 14, 2015 at 10:57 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Now you’re making me desire the revolution.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    @efgoldman: The Jacobins turned on their allies pretty early.

  58. 58.

    Chris

    May 14, 2015 at 11:00 pm

    @magurakurin:

    It’s kind of staggering how many things they’ve gotten us to associate with Un-American Socialism that were historically nothing of the kind. (The post office, which is on pretty solid constitutional ground, probably gets the gold medal, but trains are up there too).

    Can you believe there was a time when large permanent standing armies made Americans nervous, instead of being The Only Good Perfect Infallible Untouchable Thing In Government? Can you believe that city ordinances prohibiting the carrying of firearms were accepted and enforced throughout the old west without too many complaints from anyone but the criminals? Heck, can you believe there was a time when a person with Thomas Jefferson’s religious views could be elected president? It’s remarkable how recently constructed so much of conservative ideology is.

  59. 59.

    magurakurin

    May 14, 2015 at 11:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Indeed. Hell, even Thomas Paine was arrested. Revolutions never turn out the way they are intended. Best to avoid them for sure.

  60. 60.

    jonas

    May 14, 2015 at 11:03 pm

    But with everything else, they think they can just slash and cut as much as they want and there are no consequences.

    Military spending that helps us blow shit up swells America’s collective c*ck, whereas spending on pussy shit like roads and bridges, or, Republican Jesus forbid — trains — so hippie weenies can travel to their gay organic co-ops or whatever is grounds for forfeiting your man license.

    So yeah, we can’t have nice things.

  61. 61.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:04 pm

    Here’s a story from little Vermont to brighten everyone’s evening. A state senator (Republican, of course) facing felony sexual-assault charges is refusing to step down and all they can do is remove him from the committees he was on http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2015/05/14/mcallister-stays-senator-removed-committees/27328027/

    At least there is a very good chance he will not be re-elected.

  62. 62.

    Chris

    May 14, 2015 at 11:04 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I wasn’t raised in the U.S. school system. How many have heard of it now?

  63. 63.

    magurakurin

    May 14, 2015 at 11:04 pm

    @Chris:

    It’s kind of staggering how many things they’ve gotten us to associate with Un-American Socialism that were historically nothing of the kind.

    Thanks, Obama.

    but in all seriousness, yeah, you are totally right. It’s just sort of mind blowing the stuff people are against, just because….Hell, Lindsay Graham himself said that Ronald Reagan wouldn’t win the GOP primary during the 2012 race, too liberal. doh.

  64. 64.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:04 pm

    @efgoldman:

    damn, this place is sometimes a pain in the ass, but compared to that other place, well, jesus.

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    @efgoldman: This cognac?

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    May 14, 2015 at 11:06 pm

    @magurakurin: I think they follow a boilerplate philosophy, and rather than consider the details and pros vs cons of a situation, they run it through the “fits the philosophy”/ “doesn’t fit” filter. (Even though the actual philosophy differs for rightwing christians vs wingnuts, the decision method is the same. So the republican leaders just have to advertise enough positions that fit cleanly into each of the boilerplates, and they get both factions.) It’s no fun having a discussion with this kind of thinker because right out of the gate they have put the issue into one box or another. (Of course I do it too, but I like to think they’re worse.) And so they vote against their interests, and for candidates controlled by undemocratic interests.

    Despite all the voting for ‘lower taxes,’ and ‘liberty or death,’ their taxes aren’t going to go down. The tax money just goes into different, fewer pockets. And they’re voting for less freedom.

  67. 67.

    MomSense

    May 14, 2015 at 11:06 pm

    @danielx:

    Rush in the lotus position with his stomach being the most prominent feature.

    @efgoldman:

    Even better make it a pillbox, hinged at the thorax, for those ::ahem:: very special drugs.

    It is way too close to bedtime for these mental images. You are going to give us all nightmares.

  68. 68.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    needs more billin, by the way.

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    @Chris: My IB history class did a reenactment of the trial of Louis XVI; I was Louis. That was a few years ago and an IB class.

  70. 70.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    @Chris: Other than those taking AP European history, it’s guaranteed than almost none of them have heard of it.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:11 pm

    @efgoldman: Mine would be more expensive.

  72. 72.

    Chris

    May 14, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My IB history class did a reenactment of the trial of Louis XVI; I was Louis.

    I can only hope the reenactment wasn’t too realistic.

    Thanks for the answers, all.

  73. 73.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    We do not need a revolution. We need a Thomas Cromwell-esque president who will get things done. Cromwell would have given us the Public Option even if heads had to roll.

  74. 74.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    miss you all, for reasons I can’t say.

    miss billin mostly.

    okay, miss omnes mostly.

  75. 75.

    ms_canadada

    May 14, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Come up here to Canada. We’ve got a spare room and 2 dogs :)

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    @Chris: It was the early 80s. I was wearing topsiders without socks. Part of my defense was that I was economizing so much on behalf of France that my personal budget did not stretch to socks. The sans-culottes convicted me anyway. Salopards.

  77. 77.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    @efgoldman: I was also taught it in high school in the mid-80s, but I was in honors history. Even then, the non-honors classes weren’t taught much of substance. When I see what my children are learning, or not learning, in school now I just get depressed. The curriculum has been watered down to homeopathic levels.

  78. 78.

    Tripod

    May 14, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    THAT’S gotta sting.

    At some level It’s an Ohio thing. The state had a pretty extensive passenger service up until Amtrak day, but has since steadfastly refused to fund any service. The idiots have been going after Cincinnati Streetcar forever.

    When you make yahoo states like Missouri and Indiana look passenger rail progressive….

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    @ms_canadada: I am resigned to my fate.

  80. 80.

    Davebo

    May 14, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    Seriously? 52K per mile of track?

    That seems more than a bit expensive.

  81. 81.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 14, 2015 at 11:22 pm

    @beltane: This sounds like a Maureen Dowd column waiting to happen.

  82. 82.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    you are so not.

  83. 83.

    Chris

    May 14, 2015 at 11:24 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I would’ve voted for you.

    Well, I’d have been open to a bribe, at any rate.

  84. 84.

    Aleta

    May 14, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    @Chris: The speedy dismantling of the post office is horrifying. The billions it has been made to pay, every year since 2006, into a fund whose whereabouts are unknown–what a con, what a scam. It has never received tax dollars, but got branded by the anti-government pretend-cowboy goons, because it was a viable well of money to drain.

  85. 85.

    jl

    May 14, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    @Doug R:

    ” some train operator texting killed about 25 people in a head on so what is Los Angeles do? Spend 200 million on a positive control system to fix it ”

    By coincidence, heard an interview with a train safety guy just a little before I read your comment. He said that only time it’s been triggered since it was installed was to compensate for a mechanical error.

    But, let Boehner bully and laugh and jeer, when not cringing and weeping and pleading total helplessness, which seems to be a complete description of his job.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    @Chris: I am a Danton guy – I would have voted against me, but thanks.

  87. 87.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:28 pm

    this place, is so much honest, but so much.

  88. 88.

    Suzanne

    May 14, 2015 at 11:29 pm

    @beltane: I went to a crappy public high school, they didn’t have AP European History as a class offering, and I absolutely know about the Bastille. Graduated in 1998.

  89. 89.

    burnspbesq

    May 14, 2015 at 11:29 pm

    Anyone who wants to vote against Federal support for commuter rail should be made to commute by car from someplace like Mendham, NJ or Brewster, NY into Midtown for a week (driving yourself in a Kia–no Town Car and driver shit), and pay for parking out of pocket. See how YOU like it, you fuck.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:31 pm

    @Suzanne: Both Milwaukee and Madison have French themed celebrations around July 14.

  91. 91.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:32 pm

    omnes, am I unlikable?

    billin? what the hell? am I difficult?

  92. 92.

    Tree With Water

    May 14, 2015 at 11:32 pm

    “I don’t understand how these guys continue to get elected when they clearly live in an alternate reality”.

    Barack Obama has praised the leadership of Ronald Reagan many times over. It was a democratic president that pronounced the “era of big government” as being over. His wife tells people she was misled by honorable people into supporting the Bush-Cheney War. Republicans are ugly in spirit and deed, but they’ve enjoyed plenty of support from democratic party shot callers over the decades; couldn’t have done succeeded as wildly as they have without out them, as a matter of fact..

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:33 pm

    @Little Boots: I am more tolerant of you than most. Just saying.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 14, 2015 at 11:35 pm

    Watching the bits of the MM marathon that I can… My god, that show is well-done.

  95. 95.

    Chris

    May 14, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    @Aleta:

    I think the entire country takes so many things for granted – like the post office – that’ve been there for so long that they don’t even realize what makes them happen anymore (namely, taxes, and spending). We’re living off of a collapsing infrastructure which we don’t even realize is collapsing because we don’t even realize it’s there or what makes it work. (What? You mean the mail didn’t ALWAYS just appear in my box a few days later like “poof!” You mean it might not do that anymore if I cut the mail services?)

  96. 96.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:37 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I know it. they are wrong. but they are wrong.

  97. 97.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:38 pm

    @Suzanne: We live in a small rural community and the high school is one of the worst in the state. Many of the kids and their parents can barely read or write. If I were to poll the seniors at my son’s graduation next month about their knowledge of the French Revolution I would get a few intelligent answers and a lot of blank stares. Some of the graduates will be there with their new babies though, so there’s that.

  98. 98.

    jl

    May 14, 2015 at 11:40 pm

    @Chris: Caveman with light bulb syndrome. Don’t know how it works, but it does, and it should, with no effort. That is how it’s always been. It is caveman’s right that it works with no effort or understanding.

  99. 99.

    Tree With Water

    May 14, 2015 at 11:43 pm

    I no sooner post my remark upthread than I read the headline “reality sucks” over at Deadspin.com. It certainly did for the guy in the video. This is the second time in two years this happened to the same guy, however, he qualifies for inclusion in my “how on earth have they lived so long” list of genuinely stupid people.

    http://deadspin.com/san-isidro-bullfighter-in-grave-condition-after-being-1704641192

  100. 100.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:44 pm

    I blame omnes. as everyone should.

  101. 101.

    trollhattan

    May 14, 2015 at 11:47 pm

    @Aleta:
    Trains-r-bad, m’kay? Unless they’re hauling Bakken crude in hundred-car strings or plutocrats in private cars, in which case they’re awesome and totally worth the land giveaways and mountains of dead buffalo to build them.

    The endless joy of listening to wingnut squeaks over California’s HSR project cannot be adequately described. Damn right, hippies are going to confiscate yer gunz, melt them into rails, and force you at spearpoint to ride on some goddamn French train from Stockton to Bakersfield. You got a problem with that? We take Bitcoins, if that makes you feel better.

  102. 102.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:47 pm

    @Chris: My mother’s family in England is like that with the NHS. They complain about it endlessly and think it should be like the US where you can just go and get an MRI whenever you feel like it (this is what they think). Whenever the NHS is starved to the point where it can be drowned in a bathtub, these people will be in for a rude awakening.

  103. 103.

    trollhattan

    May 14, 2015 at 11:52 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Yeah, Weiner tapped something I have never been adequately able to put into words. And let me add, the casting was a huge part. Kiernan Shipka, are you kidding me? How could they possibly have known that tiny actress could become perhaps the series’ most important character?

    Sometimes the magic just happens and we all get to enjoy it.

  104. 104.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 14, 2015 at 11:53 pm

    @dp: They do not comprehend this. The only government spending they like is Defense spending, and it’s the most wasteful of all. Spend billions on blowing shit up. It’s Orwell’s War is Peace in the real world.

  105. 105.

    beltane

    May 14, 2015 at 11:58 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: They do not see it as wasteful. They see billions being spent on blowing brown people up. This is a source of pride and happiness for them.

  106. 106.

    Chris

    May 14, 2015 at 11:58 pm

    @beltane:

    If they’re anything like American conservatives, when that happens they’ll just say it’s because the darkies and moochers sucked up all the benefits so there was nothing left for the hardworking good people.

    I’ve had the impression for a few years that Europe’s really beginning to slide down into the kind of mess that the U.S. entered when it went full Nixonland in the sixties. Not that there haven’t been right wing victories before, but it feels like it’s really going into overdrive now.

  107. 107.

    Little Boots

    May 14, 2015 at 11:59 pm

    miss you omnes, by the way.

  108. 108.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:03 am

    still miss omnes.

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    May 15, 2015 at 12:03 am

    @efgoldman, @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thanks, you made me go pour the last of my Rémy 1738. Barely enough left in the bottle to sniff, much less drink. Alas, I am disappoint.

  110. 110.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:04 am

    and miss steeplejack.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 12:04 am

    @Little Boots: @Little Boots: While I am more tolerant of you than most, my tolerance is not limitless.

  112. 112.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:06 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    why are you angry?

  113. 113.

    beltane

    May 15, 2015 at 12:08 am

    @Chris: Especially Northern Europe. The Southern European countries have already been subjected to so much misery that they have been moving in a leftward direction. For whatever reason, I never see this level of smug cruelty from my Italian relatives.

  114. 114.

    beltane

    May 15, 2015 at 12:11 am

    Speaking of France, this gem is from the Twitter account of the French Ambassador to the USA, Gerard Araud:

    @GerardAraud · 2h 2 hours ago
    I know it is hard to say but : “yes, invading Iraq was a mistake, yes, the French were right.” Once you say it, you feel relieved.

  115. 115.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:11 am

    I blame omnes.

  116. 116.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 12:11 am

    @Steeplejack (tablet): Enjoy. I actually prefer calvados to cognac. Probably because I associate cognac with “Pour us each a cognac and let’s talk” discussions of my future that I have had with my dad. The fact that he was often right doesn’t change the association.

  117. 117.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:16 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    uh huh sugar sugar

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    May 15, 2015 at 12:17 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I, too, prefer calvados, but I am out of that. Hmm, I shall have to give Woodhouse a damn good talking-to.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 12:18 am

    @Steeplejack (tablet): Staff can be difficult.

    ETA: At least your valet isn’t consistently being arrested for murder unlike that poor fellow Grantham. Can you even imagine?

  120. 120.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:19 am

    can I say, miss steepljack?

  121. 121.

    PurpleGirl

    May 15, 2015 at 12:23 am

    @burnspbesq: I know Brewster (NY). Even with the improvements to the Taconic Parkway in the 1980s/90s, I wouldn’t want to be driving it during the weekday commute times.

    They widened the road and smoothed out the curves. (It once was very curvy in Westchester.) They also rebuilt the entrances and exits in the Westchester portions.

  122. 122.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:26 am

    see, never the omnes.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    May 15, 2015 at 12:27 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    One must follow up on the references.

  124. 124.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:28 am

    mmm hmmm. steeplejack

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    May 15, 2015 at 12:28 am

    And I’m out. Tough day today.

  126. 126.

    Mike J

    May 15, 2015 at 12:28 am

    @Chris: Bus stop in Manchester: http://i.imgur.com/zuWu6Yo.jpg

  127. 127.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:29 am

    @Steeplejack (tablet):

    okay, fine.

  128. 128.

    scav

    May 15, 2015 at 12:32 am

    Warm-blooded fish. Only fair I guess. We’ve certainly been developing some cold-blooded bipeds. This one’s got orangey bits too.

  129. 129.

    PurpleGirl

    May 15, 2015 at 12:33 am

    @Chris: Also people complain about how “expensive” it is mail a letter/package. Well, I was once the editor for an APA (amateur press association). Members sent their zines to me and I collated them into an issue and then sent them back out. APA AWA (A Women’s APA) had an international membership (England, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the US). Let me tell you what I learned about international mail — other countries charge a hell of a lot more and it takes much longer to get mail to its destination. It may have taken 3 days to get something to Henderson (NV) but it took 2-3 weeks to get to Vancouver (CA).

  130. 130.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 12:36 am

    @Steeplejack (tablet): OTOH, I have had soldiers who served under me who I would hire for a variety of jobs based on my experience with them. I might well miss the intervening time. And like Grantham, I could easily apply the loyalty from our past to the present. Loyalty goes up and down. I once backed an E-6 serving under me when he and his wife were threatened with community service for an incident between the wife and another woman. My and my battery commander both promised to do equal community service with the sergeant and his wife if any further incident occurred. None did.

  131. 131.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:37 am

    for omnes, although he gets angry:

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

  132. 132.

    PurpleGirl

    May 15, 2015 at 12:39 am

    @beltane: I have a few Canadian acquintances who also think this way. I used to try to explain to them the reality of US healthcare. They were stubborn libertarians who didn’t want to hear it.

  133. 133.

    mclaren

    May 15, 2015 at 12:46 am

    I don’t understand how these guys continue to get elected when they clearly live in an alternate reality. Whenever someone proposes even the mildest cut to the obscenely bloated military budget, these guys fall over themselves running to microphones to detail the disastrous consequences of not shoveling over a couple hundred more billion to defense contractors. But with everything else, they think they can just slash and cut as much as they want and there are no consequences.

    Repubs like Boehner get elected because they live in an alternate reality. They get elected because they confirm their electorates’ delusions.

    When I was talking to a hardcore movement conservative a while back, the guy vomited out Fox News talking points like: “We need to shrink the bloated federal budget.” “Okay,” I told him, “How much of the U.S. military should we cut? 20%? 40%? 60%?” The guy went non-linear. “But–but–but…the U.S. military budget isn’t PART OF THE GOVERNMENT!!!”

    Yeah, it’s outer space money. It drifts down from Mars. Has nothing to do with the regular annual U.S. budget at all.

    These people are living in a reality distortion field so intense it can bend steel.

  134. 134.

    beltane

    May 15, 2015 at 12:46 am

    @PurpleGirl: Maybe it’s something that has to be experienced to be believed. But when they finally see for themselves it will be too late.

  135. 135.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:47 am

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmcA9LIIXWw

  136. 136.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 12:48 am

    @Little Boots: Culture Club? Really? Have you no shame?

  137. 137.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:49 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    no, and by the way,

    love billin.

  138. 138.

    mclaren

    May 15, 2015 at 12:50 am

    @Little Boots:

    Insane Clown Posse is really more appropriate…but whatever floats your boat.

  139. 139.

    Amir Khalid

    May 15, 2015 at 12:50 am

    @Little Boots:
    You seem quite alone tonight. This might suit your mood.

  140. 140.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:53 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    I blame omnes. it’s pretty much always omnes fault.

  141. 141.

    mclaren

    May 15, 2015 at 12:53 am

    @beltane:

    We do not need a revolution. We need a Thomas Cromwell-esque president who will get things done. Cromwell would have given us the Public Option even if heads had to roll.

    Um…Thomas Cromwell was not a “president.” He was a military dictator. And incidentally, he was put in place by The Glorious Revolution. That’s a revolution, in case you have any doubts.

    Wishes like this are what set the stage for guys like Stalin and Mussolini. “We need a strong man! Someone who can make the trains run on time!”

    No. We need the people who elect our leaders to wake the fuck up and start taking more responsibility for their own self-government.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — forget the dictators, forget the Man on a White Horse, forget the American Il Duce….if all the 18-25-year-olds who don’t vote in current elections voted, every one of our political problems would disappear.

    Every. Single. One.

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 12:56 am

    @mclaren: Think of the difference between Thomas Cromwell and his great-(?)- grand-nephew, Oliver. Then slink away.

    ETA:

    And incidentally, he was put in place by The Glorious Revolution.

    Incidentally, the Glorious Revolution put William and Mary on the English throne following James II

  143. 143.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 12:56 am

    he is no billin. dammit.

  144. 144.

    beltane

    May 15, 2015 at 12:59 am

    @mcclaren

    Thomas Cromwell was Henry VIII’s chancellor. The military dictator was Oliver Cromwell, his great-great-grandnephew.

  145. 145.

    fuckwit

    May 15, 2015 at 1:00 am

    @Chris: A French friend says that European politics tends to follow the USA at about a 20 year lag. So they’re having their Newt Gingrich phase right about now. It will get much worse. They will have their own Shrub.

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    May 15, 2015 at 1:00 am

    @PurpleGirl:
    Grass is greener. Same way everywhere in the course of human existence.
    Always brings to mind the Far Side cartoon of two cows separated by a fence. One says “Damn the grass is greener.”

  147. 147.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:00 am

    and by the way, love billin, and steeplejack, and … sometimes omnes, but he is problematic.

  148. 148.

    Amir Khalid

    May 15, 2015 at 1:02 am

    @Little Boots:
    You should expand your horizons. Try classic Malay pop from the 1980s and 1990s. Like M. Nasir’s Kias Fansuri.

  149. 149.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:07 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    I try, don’t tell omnes. he gets angry.

  150. 150.

    mclaren

    May 15, 2015 at 1:07 am

    @beltane:

    Yep, my bad. You’re right, I’m wrong. Heigh-ho.

  151. 151.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:11 am

    miss you, by the way, omnes.

  152. 152.

    Amir Khalid

    May 15, 2015 at 1:12 am

    @Little Boots:
    That bland white-man music you link to at night is nothing to stay up for.

  153. 153.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 1:13 am

    @Little Boots: I don’t get agree at attempts to expand your horizons. i just get disappointed by everyones’ failure at achieving such expansion. If Amir can do it, I applaud him.

  154. 154.

    EconWatcher

    May 15, 2015 at 1:13 am

    @fuckwit:

    I’m living in central Europe, and I think we’re going to see a long drift to the right, maybe even hard right. There’s a massive gulf between elites and regular people on EU centralization and immigration. Right-wing populism is what’s for dinner, and it’s going to get nasty.

  155. 155.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:14 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    okay, fine, i am not sure what that means, but I love you. I love you.

  156. 156.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 1:17 am

    @Little Boots: I am uncomfortable now. A step back might be cool. Okay?

  157. 157.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:18 am

    @Little Boots: You rang?

    ETA: We had a bit of a light show here in LALALand.

  158. 158.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:19 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    miss you. and omnes, don’t start,

  159. 159.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 15, 2015 at 1:20 am

    @Little Boots: Good night.. I am off to bed.

  160. 160.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:21 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    would you? dammit. you are not honorable.

  161. 161.

    fuckwit

    May 15, 2015 at 1:22 am

    @EconWatcher: Hopefully not as nasty as it did the last time around over there. I’m told there are memorials all over Europe to that.

  162. 162.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:22 am

    @Little Boots: Doing a little dance here in LA. It’s Raining Again.

    ETA: My apologies to Omnes about Supertramp.

  163. 163.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:24 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    you are a gent. and sometime omnes is not.

    dammit.

  164. 164.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:25 am

    @Little Boots: Omnes is an officer and a gentleman.

  165. 165.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:26 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    sometimes he’s a dick.

    sometimes you are actually you a gent.

  166. 166.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:29 am

    @Little Boots:

    sometimes he’s a dick.

    sometimes you are actually you a gent.

    Aren’t we all?

  167. 167.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:29 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    occasionally.

  168. 168.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:31 am

    oh I don’t know, I am not good. but sometimes omnes can be such a dick.

  169. 169.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:34 am

    @Little Boots: It was a dark and stormy night..

    It’s stormy here and I’ve got a cold. Even turned the heater back on.

  170. 170.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:34 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    you are such a son of a bitch.

    okay, fine.

    I like you.

  171. 171.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 15, 2015 at 1:35 am

    @Baud:

    They’ve convinced people that other people are trying to take advantage of them.

    Close. Their base was already convinced. The Republican Party convinced that base that they would stick it to those (black) lazy moochers. The moment they made that plain, there was a giant political shift in America. The parties practically traded places.

    @Chris:
    The Post Office is a conspiracy nut thing. It’s kinda crept into the main plank partly from Fuck Those Hippies, and partly from The Birchers Were Right, Black People Are Taking Over And Now One Is President. The conspiracy nuts think the Post Office took over the government in an illegal coup around the time of the civil war. Yes, that’s insane, but you’ll see stuff like that, the Amero, and the Admiralty Act get slipped into the plank because only the crazies even know what it means.

    @danielx:

    There are exceptions to this, primarily amongst the financial/rich asshole faction of the party. They have to deal with reality on a daily basis

    It’s the other way around. The rich assholes are the ones who don’t have to deal with reality at all. No matter how incompetent they are, or how crazy they are, they won’t ever starve or be poor.

  172. 172.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:45 am

    @Little Boots: I’m only Sleeping, not really.

  173. 173.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:45 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    fine. stop sleeping.

    can I miss you?

  174. 174.

    srv

    May 15, 2015 at 1:50 am

    blah blah blah, tldr.

    Nothing that explains why a union driver was driving 2X the speed a rail was rated for. Magical infrastructure positive control smurfs would have buffed that right out somehow.

    Positive control – what is that, like some old lady at every turn waving a flag? Heck, I’d do that for $52K a year.

    interoperable

    Word. You should watch some of those F-35 briefings on CSPAN.

  175. 175.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:50 am

    dammit, billin, dammit.

  176. 176.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:51 am

    @Little Boots:

    fine. stop sleeping.

    But, but… I’m so Tired

  177. 177.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:51 am

    goddammit, you are so annoying, dammit.

  178. 178.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:52 am

    sleep, sleep. sleep.

  179. 179.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:53 am

    billin, goddammit.

  180. 180.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:54 am

    @Little Boots: HeHe…

    ETA: Looks like the next band or rain and accompanying festivities should be here in a few hours. My poor doggies.

  181. 181.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:55 am

    loved you, by the way, but now, you are so fucking annoying.

  182. 182.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:55 am

    and no he heing me.

    goober

  183. 183.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:56 am

    @Little Boots:

    goober

    I have been eating peanuts tonight, now I’m worried.

  184. 184.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:58 am

    fine, billin, annoying.

  185. 185.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 1:58 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    fine, son of a bitch. water.

  186. 186.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 1:59 am

    @Little Boots: A peace offering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYNuU6Xtms

  187. 187.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:01 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    you are so evil. why do I like you?

  188. 188.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 2:03 am

    @Little Boots: Cause I find all the good tunes :)

  189. 189.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:04 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    evil. but not inaccurate.

  190. 190.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 2:04 am

    Ah, B.B. King passed, sad.

  191. 191.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:06 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    you are no omnes.

    but occasionally, you do come through.

  192. 192.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:07 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    and stop reveling in your evil!

  193. 193.

    Linnaeus

    May 15, 2015 at 2:08 am

    Fuck Boehner. Fuck. Him.

  194. 194.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:10 am

    @Linnaeus:

    and billin, who is evil.

  195. 195.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 2:10 am

    @Little Boots: Good enough, eh?

  196. 196.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:13 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    no music? or are you satan? or what?

  197. 197.

    Major Major Major Major

    May 15, 2015 at 2:16 am

    I do prefer the Fox host’s suggestion that it had something to do with the conductor’s supporting gay rights causes. I’m sure this was linked upthread.

    Shameless plug to be repeated in late night open thread: Just posted The Fish, part 10.

  198. 198.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:19 am

    billin’s angry. and mean.

  199. 199.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 2:19 am

    @Little Boots: Nah, here ya go. Something from the local boys

  200. 200.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:24 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: love this man.

    but …

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMc8naeeSS8

  201. 201.

    Repatriated

    May 15, 2015 at 2:33 am

    @srv: In point of fact, the “Magical infrastructure positive control smurfs” would have buffed that right out.

    Positive control – what is that, like some old lady at every turn waving a flag?

    Nope, it’s a servo on the throttle and brakes, linked to radio transponders telling the train how fast it should be going on any particular section of track based on the track and traffic — and then making it slow down to that speed if the operator doesn’t do it.

    They were within a few months of having the system go live on that very stretch of track, and funding had been a significant reason they hadn’t gotten to it yet.

  202. 202.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:33 am

    oh, miss omnes. the best of the best in this place.

  203. 203.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 2:35 am

    @Little Boots: Some Kinks from the boys.

    ETA: Wow, the early 80’s were strange. Not me, nope, nope.

  204. 204.

    Little Boots

    May 15, 2015 at 2:39 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I dunno, buddy, this is just annoying. I dunno.

  205. 205.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 15, 2015 at 2:40 am

    @Little Boots: OK, how about this?

  206. 206.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    May 15, 2015 at 3:29 am

    @Repatriated:

    They were within a few months of having the system go live on that very stretch of track, and funding had been a significant reason they hadn’t gotten to it yet.

    And yet that jackass Boehner went HAM when funding got brought up. “How DARE you remind people that we could have done something useful if we weren’t having a hissy fit at that NI-CLANG in the White House!”

  207. 207.

    Repatriated

    May 15, 2015 at 5:23 am

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Suggesting that funding decisions have real-world impacts would be politicizing a tragedy. It’s always too soon for that, except when it comes to justifying MOAR GUNZ ’cause that always helps and is totally nonpolitical. /snark

  208. 208.

    Sherparick

    May 15, 2015 at 7:02 am

    Because 30% of the American public lives in an even more alternate reality. Just Google “Jade Helm” and the fact that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Alec Jones, Mark Levine, et. al. have all become millionaires catering to it.

  209. 209.

    J R in WV

    May 15, 2015 at 9:02 am

    @efgoldman:

    That’s quite a nice menu! Wish they were closer than RI !

  210. 210.

    Elizabelle

    May 15, 2015 at 9:14 am

    @Bailey: Watched the Mad Men first season in real time and then fell away.

    It’s very well done; enjoy the writing and (sometimes mordant) humor. The sexism, privilege and alcoholism, not so much.

    But an unusually good show, that will stand up to continued viewings.

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