President Biden responded to Trump's "burn in hell" Christmas message by quoting Matthew: love your enemies, do good to those that hate you, bless them that curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. It got almost no publicity. Not very colorful. Besides, Biden is old.
The high speed rail system in Taipei Taiwan cleared the most horrible pollution out of the air, stopped the horrible traffic congestion and is very affordable and efficient..I lived there during and before they had the rail. It changed the quality of life for millions of people in Taiwan...a ticket is super cheap and can be bought at any 7-11 store. Given that our budget blows trillions on weapons reasearch I don't see serving the public with affordable transportation as a misuse of public funds. The government in Taiwan paid for the high speed rail and the French Company ELF built it along with other rail systems around Asia. We dropped the boat on those contracts. Car culture in America has a large, anti public transportation lobby and always has here. I'd love to be able to go see my kids in San Diego in a few hours on a high speed rail than spending 2 days on Amtrak for the price of a plane ticket. Choices. Spending money on infrastructure has my vote, if we don't benefit from our tax dollars I sure as hell don't want arms dealers getting it instead. Rail systems also keep people from driving who are elderly or people who like to drink don't have to drive home with good public transportation. Money is not the problem at all. It will save people a ton of money if they are willing to use it. I'd sure go to more Blazer games if a high speed rail connected Portland to Eugene. I'm glad to see a president finally put some infrastructure plans into effect. We are behind the major world economies in this technology for the most part.
I liked your post because you contributed good and interesting thoughts. But.... After reviewing all of the info, I have come to a different conclusion. You "want" high speed trains in the PNW. I do not believe we "need" high speed trains in the PNW. I could be talked into expanding light rail in our major cities, but not fast trains to connect them. We have too many real problems that "need" to be fixed before we have the luxury of fast trains that only a small portion of the population will use. Speaking of population. The PNW does not have the population size or the density to support a market for fast trains. Taiwan and the east coast of the USA do.
We disagree...I believe the west coast is the perfect place to put a high speed line connecting from Canada to Mexico. Not only people move on high speed rails as goods are shipped by them as well but the idea that people won't use them is dated and just a habitual American response to public transport..Eugene shop owners bitched about the bus system they've put in but the elderly, poor and handicapped love it. The people complaining usually are folks who will drive their giant monster truck 2 blocks to the convenience store to buy a big gulp and then get a gym membership to lose weight when they could just walk to the store once in a while but what do I know. With the cost of gas I travel much less than I ever would if time and expense weren't such a factor in traveling . I coud go anywhere in Taiwan without owning a car faster than you could if you drove one. Choices. In this day and age high speed rails should be an option everywhere. Our power grid is pretty archaic as well when all our lines should be buried instead of sitting on creosote poles that burn and fall down with the weight of ice and snow in the winter. These are not wasteful infrastructure projects anymore than bridges and roads are. I'm for progress and lowering our human carbon footprint for future generations. America's fascination with automobile culture is simply not sustainable for future generations and in my view we've mistakenly devoted too much of our real estate to the auto. Not enough public housing but plenty of parking lots and garages. Thanks for engaging me in the convo though.
The "maga" wall is like a quarter of the country, maybe he should concentrate on the other 75% of us who aren't brainwashed cultists.
The Trump cult will support him no matter how senile he is, if his remarks about building a dome over the country make no sense it is considered proof of his godlike intellect. I think Clyburn is worried about 2020 voters not turning out. In 2016 few Obama voters flipped to Trump but a lot thought it was awesome to not vote. People have short political memories about what a disaster Trump was, and he would be far worse second time.
This is something I'm worried about. People going back to being apathetic. But I have hopes in the younger generation (18-28) who are overwhelmingly against Trump, despite what those "alpha males" on social media claim.
Using resources allotted under Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden Administration recovered more than $500 million from ultra rich and corporate tax cheats.
Closing the border would crash the economy. Do I need to ask which border you want to close? The one the scary brown people use, por supuesto.
Closing the border would not crash the economy. What do you people smoke? If millions of Canadians were coming here illegally it would be an issue too. Saying it's "racist" to want to enforce border security is stupid. This used to not be a controversial issue. Cesar Chavez was against illegal immigration...I guess he was "racist". You clowns...
They spent $80B to hire the goons to accomplish that. They will never get the money back they put in. They literally stole a bunch of tax money to hire people to steal more tax money. Its wild to chock it up as a win.
Where would these savings come from? Can you show the math? What is your definition of closing the border? Illegal immigrants pay around $11 billion in taxes per year. So spending $500 million to cut that out of our economy seems like we're going the wrong direction on tax receipts alone...
The IRS is not a profit center. I don't want it to be. Investment into enforcement of our laws cannot be calculated by profit or loss because hopefully more people will just start paying their taxes, and so they will not be able to be caught cheating. I don't want the IRS going after people who aren't cheating in the hopes of justifying their funding. Just like I don't want police framing people to meet a quota.
Why the hostility? Especially when it is highly unlikely to impact you directly? Taxes are the price we pay for living in a "civilized" society. Those IRS people are NOT "goons". They are working class folks (in general) just trying to do the jobs they were hired to do (just like you). I am 69 years old and have been paying taxes since I was 12 years old. I have never cheated on my taxes. I have never hired someone to find ludicrous tax loopholes in order to dodge paying my "fair" share. It is my obligation as an American citizen, regardless of my political party affiliation. It is the obligation of EVERY American citizen and business entity. Dodging taxes is not "smart", as the Orange Man claims. It is immoral, deceitful and unpatriotic. I'm tired of paying my share while others get rich cheating the system. Guys like Trump pay MORE money to dodge taxes than they actually owe in taxes. It's all a game for them. It's an ego boost. And it sucks that the Democrats have allowed the Republicans to claw some of that IRS funding back. I don't know where you get that the government has "stolen" that tax money. The real thieves are those who refused to pay it in the first place.
That is, of course, wildly incorrect. The $80B for new personnel (now cut to $60B) has mostly not been spent yet. And much of it is not for 'goons', but rather for data scientists, computer modernization, customer service personnel, etc. But I guess if you consider taxes 'stealing', then sure. I mean, the constitution guarantees your right to have wealthy people cheat on their taxes, correct? barfo
a closed border is where you cant just walk across the border and start living in the US. Go thru the proper paper work and become legal. New York along is spending 12billion on migrant crisis this year, you are now at a negative with just 1 city. And by the Crandc i am not a racist just because i love my country and dont want it invaded by anyone who feels like coming here from both the North and South border.
