California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been frantically trying to restart a presidential campaign that appears moribund, with polls showing him losing in some states to figures such as Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In his absence, his multibillion-dollar high-speed train also seems to be going nowhere fast. A new report from the state inspector general revealed that the train will be delayed again and that the public is being kept in the dark about ongoing problems with Newsom’s signature project. Oh, and one more thing: the project will run out of money by December 2027.
Benjamin Belnap’s report revealed the project is again running out of money. It found missing details in the project’s 2026 business plan, and concluded that the project will again be out of money by next year.
The state has already spent $18 billion, but it will need at least another $18 billion to finish the first segment. It could take roughly $200 billion more actually to complete the original San Francisco-to-Los Angeles line.
Even with billions more, the current segment will not be completed until 2034.
Voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue in 2008 under Newsom’s predecessor after absurdly low cost estimates. Newsom has been a champion of the project. Influential figures and companies stood to make a fortune, and the key was to secure a “buy-in” worth billions, so that it would become increasingly difficult to abandon the project as overruns and delays sent costs soaring.
Now the official estimate of future ridership has dropped by 25%, and it demands billions more to complete a project delayed by decades. Remember that this entire project was meant to create a rail line of only 171 miles.
One would think that the California voters would be marching to the capital with pitchforks and torches over such breathtaking incompetence and waste. However, they appear to have been conditioned to accept the lowest level of performance from their public officials.
The response of Democratic leaders is crushingly predictable: they are pledging to seek a federal bailout to cover their own incompetence. The Democratic nominee for governor, Xavier Becerra, is promising to fight to get back federal funds that were cut off by the Trump Administration. While promising to seriously review any problems in the project (as if they are not obvious), no one has been held accountable for this financial train wreck. Instead, all Democrats can do is demand that citizens around the country help bail out their boondoogle.
Yet, the Inspector General is describing a failure of leadership where no one is making any real decisions:
“Exploration of specific financing mechanisms is a positive step, but because the Authority might run out of funding as soon as December 2027, and the financing strategy the Authority uses has the potential to significantly affect the amount of interest it will need to repay, the Authority and state lawmakers have little time for delay in deciding upon a strategy and implementing it.”
Belknap indicated that those in control are simply shrugging off the problem, noting that “[b]ecause the Authority has thus far not demonstrated a willingness to establish and reinforce a process that ensures accuracy and transparency in project reporting, we have directed our report recommendations to the Board.”
In the meantime, the state will continue to creep along with a project that is sucking billions into a project that has become a national disgrace. Beccera’s pledge to seek bailouts shows that the problem remains the political culture in California. There is little accountability left in a one-party state where companies and individuals have made fortunes off this debacle. The only people being taken for a ride are Californian citizens and it is not the ride that they bargained for.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Not to worry! The predicted 2027 train-to-nowhere funding shortfall can be cured with a simple 5% tax on California citizens’ assets.
Not income, friends. Assets. (Earning is already a punishable activity in California; this new way of taxing being introduced now, is to punish saving.)
By 2027, the camel’s nose will be in the tent. The “Down with Savings, Up with Government Waste!” proposal will be law.
To keep paying for the net 18 years of train-to-nowhere boondogglery, the fine representatives in Sacramento will only have to adjust down, the amount of untaxed principal (not interest; interest is already taxed) that California citizens should be allowed to have.
Taxing people’s wages is not enough. Taxing people’s homes is not enough. Taxing gas and cars and clothes is not enough. Now Sacramento wants the principal in people’s savings accounts. Money they already got a piece of when it came in as income.
All so that they can throw that money off the train-to-nowhere caboose.
More MAGA diversion. Newsome is advocating for a high speed train between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which, if you’ve ever driven in California and experienced the traffic jams, would know is sorely needed. The citizens of California support the project, which is running way over estimated cost— but how is that Newsome’s fault? But, this is no vanity project. California desperately needs and wants more public transportation.
Now, by comparison, what are Trump’s priorities and how do they align with what the people want? Trump has blown billions on the war based on a lie, after lying about never starting any new wars to get elected. Our service members do not have the basic needs to carry out their duties and Trump and Hegseth don’t care. Closure of the Strait of Hormuz has driven up the price of gas, fertilizer, helium, groceries and everything delivered by trucks.
What are Trump’s priorities? A vanity ballroom no one wants that he lied about costing $200 million, all covered by donations, but which is costing three times as much, all covered by taxpayers. After a court enjoined the ballroom, Trump’s DOJ is appealing, arguing that the ballroom is needed for national security.
Another vanity project— an arch with gilded angels dedicated to— guess who? That would destroy the aesthetic view of Arlington National Cemetery.
Next we have the JFK Center for the Performing Arts that Trump put his name on, ahead of that of our slain president. After a court ordered Trump’s name removed, Trump ordered the signage over the main entrance covered with a tarp. Now he’s gotten the sycophants on the Board of the JFK Center to vote to close the center down for 2 years for “renovations”, and installation of a new sign honoring Trump for restoring and renovating the building. (Trump, of course, wouldn’t be paying for any renovations or refurbishing—taxpayers would). They also voted to name the entire campus after Trump. Did I mention that the Trump appointed members of the board include Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham?
Another vanity project— Trump wants to blow more millions of our tax dollars to rough up the surface of the Old Executive Office Building and paint it, something not only unnecessary, but Ill-advised. It would be another debacle like the reflecting pool disaster. That would cost millions, and painting would need to be redone done every few years. The building was designed with a granite exterior so that it wouldn’t need maintenance. It is beautiful just as it is.
There is obviously no comparison between the public transportation project California needs and citizens want and Trump’s vanity projects that are costing taxpayers money and that we don’t want. MAGA media ignore Trump’s money wasting vanity projects. They are only going after Newsome because he is a potential presidential candidate.
Newsom found $236 million to spend on the La Brea Tar Pits Reimagine Project.
Change the subject. That’s all you got?
Newscume likes frivolously spending other people’s money out of spite for capitalism.
You want more? There’s more.
The HSR project is not really very high speed.
For a fraction of the cost you could do many many things to address the problems you note.
California does not desparately need this – it is a vanity project and an expensive stupid one.
This project is not running over budget it is running 20 times over budget. Even the tiny leg that is half complete will cost 5 times more than the entire project was supposed to.
Yeah but think of all Newscumes grafty friends, that money has been a life-changer for them. Even their heirs are hoping the boondoggle continues to pay off.
Every US president since Carter has promised that Iran will never get nuclear weapons.
We may not like the cost of this war – but what Trump is doing is based on US policy for 50 years.
No one lied. Iran has admitted they are very close to 10 nuclear weapons.
As to your other claims – the US military has performed amazingly in this conflict.
While Iran is proving that so long as the US is unwilling to cause significant harm to the people as opposed to the militry,
and you have an enemy that is willing to die rather than capitulate that they can not be defeated without boots on the ground or the protracted effort needed to kill of most of that nations leadership.
That model is NOT something most any other nation in the world is going to follow.
NK, Russia, and China got the clear message that they are not willing to sacrifice their own leaders down to the 3rd and 4th level to thumb their nose at the US. Putin Xi and Kim un do not beleive that 77 virgins await them in paradise if they die as martyrs.
Regardless, from a practical perspective the US has already won.
Iran can rebuild – but they can not rebuild everything fast
And if they try to focus on Nuclear and/or missle programs, They US can quickly destroy them again.
Iran has a choice – make a deal that they keep, and they will get help rebuilding or do not make a deal in which case,
We either stick arround if needed or return as needed to destroy whatever they have rebuilt.
Iran admitted nothing. It wouldn’t even be an issue if Trump hadn’t torn up the JCPOA solely because it was a monumental achievement of Barak Obama, of whom Trump is insanely jealous. We started bombing Iran because Netanyahu wanted more land for Israel, just like he wants to take over the rest of Palestine Israel hasn’t already stolen. He couldn’t get Obama, Bush or Biden to fall for the lie about Iran having nuclear weapons, but Trump is beholden to wealthy Jewish donors who want the US to do whatever Israel wants. That’s why we are in this war. That’s why 18 or so military members have been killed and thousands of others are suffering right now with extended deployment with a Secretary of Defense and Commander in Chief who don’t care about their suffering.
“Iran admitted nothing.”
In what world do you live – Iran has openly admitted to having 440Kg of 60% enriched U235 – very little effort is needed to go from 60% to 90% or weapons grade. Further U235 bombs are by far the easist to construct – IF you can get sufficient U235.
The US did not evn test the U235 bomb it dropped on Hiroshima. There is no difficult engineering problems to a U235 bomb.
The big deal is the massive amounts of refining you have to do to produce 90% U235.
Not only have they admitted to 440Kg of 60% but they hae massively more enriched to 20%ertain you can find these numbers reported in sources like CNN or WaPo or NYT.
This is not a secret.
It is possible that Iran is lying. They have made contradictory statements. At various times they have said that U235 is buried under rubble at Fordow or safely secured where the US has not reached.
It is possible they are making claims as a negotiating tactic.
But the amounts Iran is claiming are consistent with intelligence estimates
” It wouldn’t even be an issue if Trump hadn’t torn up the JCPOA ”
ROFL
the JCPOA was not worth the paper it was written on.
Nor BTW will any agreement Trump negotiates. The binding aspect of EVERY International agreement is what a nation is willing to do if that agreement is violated.
The ONLY value the JCPOA ever had was the willingness of a US president to bomb Iran into the stone age if they violated it.
How Well did Neville chamberlains Munich agreement with Hitler work out ?
There are two reasons Trump needs an actual written agreement.
The first is for its political value in this country – because people like you think that words on paper between countries are meaningful absent enforcement.
The 2nd is because Iran is still trying to close the straits. They are mostly unsuccessful, but until they actually stop – we must continue to leave forces in the region.
Otherwise we could declare victory right now and go home.
Again – written international agreements – especially with nations like Iran MEAN NOTHING.
What matters is that if Iran tries to recover the U235 they have, the US will be back to Bomb the $hit out of them even further.
There is no international government. There are no international courts or police that have any consequential power.
The relationships of governments with each other is a multi millenia long example of working anarcho capitalism.
Again there is no world government. As Mao said all power flows from the barrel of a gun.
The JCPOA was just paper and Iran was not abiding by it. It took a massively long time to refine that much U235.
Iran was busy doing that for most of the 21st century. They were doing it with sanctions preventing them from buying centrefuges
They were doing it despite massive amounts of US and Israeli sabatoge of their refining systems.
They were refining Uranium under Bush, under Obama, under Trump, under Biden and when Trump took office in 2025 they were near having enough uranium for 10+ hiroshima type bombs.
“solely because it was a monumental achievement of Barak Obama”
Obama was a failure as a president. Except that Biden was far worse, Obama was one of the worst presidents in US history.
He took office at the depth of a recession – he had nowhere to go but UP. Yet he averaged 1.48% growth over 8 years.
He should have had nearly that much in 2009 alone – Recovery from recessions is trivial – all you need to do is not screw things up.
After the 1920 post war Recession – Harding managed 13% growth in 1 year.
After the idiotic covid lockdowns in 2020 that accomplished nothing – Trump managed 33% growth in 2qtrs.
Growth after recession is Free – autmatic.
Obama was also total crap diplomatically – While Bush botched things in the mideast.
Obama drew the mess out another 8 years.
Trump managed the abraham accords in his first term – the largest peace deal in Mideast history.
Obama got the nobel peace prize for dropping bombs in the mideast.
Biden accurately described Obama as well spoken – but you are an idiot if you think that articulate and successful are the same.
“of whom Trump is insanely jealous.”
Not in the slightest. Trump is jealous of Reagan and Thatcher and people who actually accomplished something.
Not a failure whose most redeaming characteristic is a Vice president who later made a far worse president.
“We started bombing Iran because Netanyahu wanted more land for Israel”
What kind of idiot are you ? No Netanyahu does not want more land. The Isreali’s want peace
They gave up the Sinai – which has some oil to Egypt in return for peace.
They only reason that Israel occupies the west bank and Gaza is because Egypt REFUSED to take Gaza back and Jordan wants absolutely nothing to do with the west bank. Israeli PM Barak agreed to pretty much everything the palestinians claimed they wanted in 2000 with Clinton at Camp David – Clinton DESPARATELY wanted a mideast peace deal. Arafat tentatively agreed – and then walked away.
Israel would trade the west bank, Gaza, the Golan heights and the current buffer zones in Lebanon and syria in a heartbeat for peace deals with the palestinians, lebanese, and syrians.
If you are paying the slightest attention – lebanon and Israel are quietly negotiating right now.
BECAUSE Iran has been defanged, Hezbollah is nearly destroyed and the Lebanese government beleives it can disempower Hezbollah in return for the return of southern lebanon. The negotiations RIGHT NOW are about a staged withdrawl.
If as Israel withdraws Lebanon is able to keep Hezbollah from launching rockets into northern israel – Lebanon will get more and more of its teritory back.
Regardless what kind of lunatic are you ? Do you honestly think that Israel is going to drive tanks through Syria or Saudi Arabia to get to Iran ?
There are 20M jews int he entire world. Half of them are in the US – only about 7M are in israel.
There are 26M people in syria, 92M people in Iran. 38M in Saudi Arabia
Israel has an incredibly capable military – But they do not have the ability to wage an offensive war in the mideast.
Israel exists because it typically takes 3 times the forces to over come an enemy in defense.
And int eh case of Israel that number is likely closer to 10times.
That does not change the fact that they do not have the military ability to conquer government and hold any part of the mideast.
You are delusional and seem to know absolutely nothing about reality.
Israel is not a perfect country – they are just by far the least bad country in the mideast.
The nonsense spread by palestinians and the modern left is completely absurd.
The palestinians could have peace and a country of their own ANYTIME they want it.
All that is required is – accept Israels right to exist, and stop murdering Israeli’s.
On Sept 11, 2001 Terrorists killed just under 3000 americans – and the US raised h311 in the mideast for nearly two decades.
The conservative estimate of civilian deaths in the mideast in response to 9/11 is 200,000 – it is more likely close to 2M.
On Oct 7, 2023 Hamas murdered over 1,000 israeli’s – mostly women children even infants.
The response of the Israelis has been tame compared to the US.
The IDF is probably the best at urban warfare against terrorists who hide in churches, hospitals and mosques and behind women and children and civilians of any military int he world. Contra left wing lunatics – Israel’s efforts to obliterate Hamas have resulting in significantly lower palestinians killed by any measure than any other nation that has ever had to fight an enemy hiding among civilians.
Israel wants peace from people who are not capable of peace.
The very good news for Israel is that the rest of their arab neighbors are pretty much Fed up with the Palestinians.
“just like he wants to take over the rest of Palestine Israel hasn’t already stolen”
What on earth are you talking about ? Israel occupied significant portions of Gaza and forceably removed settlers two decades ago.
Israel does not want Gaza or the west bank – they want peace.
Go look up the deal that was agreed on at Camp David in 2000 and that Arafat walked away from
“He couldn’t get Obama, Bush or Biden to fall for the lie about Iran having nuclear weapons”
Iran does not have nuclear weapons – no one says they do. But they are very close to nuclear weapons.
And Yes Obama, and Bush were persuaded – the US has been an active part of efforts to slow Irans efforts to get Nukes.
The JCPOA however was worthless.
“but Trump is beholden to wealthy Jewish donors who want the US to do whatever Israel wants.”
Ever heard of “the elders of Zion” ?
God you left wing not are morons.
There are 20M jews in the entire world, There are 10M in the US – and most of them – including the Biliionaires are DEMOCRATS.
Though maybe not for much longer.
No there is not some international cabal of jewery looking to take over the world.
Obama’s JCPOA was the PROBLEM, allowing Iran to threaten the world and build nukes. It’s main goal was to get through Obama’s term without addressing the threat of Iran to leave the problem to a future administrations doorstep like a bag of dog crap lit on fire. As a result of Obama’s cowardice, many people have died at the hands of those he would make ‘agreement’ with.
Your boxing up of Trump’s motivations as ‘insanely jealous’ has been your, and the entire left’s undoing. This misunderstanding of Trump’s motivations are one of the reasons the left has taken it on the chin lately. You have created an array of justifications in your head that allow you to believe Trump is failing when he is succeeding. He has literally killed those that Obama made agreement with. Consider your view of this is tainted by TDS if your rational mind can handle that sort of tension.
Stop repeating MAGA lies. Prior to Trump tearing up the JCPOA, Iran was compling with the terms, the key terms of which are summarized as follows, according to Wikipedia:
“Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to constrain its nuclear program by limiting fuel cycle activities that could lead to the production of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium. The JCPOA restricted the number and type of centrifuges in operation, the level of uranium enrichment, and the size of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. Key facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Arak were repurposed for civilian uses such as medical and industrial research. Iran agreed to accept more intrusive IAEA monitoring measures of its fuel-cycle related activities. In exchange for complying with these restrictions, Iran received relief from nuclear-related sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the EU, and the United States, but many U.S. sanctions unrelated to the nuclear issue—targeting Iran’s missile program, support for militant groups, and human rights record—remained in place, limiting the economic effect of sanctions relief. The agreement also set a timetable to lift the UN arms embargo, contingent on Iran’s continued compliance with civilian nuclear commitments.”
The IAEA was an international group of atomic energy experts that agreed on the provisions to ensure no weapons-grade materials were being created and which monitored compliance–there’s no evidence that Iran was NOT complying. But, MAGA media, set up by oligarchs to defend Trump and attack mainstream media, just HAS to go along with the lie that Iran was a threat–otherwise, Trump’s stupidity will have gotten the US into a costly war and caused unnecessary deaths and suffering–another failure in a long string of failures.
Why do I and other rational people believe Trump is insanely jealous of Obama, who was, and still is, more popular that he? Because he just can’t shut up about Obama–just the other day, Trump claimed that he was a better golfer than Obama. Here are some more examples:
-posted an AI-generated image of the Obamas as apes;
-posted an AI-generated version of Air Force One with spray-painted Obama graffiti–implying they are vandals or gang members;
-the birtherism lie;
-accused Obama of tapping the phones in Trump Tower without any evidence;
-claimed, repeatedly, that he could have “beaten” Obama in an election for President;
-called Obama “the most ignorant President in history” and “the worst President in US history”;
-claimed Obama founded ISIS;
-posted an AI-generated image of Obama behind bars;
-repeatedly questioned Obama’s college degrees;
-accused Obama of treason;
-claimed Obama would have started a war with Iran–how ironic is that?
-criticized the Obama Presidential Library;
Tell me, what former President in our history has ever said or done these things regarding a prior president? I don’t know of any. What does this obsession of Trump over Obama tell you about Trump’s emotional stability?
The IR are the type of scum that use others’ lives for their means. Trump is working to save those very lives: Iranians. I don’t mind paying a little more for gas if it will help save these tortured humans from their insane oppressors. The rest; No nukes, no terror support, free waterways, free oil markets, are all just icing.
“NK, Russia, and China got the clear message” I think that started with Maduro and they still haven’t been able to ‘process’ that Trump has changed their world.
“You shouldn’t mind paying a little more for gas because we’re taking down a regime that was going to nuke us.” Trump actually said something similar the other day when he was bloviating in front of an audience, feeding his ego.
Trump didn’t start this war to help oppressed people either. He doesn’t care about anyone. He started it because Netanyahu suckered him into believing that Iran was close to a nuclear bomb— all a cover for Israel to grab more land.
We had “free waterways” before Trump started this war, and the only tangible thing he has accomplished is to teach Iran that they have the power to control the economy of most of the world by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz with nothing more than drones and missiles.
Just how many times did Trump claim that the war was over, that the US won, that the US destroyed Iran’s military, that they were begging for a peace deal, that we totally destroyed their nuclear capabilities, that the Strait of Hormuz is fully open, under US control and that a deal was reached? All lies, obviously.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that talks were under way, only to have Iran call him a liar. Iran has the upper hand and we don’t have the capability to own and operate the Strait of Hormuz like Trump is claiming. He even suggested renaming it “the Strait of Trump”.
If nothing else, Trump provides the world a new daily lesson in malignant narcissism from a chronic, habitual liar. You literally can’t believe anything the US President says—That’s the only way Trump has changed the world.
If we are lucky, maybe Iran will agree to another JCPOA— but they have threatened to drag out the war until Trump leaves office.
The ballroom has been a necessity for a long time.
The rogue court is being appealed and like all the other rogue left wing judges previous will lose.
The ballroom is needed for national security AND many many other reasons.
The UK as an example holds state dinners at Buckingham palace which is not quite 10 times as large as the WH.
Trump by far holds the record for the most assassionation attempts – you left wing nuts are incredibly violent.
But the REAL answer to the performing arts center is for the govenrment to sell it.
Nowhere in the constitution is entertaining elites a legitimate function of the federal govenrment
Regardless, the center needs repairs and it is NOT EVER the business of the courts to decide how repairs must be performed.
If congress would prefer longer and more dangerous approaches that leave the center partly open – it can do so by law.
The courts have ZERO legitimate business in that process.
Not a “rogue” Court. Trump does not own the White House–the American people do. Trump does not have the right to tear down the East Wing–but he did so anyway. The Judge who ruled that Trump is a mere tenant is correct. The White House is a historic structure. Only Congress has the authority to demolish part of it and to build on an annex–not the temporary occupant. Trump keeps losing in court, over and over again, because he does what he pleases. He wants the ballroom as a tribute to himself. The American people, by a large margin, oppose it.
The JFK Center for Performing Arts was created by an Act of Congress to honor our slain president who was a patron of the arts. Trump is jealous of the affection of the American people for JFK and decided to try to steal some of his glory. A court stopped him, and will stop him from naming the campus on which the Center sits. The real reason the Center is closing is because performers and subscribers are boycotting the venue because of Trump.
“Not a “rogue” Court.”
absolutely a rogue court. Courts enforce the law and the constitution – that is ALL. They do not decide if something is a good idea or a bad idea, the do not make plans, or dictate how they are implimented. That is precisely why federal judges have lifetime terms.
They have no legislative or executive power
“Trump does not own the White House–the American people do.”
Partly correct. While the Power of the US government is derived fromt eh consent of the governed – the people do not own federal property – the Federal Government does. Regardless, the president is the elected cheif executive of the country. He does not “own” the White House, but he is effectively the CEO of the federal government – the president determines the resource needs of the federal govenrment.
” Trump does not have the right to tear down the East Wing–but he did so anyway.”
Absolutely he does
“The Judge who ruled that Trump is a mere tenant is correct. ”
Nope. Article II Section 1 of the US constitution – the executive power of the United States is vested in the president.
“The White House is a historic structure.”
True, but there is no historic preservation requirement in the constitition.
” Only Congress has the authority to demolish part of it and to build on an annex–not the temporary occupant.”
False, Congress has the power of the purse. They have SOME power often significant over funds they budget for governent purposes that are not purely executive. The operation, structure and maintanance of the WhiteHouse is as close to pure executive power as it gets.
The Judge is Full of Schiff. Yes Trump is the remporary occupant. He is also only a temporary occupant of Mar-A-Lago – it will no longer be his after he dies. But during his life, unless he sells it, he controls it. For the remainder of Trump’s term as president he controls the WhiteHouse.
This is not even a close call. Even your stupid “tenant” argument – there is no lease – therefore there are no lease restrictions.
A typical comercial lease not only allows but requires the tenant to maintain the property.
A lease is a right to use – in return for money. The limits or that right to use are defined by the lease. Absent a written lease with explicit restrictions – the tenant can do pretty much whatever they wish for the term of the lease.
Now the lease analogy is garbage, Because for the term of his presidency the president is not just the tenant, but also the landlord.
Regardless as I said before – this judge is a biased moron way out over his skis.
The lease analogy does not work – in the absence of a written lease – the tenant/landlord have the power to do as they please with the property. The building is historic. But there is no historic preservation clause in the constitution, and even if Congress had the power to write one into law that covered the WhiteHouse – which it has not done, and which would be blatantly unconstitutional if it did.
The president litterally has the power to move the WhiteHouse wherever he pleases.
You confuse long standing conventions with constitution, and law.
The president is not obligated ever to justify his actions to the courts. He is obligated to follow the law and constitution,
and the only power the courts have over the president is confirming that he has followed the law and constitution.
What constitutional provision has been violated ?
What Law passed by congress has been violated ?
Absent those the courts are powerless regarding the executive.
” Trump keeps losing in court, over and over again, because he does what he pleases. ”
Not really. Trump has lost very few cases at the Supreme court – and only those that he should have lost.
SCOTUS has given him 95% of the power he has claimed regarding deportations and nearly universally reversed all those rogue lower courts on immigration issues.
Further – Trump’s federal court losses are limited to about a dozen of the nearly 800 federal judges – these cases are cherry picked for judges and jurisdictions – because they would be losers everywhere else. Even within those dozen judges – only 3 or 4 are responsible for 75% of the decisions against him. Of all the cases that Trump has lost in federal district courts – he has won more than 50% on direct appeal, of those he lost on appeal – he has won 50% on en banc appeal, and of those that made it to the supreme court on matters that were not obvious losers in the first place and just appeals to his base such as Birth Right Citizenship – Trump has won about 95% of cases int he supreme court.
“He wants the ballroom as a tribute to himself.”
Possibly, but it i also necescary. Their is no constitutional prohibition against presidential self promotion.
Every single president does it.
Regardless, The BallRoom is actually necescary.
State Dinners in tents on the WH lawn are an embarrassment and a disaster and a security nightmare.
“The American people, by a large margin, oppose it.”
The amerian people by a large margin do not give a schiff.
“The JFK Center for Performing Arts was created by an Act of Congress to honor our slain president who was a patron of the arts. ”
Partly correct. There are two parts to that – creating the center, and honoring John F. Kennedy. They are independent
It is likely based on the law that Trump can not remove Kennedy’s name.
My guess is that Trump will lose on his attempt to rename it – but only because it is named in the law.
But he will absolutely win against the rogue courts efforts to dictate the way that renovations are done.
The federal courts have constitutional and statutory review powers – not executive powers, not even executive review power
Congress has some executive review power but in all likelyhood even Congress without passing new law can not stop Trump’s renovations of the performing arts center.
“Trump is jealous of the affection of the American people for JFK and decided to try to steal some of his glory.”
There are few people alive who remember JFK. Most americans were not alive when Reagan was president a few decades later.
Do americans have affection for JFK – yes but that is weak affection for the myth of a man who is not at all what most of them think he is.
“A court stopped him,” Unconstitutionally and will be overturned.
“and will stop him from naming the campus on which the Center sits.”
Possibly, that is a closer call. There is little doubt presidents have the power to change the names of things.
The only question is whether they can change the names of things Congress has named.
Trump will likely lose on that issue. But possibly not.
He will not lose on going ahead with renovations of both the WH and the performing arts center, nor in determining how those renovations are to be done.
I would note that the judge overstepping his power on control of the renovations undermines his own power in the naming issue.
It is entirely Possible SCOTUS throws all his rulings out and says Trump can rename the center and congress or future presidents can name it back.
“The real reason the Center is closing is because performers and subscribers are boycotting the venue because of Trump.”
Only in your mind – abslutely SOME left wing nuts are boycotting it.
But not even most left wing nuts. Performers like to be paid. Wise and/or poor ones tend to like being paid more than expressing political outrage. Further there are far more than enough conservative performers.
Trump could just book Kid Rock for 2 years.
Most left wing nut political boycotts are completely ineffectual. To the tiny extent they ever work it is when they persuade like minded institutions to go along. Try comparing actual right wing boycotts – like the AHB Boycott to left wing boycotts, like anti-israel nonsense.
Regardless, Boycott whatever you want – that is your right
Right, so suddenly when Trump is President the Executive branch has no powers to exercise, it’s all congress.
Nope, Trump is the guy who is correcting this wrong narrative and using his Presidential powers as they are meant to be weilded.
Your problem is you defer to the ‘collective’ congress instead of the individual and singular President; Trump in this case.
trump was right about everything. can’t say that about congress and we finally have a strong President that can be celebrated.
US President is the most dangerous job in the history of the world. Just look at the stats. Trump has had the most attempts. That just tells me he’s working on the right things better than all the rest.
Trump is the most- hated politician in our history. He lied to get into office, lied about not starting a new war, lied about the reason for starting the war, which has driven up the cost of food and other supplies, lies about our economy, and just helps himself to our tax dollars for vanity projects that no one wants. He’s a misogynist, racist and xenophobe. He insults our allies and trading partners. The rest of the world can’t stand him. He’s trying to rig our elections and uses the DOJ for personal vengeance. The list goes on and on. We’ve never before had a president with such serious emotional issues and lack of honesty and patriotism.
The reflecting pool as well as other national monuments would be fine – if left wing nuts would stop vandalizing them.
Yes none of this compares to Californias boondoggle.
The reflecting pool has been completed.
Much of DC was cleaned up for the 250th.
The ballroom is needed and will not cost you a dime.
The performing arts center needed renovations.
Newsome is spending more on a single rail line that all federal highway spending accross the US.
The ballroom price has tripled–from $200 million to $600 million–which will NOT be covered by donations. The American people do NOT want it. Only Congress can vote to use our tax dollars to tear down part of the White House and build an annex.
Correction: according to an analysis of government records by the Washington Post, the estimate for the gilded ballroom has been revised upward to $900 million— mostly from taxpayers. There are some donors contributing to the project and most of them are receiving government contracts.
The American people do NOT care about a ballroom, don’t know who has authority to do what and have no idea if it’s needed or not. You have TDS, and that’s the explanation for your screed about a ballroom. And you guys wonder why the left has hit rock bottom.
Maybe MAGA media didn’t report it, but more Democrats have been showing up to vote in primaries than in general elections. And, the American people DO care about our White House. We can’t wait for Trump to leave, so the gold crap he super-glued all over the place, the “Presidential Hall of Fame” with snarky titles, the title outside the Oval Office, and the destruction of Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden can be ripped out and restored.
@Anonymous
Really, in 2026 that is the saddest deflection anyone has ever seen. People have eyes and brains. You are an idiot. everyone thinks so.
Didn’t Musk want to solve that LA-SF trip with a tunnel? Too bad it wasn’t Gavin’s idea, we would have a hole in the ground along with in our finances.
In 1886 the Railroads of the southern United States re-gauged a total of 11,500 miles of track to better interoperate between each railroad and those of the North. The problem was that there were over 23 different track gauges in the US and the goal was to standardize the track to a compatible gauge.
The effort required a great amount of planning and coordination, yet in the end the down-time for the conversion was only 36 hours.
http://southern.railfan.net/ties/1966/66-8/gauge.html
So 140 years ago, we could change the track gauge of 11,500 miles of railroad lines in one and a half days using manual labor and spike hammers, but today in CA we can’t build one operational mile of high-speed rail with all our modern machinery, billions of dollars in funding. and decades of time.
I wasn’t expecting California to uphold American exceptionalism and ruggedness. They’re all about the all-important ‘tax and spend’.
Here’s some perspective. The Erie Canal took 8 years to build. The U.S. built the Panama Canal in about 10. Hoover Dam took 5 and was finished ahead of schedule. They did all of that without computers, GPS, modern earthmoving equipment, or a fraction of the technology we have today.
California voters approved high-speed rail 18 years ago, roughly $18 billion has been spent, and not a single passenger has taken a ride. At some point you have to stop blaming the complexity of the project and start examining the system trying to build it. This isn’t an engineering problem. It’s a management and accountability problem.
Olly – Darren: The issue is NIMBYism. All those projects you two cited were built on mostly undeveloped land. But California’s coastline is one of the most developed stretches of land in the country. So trying to bring a railroad through, in a straight line, is all but impossible. And I don’t think the challenge was completely realized when ground was first broke.
Anonymous, but isn’t that exactly what planning is supposed to account for? California’s development, NIMBYism, environmental requirements, land acquisition and litigation didn’t suddenly appear after voters approved the project. If those realities made the original cost and schedule unrealistic, they should have been incorporated into the plan presented to the voters.
Nobody is arguing that building high-speed rail through modern California should take five years. The comparison simply raises the question of how earlier generations completed enormous projects with vastly inferior technology while ours can spend 18 years and $18 billion without carrying a passenger. If the answer is that our own processes make building things extraordinarily difficult, then perhaps the process is exactly what we should be examining.
Olly, you’re a Navy guy aren’t you? Maybe you’d like to address our current inability to build and service warships.
Anonymous, I am, 20 years Navy, and I went through multiple shipyard overhauls. My late father-in-law also ran a major ship repair company in San Diego, and my brother-in-law negotiated the contracts. So yes, I have some familiarity with that problem.
One issue was the contracting system itself. Contractors bid exactly what the RFP called for, even when experienced people could see work that had been left out. Win the contract as the low bidder, then the omissions become contract modifications once the ship is already torn apart and the government has little choice but to pay for them. That’s not primarily a shipbuilding problem. That’s a procurement, oversight and accountability problem. Which is exactly my point about high-speed rail.
Olly, are you familiar with Trump’s demand that the ‘islands’ on new warships be moved back to center so they resemble WWII ships? The NYT is covering that today. Trump’s demand has no engineering rational and could cost billions in redesign costs. It would also leave less room for planes on deck.
Anonymous, presidents wanting things that may be stupid, impractical or technically unsound is nothing new in the history of this republic. If we’re going to catalog every stupid idea proposed by a politician, we’ll be here awhile.
The more important question is whether the system has the capacity to check it. We have engineers, procurement processes, Congress, budgets, oversight and competing authorities for a reason. If one person’s bad idea can blow billions of dollars despite all of those controls, then my concern isn’t merely the bad idea. It’s why the system designed to stop it failed.
Olly, that’s a good analogy but not the least bit reassuring.
Anonymous, it wasn’t intended to be reassuring. 🙂 If the systems designed to catch bad decisions no longer have the capacity to do so, that’s a much bigger problem than any one bad decision or any one president. That’s exactly what concerns me.
Olly – do you – or anyone not falling off the left edge of the world beleive there is any substance to any of this idiot left wing nut reporting ?
At best we have plans being presented to Trump with quesitons like “why cant you do this ?”
And given good answers – Trump moves on, an the press then reports Trump demanded X.
We have seen no actual evidence of increasing waste fraud or abuse under Trump.
Government employment decined by 55,000 in july alone. In the short run that raises unemployment and is slightly negative economically. In the long run that is a HUGE win-win.
Moving people out of unproductive government jobs to productive private ones is hugely benefiical to all of us.
We forget that a great deal of govenrment employment is just welfare for the middle class.
John, interesting you should ask that question. Dr. Robert Malone published an essay today on just that topic.
https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/saving-democracy-from-democracy?
There is no engineering rational for the Ballroom or the Arches either. ..clearly, Trump prefers form over function.
The US have been severely limiting the number of people at state dinners, and other events as well as holding them in tents on the WH lawn for decades.
Absolutely there is a real need here.
I do not know the deal on the arches – but there is no engineering need for the vietnam memorial, the washington monument, the lincoln memorial, …..
Rational? Patriotism and trolling the left. All good works.
nonny at 1:49, you are such a POS liar.
HERE is the actual language of Trump’s MEMORANDUM which is NOT demanding “that the ‘islands’ on new warships be moved back to center so they resemble WWII ships.” He is directing, within 60 days, a plan. A plan addresses the cost, benefit, practicality, impossibility, etc. You should also see that Trump specifically says, ” No changes from parent designs shall be made without the approval of the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, the Director of OMB, and the APNSA.”https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/rebuilding-the-united-states-navy-and-americas-shipbuilding-industrial-base/
Your constant attempts to chraracterize Trump as a bully that just goes around “ordering” nonsense things reflects only on you, and your motive to undermine anything that he says or does.
Thank you
I rarely check these things out anymore.
BECAUSE the left ALWAYS LIES
But if the left must consider that Trump MIGHT make a rational decision, it blows their WHOLE narrative! Cognitive dissonance disallows it and their bubble persists. Trump is like a cartoon character to these fantasy dolts and they cannot consider that he is quite the consequential and real President, reshaping the real world.
ATS – I am neither familiar NOR CARE.
How does Trump’s change cost billions in redesign for something that has not been designed yet ?
Or were you lying when you initially claimed Trump was asking for something the Navy did not have plans for or want ?
Next – we do not put planes on modern warships that are not Aircraft Carriers.
As usual – this is just bat$hiff craxy left wing nonsense.
Idiots like you beleive it.
I HIGHLY doubt that Trump is taking any consequential role in the deisgn details of ANTHING.
I am sure the plans for major projects are reviewed with him and that he asks questions.
Like why can’t you do XYZ ? and so long as there are good answers he remains uninvolved.
But left wing nuts and leaks result in stupid stories like this.
OLLY – I have not dealt with govenrment ship building contracts – but I have with public building construction.
MOSTLY – with some exceptions, the engineers and architects provide the necescary plans – but there are always issues.
The very government procurement system being one.
I have build myriads of buildings – public and private. Near identical private fascilities cost about half as much and are completed in half the time – and those are directly related. Labor costs are the single largest aspect of a construction project.
The faster a project is finished the less it costs.
I do NOT support changing the government processes that are inefficient – inefficiency is the price we pay for govenrment that is less corrupt and less dangerous.
The ANSWER is to do as much as possible OUTSIDE government – in the free market.
Catholic schools are educating kids as well or better than public schools for 1/4 – to 1/3 the cost.
Charter schools tend to run about 75% of the cost of public schools – though charters are technically still public schools.
And absolutely incredible private girls school near me, costs about 50% more than the local public school – including room and board and horseback riding, and ……
Just END public education. Personally I would prefer NO VOUCHERS and no school taxes.
What people save in taxes would pay for the cost of educating their kids – and that cost would go away when the kids graduated.
John Say, I don’t see this as either/or. Everything in our system operates within a process. Government, private sector, doesn’t matter. If you have a process, it has to be an efficient process. That’s not optional. A sloppy process is how you get waste, fraud, and abuse, every time, no exceptions.
So sure, push what you can into the free market. That’s where competition forces efficiency on its own. But for whatever stays inside government’s legitimate role, we don’t get to shrug and say inefficiency is just the cost of doing business. We have to build the capacity to measure it, monitor it, and demand results. Track the process, check the outputs, and make sure the public is getting the best value for every dollar that gets captured from them.
Skipping that step isn’t caution. It’s how you end up with a train that’s burned through billions and still isn’t running.
“If you have a process, it has to be an efficient process.”
With respect no.
That is how the free market works – pretty much automatically.
Efficiency is a means to lower cost and higher profits, which inevitably turn from profits to lower prices as a result of competition. All this happens even if business do not think about efficiency – except it is pretty close to impossible to have a business that does NOT look for efficiency.
Efficiency is neither automatic nor desireable when Government – AKA Force is being used.
The Nazi’s are the epitomy of efficient govenrment and that is NOT what we want – Government tha can efficiently take away our rights.
Above I suggested that low efficiency it the price we pay for reducing corruption – that is not strictly speaking true either.
While we do want minimal government corruption – government corruption is NOT in all cases inherently evil.
SOME government corruption is just the means to make a system that can not work actually work.
While we should strive to eliminate corruption – much of the time corruption is just an indication that government has so thoroughly legislated or regulated something that important things can not b accomplished without corruption.
The correct answer in those cases is to eliminate the laws and regulations.
The next best answer is to allow the corruption – but trying to keep it from becoming pervasive
Regardless, if government has power over something – it will be corrupted – See Lord Acton
Corruption is inevitable. The solution is to remove as much as possible from the domain of government.
“A sloppy process is how you get waste, fraud, and abuse, every time, no exceptions.”
No you get waste fraud and abuse therever there is power to be rented – that is why the efforts of the rich, corporations, interest groups are so focused on Rent seeking – they WANT to use the power of govenrment for their purposes.
And that will always lead to waste fraud and abuse. Power Corrupts.
Inside the actually legitimate domain of government you will STILL have waste fraud and abuse.
It is just the nature of government. People will always try to rent seek power.
“But for whatever stays inside government’s legitimate role, we don’t get to shrug and say inefficiency is just the cost of doing business. We have to build the capacity to measure it, monitor it, and demand results. Track the process, check the outputs, and make sure the public is getting the best value for every dollar that gets captured from them.”
And every single thing that you list is added INEFFICIENCY. You just plain do not automatically get efficiency from government – and AGAIN you do not really want it.
You have lots of forces at work.
First – when government exceeds its legitimate domain – it makes the free markets LESS efficient – in some cases it makes things IMPOSSIBLE. One of the major problems with Newsoms train to nowhere is that laws regulations and powerful interest groups are making everything impossible and expensive concurrently. Pretend this train was being built privately.
It STILL would be nearly impossible to build without corruption – because we have laws and regulations that make that impossible. It is free for those in govenrment to impose requirements with little thought to their actual costs or unintended consequences. And even if they actually did think of the costs and unintended consequences – they would NOT get them right.
Th free market does not get things right. It tries fails, examines the failure and tries again until what is being attempted is adjusted to actually work. Corruption is often the means to work arround regulations that make the necescary possible and were poorly thought out. And just to be clear – while I am no big fan of govenrment experts, they are NOT for the most part actually stupid. They are just removed from the disciplining forces of the free market. They are not inherently worse at forseeing unintended consequences, the issue is that govenrment processes – laws and regulations are not iterative or recursive, they do NOT adjust until they get things right. In the free market – you get it wrong you fail and you try again.
In government when you get it wrong – that is a problem for OTHERS – not you. You can be the smartest person in the world on a given subject – and you still will likely not get things right on first pass. You can be of little more than average intelligence – and if you get to correct your mistakes and try again – you will likely succeed eventually.
Govenrment just plain does not and can not work the same as free markets – and we do not want it too.
Economist James Buschannon won a Nobel for “Public Choice Ecconomics” – which in simplified form is why the very aspects of human nature that make free markets work will also ALWAYS make Government fail.
Government must be limited to what only government can do. And then – all those processes that you list and more much be impossed making government FAR LESS efficient and wasteful. Because we do NOT want efficient government.
The purpose of government is the use of FORCE. We can make the use of FORCE far more efficient by eliminating judges and courts, and appeals and prosecutors and jury’s and just letting the Police decide whether you committed a crime and what the punishment should be.
THAT is pretty close to how the free market works. When you are alleged to have failed at work – your boss decides your fate.
There is rarely a jury or an appeals process. We allow this – because no rights are involved.
When you lose a job you do no t lose something that was yours by right to begin with.
When you lose your property, your freedom or your life – you do lose something that is yours by right.
We do NOT want that done efficiently.
I often rail when people talk of free markets as a merit system. That is false. The best person rarely gets the job, or the apartment or the contract. The goal in the free market is to accomplish the task efficiently and do so GOOD ENOUGH.
When I have 35 applications for an open apartment what I care about is not getting the best possible tenant,
But making a choice that I do not later regret as quickly as possible. I want Rent coming back in far more than I want the perfect tenant. YES I absolutely make what I think is the best choice – But I do NOT thoroughly review every application.
When I review on of 30-40 applications I am looking for reasons to say NO as quickly as possible
I want to spend as little time as possible paring those 30-40 down to 3-5 who I will very more thoroughly – but STILL
Only as thoroughly as I can do in about 24hrs.
The point is decisions in the free market are not about perfection or merit. Those are factors, NOT determinative.
This is also why Government MUST make decisions differently. The free market decision process often involves subjective even biased choices. The market will determine if your subjective and biased choices are a problem – and often they are not.
But what is subjective and biased in the private domain is corruption in the public one.
As I said – It takes longer and costs more to do things in govenrment AND IT Should.
Inefficiency in govenrment is the price for reducing corruption and infringement on rights.
We do NOT want to change that.
We do not as an example want it to be easy to amend the constitution, or change laws.
“Skipping that step isn’t caution. It’s how you end up with a train that’s burned through billions and still isn’t running.’
WE got that – because Trains are not the legitimate domain of government.
The answer is Obvious: call the Chinese.
They spit out high-speed rail like Lego trains. .. at a very reasonable cost.
*anonymous. once spent 93 days at sea on a USS Navy carrier. lost all geographical orientation, and sense of direction. .. can’t imagine 250 days at sea!
dgsnowden, the Chinese solution certainly eliminates a few steps in the approval process. 😂 But I’m not ready to trade a constitutional republic for faster trains.
Somewhere between “the government wants a railroad, so move” and spending 18 years and $18 billion without carrying a passenger, there ought to be a competent system of government.
And 93 days at sea is enough to understand why sailors start measuring distance in meals instead of miles. 🙂
While the cost of high speed rail in China is far lower than the US – it still has had HUGE problems.
It has swelled their national debt by hundreds of millions.
Contra claims – ridership is LOW – far below paying for the system.
And quality and maintanance is poor. They are constantly having construction that was supposed to last half a century failing in only a few years – often very dangerously.
China is NOT a model anyone shoud folow.
“call the Chinese.”
@Dgsnowden: Your easy ways of doing things do not work. Example: You have a large debt to a local store; call out the mafia.
We taught the Chinese how to build rail cheaply.
Didn’t the Simpsons make fun of high speed rail boondoggles like a generation ago? In china you must take train. No choice peasant. Government said so. China will never have empty trains as long as they have people to order around. rail rider will become a career for the previously unemployable.
“But California’s coastline . . .”
Uh, it’s route is through *central* California (Merced, Bakersfield, etc.). That is not the “coastline.”
Estovir, the train is supposed to ultimately link L.A. and San Francisco.
That tells you very little about its route.
There is lot of marginally occupied land that is easy to acquire and build on between SF and LA
No roads or rails ever travel in a straight line.
As a rule even today transportation netwrks pass through cities because that is GOOD for the city.
A route the entire lenght of CA with little property issues is trivial.
As to your claim that we do not realize the challenges – HOG WASH.
The US has had the same issues constructing infrastructure since the 1950’s
There is nothing new or unprodictable about the problems faced here.
I am a huge fan of rail – but the ability to construct these things at reasonable costs rests on Musk putting more effort into his Boring company. That is if it can be done at all.
I would note that the US has the best cheapest and most efficient rail system int he world BAR NONE.
It is just not a passenger rail system. We have no problems building rai lines where we need them
And that freight system subsidizes the failed public passenger system.
Even in places like NYC and Philadelfia where subways and light rail exists the cost per passenger mile is 3-5 times that of travel by Car.
So a failure of ‘central planning’? whodathunkit.
to be fair, government isn’t the solution, government IS the problem. They just can’t spend your money as carefully as you would because government attracts idiots.
In one his debates about rich vs poor, Milton Friedman said that the key to accumulating great wealth these days is establishing a connection to government.
Yes indeed !!!
No truer words were spoken !!!
Look no further than Elmo the Muskrat, Bezos, Zuckerberg and the rest of motley collection of tech titans.
Lets see – Govenrment is benefiting from Elon – not the other way arround. While the US government is Musks largest client,
he has reduced the costs to put anything into space by a factor of 100, and he is profiting PRIVATELY from doing so.
NASA and the US military have a perfectly functional Atlas launch system – they do not NEED Musk, the buy from him because HE IS CHEAPER.
What is the basis for your claim that Bezos and Zuckerberg are profiting off govenrment ?
I am sure government buy from Amazon and uses social media – as does Everyone.
John
perfectly functional Atlas launch system.
_______________________________
WOW. I remember them days in San Diego (General Dynamics/Convair).
Are you saying the government doesn’t just give Elon Musk money?
The richest man in all of mankind has to get up every day, make rockets, work hard, revolutionize space, interconnect all of mankind, be a visionary, provide thousands with a nice living, provide inspiration and hope for the future to millions of humans and stuff? /s
Boondoggles In The News:
Cyclospora Traced To Cutbacks
Cyclospora, which can cause explosive diarrhea, cramps and other severe symptoms, has been a recognized driver of foodborne illness for nearly 30 years. But this year’s massive toll — totaling more than 24,500 confirmed or suspected cases so far and two deaths — reveals shortcomings in the U.S. food safety system that may leave Americans more vulnerable to future pathogens, public health experts say.
Many point to an erosion of food safety oversight during the Trump administration, stemming in part from its aggressive efforts to roll back regulations and shrink the federal government. Last year, the F.D.A. laid off many of the staff who supported food inspectors’ travel planning and who coordinate with foreign governments on food safety. (An F.D.A. spokesman said on Friday that “travel support staff and staff that coordinated with foreign governments have been reinstated.”) The administration eliminated a committee tasked with studying problems that led to outbreaks. It also cut a program focused on cyclospora tracking.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/health/cyclospora-invesigation-fda.html?smid=nytcore
…………………………………………..
Key Passage From Article:
A federal rule that had been scheduled to take effect in January would have required Taco Bell to send those records within 24 hours. But last year, the Trump administration delayed the implementation of that rule until mid 2028, saying companies needed more time to prepare.
How stupid can you get ? Cyclospora, is coming from farms in Mexico that are outside US governent jurisdiction.
Further it takes as long as 14 days from exposure to symptoms making it INCREDIBLY difficult to find root sources.
Regardless as with ALL alleged public health issues – the problem will be solve PRIVATELY and fairly quickly.
Do you honestly think Taco Bell or any other food source is doing well as Cyclospora, is linked to it ?
There is no instance anywhere in the US today were self imposed private business requirements for health issues particularly on regional and national companies does not greatly exceed those of govenrent.
Do you know that US cattle producers are capable of tracking individual cattle through their lifetimes ?
Why ? Because a single cow anywhere with Mad Cow requires the extermination of any cow it has come in contact with.
The better you can track cows the fewer cows you have to kill.
We are early on is managing similar changes to Chickens – for much the same reason.
When we have to exterminate millions of chickens because of a few cases of avian flu – that is a huge business loss and drives chicken and egg prices up for months. Businesses work very hard to solve those problems.
pretty much all food/health related issues for all of human existance have been the result of IMPROVEMENTS
As ONE example – the further we are able to cost effectively transport food – the better and cheaper food we have available YEAR ROUND.
For nearly all of human existance – most humans had very limited choices of food.
Within the past few centuries – ORDINARY PEOPLE have had access to lots of fruits and vegatables that only the wealthy ever saw before and then only in season. Today the POOR in the US can by strawberries in February affordably.
NO ONE coulc do that a few decades ago – not kings, not the rockefellers.
But transporting foods over distance both solves problems and creates them.
In 1800 in Philadelphia Milk came from cows milked right in the city.
At the turn or the century dairy moved out of the city into the country – improving health of people living in cities.
But transportation introduced new problems – early refridgeration was problematic, pastuerization and homogenization addressed these problems – though arguably today these are obsolete.
The whole
nonsense about meat packing at the turn of the century that resulted in the FDA was because cattle was being transported further to market – which is AGAIN on net safer, but requires changes as scale and distance creates new problems.
These problems are nearly all solved outside of govenrment – govenrment just can not act fast enough and laws and regulations are pssed to address issues that are long ago solved.
Cyclospora, will with absolute certainty result in changes – changes that are already taking place.
If the companies involved can not prove they will not have problems in the future – they will go bankrupt NOW.
Do you think McDonalds and Taco Bell are not making food safety demands of their suppliers NOW ?
And in how many years do you think it will be before government regulations addressing a problem that is long since past will emerge ?
This pattern is NOT NEW – it goes back as far as humans have records.
Wait, so if a company buys bad lettuce and makes their customers sick, they think that’s bad for business and will work tirelessly to prevent the loss of revenue instead of just letting their company fail, lose all their capital, and their customer get sicker? That’s a smart company! Oh, if they didn’t do all that we could sue them for making us sick? sounds like a system designed for maximum positive outcomes.
“Goofy Gavin” could have built a water (i.e. the one thing CA needs) pipeline from the Columbia River or Canada for less money.
He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Nobody saw THAT coming!
To be fair, it was not Gavin Newsom that initiated that horrendous high speed rail project in California. Arnold Schwarzenegger was California’s Governor at the time. California hasn’t had decent governance ever since Pete Wilson left office in 1999. Since then, California voters have elected THE MOST incompetent people ever to have run for office. Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, and the entire State Legislature have destroyed California beyond any sense of redemption. California’s high speed rail project is a harbinger of what’s to come for the entire nation if America elects another incompetent person as President like the four men previously mentioned.
Nothing like a bit of revisionist MAGA history.
You seem to think that Pete Wilson was the last decent governor in California.
Pete was the one who signed the legislation enabling the rail project in 1996.
He actively championed and supported the project.
How could Wilson sign the legislation enabling the rail project when it came to vote in 2008.
LOL—— oops!
You seem to think that there are no Republicans with bad ideas ?
I do not want Dick Cheney running the world either.
Arnold “Screw your freedom”! Schwarzenegger. A California version of “republican”.
No to a federal bailout. But yes to federal criminal investigations and to federal lawsuits to claw back all the federal money that was wasted on this project.
It’s painfully obvious that State govt. in California is not running a meritocracy. The complete lack of accountability is the crux of the problem, as Steve Hilton is pointing out. I remember a time around the mid-2000s when “measurable results” was the standard for public investments. Now, it’s slipped backwards into “good intentions only” — and that is a consequence factional identity politics. You don’t hold your side accountable because it will be used by the opposition to crucify and weaken your side’s leadership.
Getting back to good government means citizens not taking up partisan identities, but rather straddling the two party system as uncommitted or independent. That way, both parties have to compete for your approval, neither takes you for granted, and neither writes you off you as unreachable.
pbinca, I think you’re hitting the real problem. Once partisan identity becomes more important than measurable results, accountability is dead. If I excuse failure because admitting it might help the other side, what incentive does my side ever have to improve?
My Deming training tells me that checks and balances, good intentions, and procedures aren’t enough. Plan, Do, Check, Act. Set measurable expectations, do the work, independently audit whether the system actually performed as intended, then act on what you learn. An audit isn’t an accusation of wrongdoing. It’s how a well-managed system produces justified trust. Government should have to earn that trust regardless of which party is running it.
Deming….6-sigma….government didn’t get the memo.
Anonymous, apparently not. 😂 The irony is that government may be the organization most in need of continuous improvement because it faces so few natural consequences for poor performance. A business can lose its customers and go broke. Government can miss the milestone, blow the budget, ask for more money, and call it a funding problem.
And then we’re expected to let the fox audit the chicken house and call that accountability. The “Check” in Plan, Do, Check, Act only produces confidence when the verification is genuinely independent of the people whose performance is being evaluated.
Rhode Island keeps flirting with the whole ‘needed stadium’ graft boondoggle.
It was already a sick joke when the high-speed rail from LA to SF would in fact only go from Bakersfield to Merced in its “first” phase, as if it would get any ridership at all – much less the ridership to pay for its own operations – between those two busy metropolises.
BUT NOW, to save money (that is, to reduce the INCREASE in cost from their 2025 estimate just last year) it isn’t even going from Bakersfield to Merced – it’s going from a “temporary” station north of Bakersfield to a station not in downtown Merced! I.e., a shorter distance, as well as not having to lay tracks into “town” and buy station property in “downtown”. N.B.: “Downtown” Bakersfield to “Downtown” Merced is in the (current) authorizing law, as is a distance of 171 miles – all three of those constraints would be violated by their new plan.
So now it’s even funnier, if you like to watch California burn $$$$ (which, in fact, I do because I fled California 25 years ago and positively don’t regret it).
Just for comparison Sound Transits Link Light Rail will (when complete in 2050) will cover 116 miles in and around Seattle for a estimated cost of 185 Billion.
This fraud had a price tag of $33 billion when the $9 billion bod was put on the ballot by Jerry Clown, errr Brown. Anyone with 100 or so working brain cells knew this was a fraud. Brown should be held responsible, much more than Gov Hair Gel.
Newsom and the one-party state legislature also caused the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the fast food sector, and hundreds of restaurant closures, with raising the mandated wage. The employees lucky enough to keep their jobs had substantially fewer hours, while prices rose for the consumer. All that economic destruction for the sake of virtue signaling or being a member of a socialist cult. Now he wants to californicate the rest of the country. I say thanks but no thanks.
If the train project had been given to Trump or Musk at the beginning with means of keeping the grifters back it would have been finished long ago at a fraction of the cost.
“If the train project . . .”
Not Trump or Musk, but:
For real-world evidence of that, see Brightline — Florida’s privately owned and operated rail service. The first line took 3 years to become operational. since then, they’ve expanded rapidly.
Democrats roasted their own donors in the Palisades and still got reelected. Always expect the worst in blue counties.
Gov. Nuisance is far left, but now I hear he’s shifting left to keep up with “progressives.” Is that supposed to imply that Newsome is too moderate? Heaven help us.
It’s cultish behavior. They vote for continued misery rather than improvement, as vividly demonstrated in the recent LA mayoral election.
Come On Man!! Newscum and Californication will NEVER run out of money! As long as Cali taxpayer FOOLS are in the State, have money in their pockets, and can be incarcerated for refusing to hand over the MOOLAH, then the Money Train just keeps chuggin! Bah haha. Can ya hear that Choo Choo comin for ya Cali?
The warmth of collectivism is caused by billions of taxpayer dollars going up in flames. In blue states people will vote for their own destruction.
Please, pistol Pete Hegseth spent $18bn last month in the pointless war on Iran. The Pentagon spends hundreds of billions every year on pointless nonsense ‘going up in flames’ (see e.g. Ukraine) and hasn’t passed an audit in 8years.
The Great Grift of America continues unabated and makes no distinction between ‘blue/red’ states. .. and will continue to do so until the ‘warmth of collectivism’ stop it.
*there are no blue states, there are no red states .. . there is only the United States.
Not everyone thinks it’s pointless to degrade the Ayatollah’s nuclear weapons program, especially when they admitted they had enough enriched uranium for 11 Hiroshima bombs, and their stated goals include wiping other nations off the map, including the “Great Satan” (the USA), and the range of their ICBMs is always increasing to the point they recently proved a capability to reach every capital city in Europe. Just because you have your head in the sand, that doesn’t mean everyone else is willing to take the chance on global nuclear war.
Can the same thing be said about the billions wasted on Newsom’s train to nowhere?
“enriched uranium for 11 Hiroshima bombs,”
Dgsnowden doesn’t consider why there have been no nations in history created on his wavelength that he can recall. If he ever does, he might ask why. The answer is simple. They all died in infancy.