Will Trump be Re-elected?

Other discussions not related to the Permanent Portfolio

Moderator: Global Moderator

Will Trump be Re-elected?

Trump is more effective than people are willing to admit [ala Scott Adams] and will be re-elected.
24
37%
Hillary will run again in 2020, and thus Trump will beat her again.
3
5%
Trump will cause the GOP to lose one or both houses of congress in the mid-term elections.
6
9%
The Dems in congress will be so insufferable, Trumps wins by a small margin despite them.
15
23%
Trump will choose not to run for re-election, since he never really wanted the job anyway.
7
11%
Trump is a disaster and will lose by a landslide.
5
8%
Trump will not only lose, but will lose to a candidate so far to the left that people will wish he'd stayed.
3
5%
Other, please elaborate.
2
3%
 
Total votes: 65
jacksonM
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 1:59 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by jacksonM » Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:45 pm

moda0306 wrote:
Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:29 pm
jacksonM wrote:
Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:49 pm
Although he's still being coy about it, the news yesterday was that Biden will be jumping into the race soon. From what I see of the democratic candidates I think he's the only one that can beat Trump and unless some things change before the election I think he probably WILL beat Trump. On a positive note, he's also the democratic candidate that scares me the least.

My preferred democratic candidate however is Bernie Sanders, but only because AOC isn't old enough yet. This is because I'd like to see a real debate in prime time about whether or not the time has come for America to embrace Marxism.
The idea that Bernie's version of "Socialism" = Marxism is ridiculous. High-tax welfare-state mixed capitalism ISN'T communism/socialism in the Marxist sense.

Marxism would see workers seizing and owning the means of production and abolishing private property and absentee "rent-seeking" forms of ownership.

That-said, one need-not be a "Marxist" or even a Bernie-crat to discuss things in terms of capital vs labor, which I think is sorely missed in our public and more-so our social discussions.
He's an avowed socialist who once praised Castro and still angrily preaches the kind of class hatred that is common to Marxism. In my opinion, if it looks like a duck and talks like a duck it's a duck.
Last edited by jacksonM on Wed Mar 13, 2019 9:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Maddy
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1694
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2015 8:43 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by Maddy » Wed Mar 13, 2019 9:42 pm

Today's young people seizing the means of production? To do what with it?
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by WiseOne » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:40 am

Hey insuranceguy, no offense taken.

I feel like I've already made the case for universal healthcare, so I'll skip the response for now. Just one quick comment: if you had one onerous administrative task to do many times a day, but that task involved up to 50 different forms, sets of rules, procedures etc that varied case to case requiring a huge administrative layer to sort through, what would happen if those were reduced to just one form with a markedly simpler procedure?

re trains, they are absolutely more cost-efficient and convenient than air travel, especially for shorter routes. Trains have minimal security, easier/quicker to get to stations and you can show up just minutes in advance, more comfortable en-route with more seat space and no restrictions on getting up and walking around. I take the train to DC all the time and I wouldn't go by air if you paid me. There are tons of mid-distance routes like this that are ripe for train travel. Air is the only way to go when you're crossing the continent, but even distances of ~1000 miles are doable by train. I'd do overnight sleeper car to Chicago in a heartbeat, you leave in the evening and show up in the AM all rested and ready to go, as opposed to having to blow much of the day prior flying in to stay at a hotel overnight. You just don't realize what a PITA air travel is until you've experienced the alternative. Get yourself a Eurail pass and check it out.

Then there's the little known fact that air travel is much more heavily government-subsidized than Amtrak is. Airports, airport security & the TSA, the air traffic control system, the network of navigation aids, the FAA - only a small slice of that is funded from ticket fees. It's hard to imagine any private company being able to build and maintain such a system on its own. And what about the interstate highway system, you have any problems with that??? That's also heavily subsidized. Maintaining and running transportation systems is just plain a necessary function of government - and one that I'm happy to pay for.

Here's just one of many articles on this topic - you can surely find more:

http://allaboardohio.org/2012/09/21/roa ... -attacked/
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by dualstow » Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:47 am

WiseOne wrote:
Wed Mar 13, 2019 7:32 am
High speed rail is a standout. If it would really cost less than 4 trillion to lay down a national network of passenger rail track and buy high speed trains, then we should be doing this already. The only intercity passenger rail track in existence in the US right now is the Northeast Corridor (Boston to Richmond). All else is freight track, which is why train travel on every other route is so ridiculously slow. This is a national embarrassment, and could save us all a pile of $$ if fixed (air travel is much more expensive to run than train travel, plus much less convenient).
I remember reading this (because I pasted it) in the WSJ on the slow Chicago-St Louis line.
“To build the kind of infrastructure that is stand-alone—that is, just for high-speed passenger rail—it is just absurdly expensive and just takes years and years and years to get through the permitting and environmental process,”

“Land acquisition alone [would] take half a decade”
That's not to say we shouldn't do it. I love the idea, but...
RIP Marcello Gandini
User avatar
InsuranceGuy
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 425
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2015 1:44 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by InsuranceGuy » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:19 am

[deleted]
Last edited by InsuranceGuy on Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Xan
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 4392
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:51 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by Xan » Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:41 am

WiseOne wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:40 am
re trains, they are absolutely more cost-efficient and convenient than air travel, especially for shorter routes. Trains have minimal security, easier/quicker to get to stations and you can show up just minutes in advance, more comfortable en-route with more seat space and no restrictions on getting up and walking around. I take the train to DC all the time and I wouldn't go by air if you paid me. There are tons of mid-distance routes like this that are ripe for train travel. Air is the only way to go when you're crossing the continent, but even distances of ~1000 miles are doable by train. I'd do overnight sleeper car to Chicago in a heartbeat, you leave in the evening and show up in the AM all rested and ready to go, as opposed to having to blow much of the day prior flying in to stay at a hotel overnight. You just don't realize what a PITA air travel is until you've experienced the alternative. Get yourself a Eurail pass and check it out.
There's frequent talk (but not a whole lot else, from what I can tell) about having a triangular-ish set of high-speed rail among DFW, Houston, and San Antonio / Austin. Being intrastate, it could perhaps be free of federal interference. Seems like there would be a lot of demand for that, if it could be done well.
User avatar
jhogue
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 755
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2017 10:47 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by jhogue » Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:41 pm

WiseOne,
This may sound a bit harsh, but were you asleep for 8 years of Obama rule by executive fiat?

1. Obama got $1 trillion for so-called infrastructure projects in his first year in office. Did he build out the existing high speed rail network (eg., the “shovel ready” Washington, DC to Charlotte, NC corridor?) No.

2. In his acceptance speech on election night, I remember Obama claimed that now was the hour to heal the environment by renovating the power grid with environmentally friendly technology. Did that happen? Not really.

3. His signature accomplishment was passing Obamacare. To get it passed, he repeatedly assured his fellow citizens that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” How has that worked out?

So, why should anyone old enough to remember the Obama years sign up for the Green New Deal after that demonstrated record of fraud and failure?
“Groucho Marx wrote:
A stock trader asked him, "Groucho, where do you put all your money?" Groucho was said to have replied, "In Treasury bonds", and the trader said, "You can't make much money on those." Groucho said, "You can if you have enough of them!"
stuper1
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1365
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2013 7:18 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by stuper1 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:26 pm

Any other Victor Davis Hanson fans here? He has a new book out called "The Case for Trump" discussing why Trump should get re-elected. I heard him interviewed on a podcast yesterday discussing the book. He seems like a thoughtful conservative. He doesn't like Trump's bombast, but he likes a lot of his policies. He lives in a farming region that could be described as low-rent (about 15 miles from me, who also lives in a low-rent area), and he seems to understand the frustrations of the lower class voters who elected Trump.

Hanson has his own podcast called The Classicist if anyone is interested.
Kbg
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2815
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 4:18 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by Kbg » Thu Mar 14, 2019 11:28 pm

I’ve no idea about cost effectiveness between rail and air but I do believe if rail was so Advantageous there would be more of it in the US. I think a huge aspect is population density. Got me why there isn’t significant passenger rail in more densely populated areas, but where I live distances between large metro areas are measured in hundreds of miles and trains are not going to compete well against air when the distances are that large. I’ve often considered taking Amtrak to visit in laws. However, I could literally probably fly back and forth 10-12 times round trip time wise for one round trip by train. The other reason is connecting transportation networks...lack thereof.

But I do find amusement in the fact those who tend left want rail and then all you have to do is look how CA high speed rail was essentially killed by state regulators or liberal mayors for a host of environmental, constituency and plain old not in my back yard protests.

I will agree European and Japanese rail is quite nice but when you get off a train you can get elsewhere...in most of the US that is absolutely not the case.

This post isn’t pro or anti rail, just pointing out a more rural perspective on why rail hasn’t been successful (which is pretty close to why rail started dying off big time in the early 60s)

A parallel is electric cars...it appears they are going to replace gas and diesel eventually but it’s slow going because there isn’t sufficient supporting infrastructure.
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by WiseOne » Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:15 am

jhogue wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:41 pm
WiseOne,
This may sound a bit harsh, but were you asleep for 8 years of Obama rule by executive fiat?

1. Obama got $1 trillion for so-called infrastructure projects in his first year in office. Did he build out the existing high speed rail network (eg., the “shovel ready” Washington, DC to Charlotte, NC corridor?) No.

2. In his acceptance speech on election night, I remember Obama claimed that now was the hour to heal the environment by renovating the power grid with environmentally friendly technology. Did that happen? Not really.

3. His signature accomplishment was passing Obamacare. To get it passed, he repeatedly assured his fellow citizens that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” How has that worked out?

So, why should anyone old enough to remember the Obama years sign up for the Green New Deal after that demonstrated record of fraud and failure?
Yes, I believe I said that these points of the Green New Deal did not originate with AOC, but in fact are long-standing goals. Obama didn't accomplish them, true, but it was for a variety of reasons that had nothing to do with the worthiness of these projects.

Dualstow &KBG: yes, the land right of way and towns imposing ridiculous speed limits on trains are indeed obstacles that would have to be dealt with. For right of way, what about at least laying passenger rail tracks parallel to existing freight tracks? And for the local town issue, a simple federal law perhaps combined with better safety measures at rail/road intersections, would take care of that. note also that "half a decade" is actually a pretty short amount of time for a major public works project.

I guess I view transportation systems as a public service (e.g. like the court system or water/sewer systems) that fundamentally can't be privatized. If your position is that all transportation systems should be privatized, then that means you must be for privatizing the courts, water treatment plants, city/town sewer systems etc. Rome was successful in large part because of its road system, aqueducts and sewers. Our business can't magically operate without those things either. This is why we have a government: to set the stage for businesses to succeed.
User avatar
moda0306
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 7680
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by moda0306 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:10 am

stuper1 wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:26 pm
Any other Victor Davis Hanson fans here? He has a new book out called "The Case for Trump" discussing why Trump should get re-elected. I heard him interviewed on a podcast yesterday discussing the book. He seems like a thoughtful conservative. He doesn't like Trump's bombast, but he likes a lot of his policies. He lives in a farming region that could be described as low-rent (about 15 miles from me, who also lives in a low-rent area), and he seems to understand the frustrations of the lower class voters who elected Trump.

Hanson has his own podcast called The Classicist if anyone is interested.
I think I saw this guy being a Vietnam slaughter apologist on the "rag" that is Prager U. Not even sure why I watched that garbage, but I wasn't impressed.

I've also seen him discuss other issues from a conservative standpoint since then.

As much as I am fascinated by Herbert Hoover and respect the hell out of him (one of my favorite Presidents... which isn't saying much, but he's one hell of a dude), I find anyone the Hoover Institution to put out to be just a standard conservative war-mongering pile of useless and pompous analysis.
User avatar
moda0306
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 7680
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by moda0306 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 9:29 am

MangoMan wrote:
Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:50 am
moda0306 wrote:
Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:10 am
the "rag" that is Prager U.
Please elaborate on why you feel that Prager U is a rag. The videos generally feature prominent speakers who use very clear logic to define their points. Is it simply because you disagree with their conservative point of view that the channel becomes a rag?
Simonjester wrote: i haven’t seen a lot of there videos, but everything i have seen fits that description, plain, logical explanations of the basic American governing principals and civics, a cartoon make up class education for all the people who no longer get taught this stuff in grade school.. it hardly seems controversial...


"Prominent." Wolf Blitzer is prominent. So are a dozen other commentators at CNN. So is Hillary Clinton. "Prominence" isn't a good term in such an uninformed populace.

I do disagree with their conclusions, but that's a selection bias. The reason I disagree with their conclusions is because I disagree with what they believe to be the most pertinent, important facts and how conclusions flow from those facts.

But it has more to do with being a cuck to power and hypocritical. I don't mind people being wrong... it's when they suckle at the teat of powerful institutions and serve their masters and collect their check while folks suffer immeasurably that pisses me off.
Kbg
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2815
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 4:18 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by Kbg » Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:10 pm

Roads are for the most part clearly a public good, as are buses. as is the aviation control system so I don’t have a conceptual problem with government support of necessary rail infrastructure. I think the interstate road system is the way transportation should work...federal does interstate NOT local. Why should I pay for a rail line that benefits a single state or why should another taxpayer support the county road in front of my house? I also don’t have a problem with the feds setting standards where we are pretty sure interstate and international connectivity is required for efficiency. Now it’s no big surprise that entities are going to try their best to give themselvesan advantage on the standards...but perhaps a corrupted standard is better than no standard. The poster child for this latter point is the food fight over internet standards. If you think there is a moral issue here you do not understand anything about it. It’s purely over control and who fobs off costs and profits on who.

Ultimately my criteria is greatest public good for the least dollar but this thread is illustrative of how our public discourse operates now days. Usually the starting point is: here is my political philosophy how does this idea fit or not fit it. Therefore, good or bad. Screw the merits, irrelevant.
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by WiseOne » Sat Mar 16, 2019 8:10 am

Kbg wrote:
Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:10 pm
Roads are for the most part clearly a public good, as are buses. as is the aviation control system so I don’t have a conceptual problem with government support of necessary rail infrastructure. I think the interstate road system is the way transportation should work...federal does interstate NOT local. Why should I pay for a rail line that benefits a single state or why should another taxpayer support the county road in front of my house?
Fair. I neglected to emphasize that I saw a national rail system as being primarily inter-state. Local rail lines can co-exist independently.

Example: the NYC area commuter rail system. Amtrak's Northeast Corridor runs through here on its way to DC, Philadephia, Boston etc, and it is interconnected with 4 independent local rail networks covering 3 states (plus the NY subway). These commuter lines are pretty extensive and also function as inter-city rail (e.g. NYC to New Haven, Albany, Hartford, Trenton). They're also very well used with frequent service. If they suddenly stopped functioning tomorrow, the metro area would completely freeze up. I realize this isn't how it is in most metro areas....trains in other cities always look to me like a toy setup meant for show, or to give homeless people a place to pee, or for occasional use when you just kinda want to see what it's like to ride a train, as if it's an amusement park attraction. You generally don't see well-dressed people who look like they need to actually get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time taking them (ok there are exceptions like the DC & Chicago subways.) I am guessing that this is why most people (and Congress) don't see rail as a legitimate part of the transit system worthy of serious investment.

Since most of you appear to be from Texas, the analogy would be local lines in & around each city, with state-run lines between them (e.g. Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston), interconnecting with a national rail line that goes to New Orleans & east, north to (say) Oklahoma & Chicago,, and west to Los Angeles. Get the idea?

Also note: we will have to spend money on inter-city travel one way or another. The air traffic control & airport system is at or even beyond capacity. Extending that is going to be super costly too. It makes more sense to develop rail to take the load off the air travel system, because rail, once built, is far more scaleable.
Kbg
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2815
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 4:18 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by Kbg » Sat Mar 16, 2019 8:48 am

WiseOne,

I think it’s the total package that matters. I think rail works well in urban areas because there is also good local mass transit. A quick anecdote. If I take the train from DC to NYC and hop off at Grand Central I can get to wherever I want to go in NYC by taxi, subway or bus pretty easily. And, there are multiple departure/arrival times I could choose from. (I used to live in DC and my family loves to visit NY...so done this exact thing). Compare that to where I live now...I drive 90 miles to the airport or nearest train station. It will take me about 8 or 12 hours to get to the next large metropolitan areas and there is exactly one time per day to catch that train. Meanwhile, none of the rail stations have a car rental counter nearby to effect the required transfer to get where I’d actually like to go in either city.

I do have two other options.

Air: Same 90 mile drive, then an hour or an hour 15mins and convenient rental car access at both locations airports

Car: 8 hours to one of the cities, 7 to the other no need for a rental car. Biggest downside...I have to pay attention while driving instead of reading a good book

My consumer choice preferences

DC - rail, auto, air
Now - air, auto, rail

In reality the third option in both cases wasn’t even a seriously considered option because they sucked so bad compared to the alternatives.

For where I live now my personal transportation fantasy is an electric car with a 500 mile range that is truly autonomous where I could type in the address to a distant location and get back to that book. :-)
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by WiseOne » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:10 am

Kbg, the scenario you describe is one I'm familiar with (I lived in LA for several years). It's is exactly what I meant by rail not being regarded as a serious form of transportation in most of the US, and why it needs more money - not less. The train is slow and inconvenient because it's trying to ride on a freight line and using ancient technology, and the resulting low ridership is why the schedule is so limited and there are no station services. All that should reverse with some serious infrastructure investment. For starters, the train trip should be twice as fast as a car, run more often, and go more places than you can by air. And with more ridership, ancillary businesses like car rentals, rideshare services, restaurants, and even full-on shopping malls would spring up.

Agree that in large rural areas, like farming regions in the Great Plains or mountainous areas, there won't be a huge role for trains. But there are plenty of small to mid size cities that can benefit.
Kbg
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2815
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 4:18 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by Kbg » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:47 am

I am totally off topic, but it’s related to rail ::) .

We lived in OH for a while which used to have an amazing rail system connecting any town of size. They have since pulled most of it up and turned it into an incredible bike path system. If you are a cyclist it’s pretty near to heaven, especially in the fall.
User avatar
jhogue
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 755
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2017 10:47 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by jhogue » Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:03 pm

Ugh. I fear that I am about to help hijack this thread from its original topic. Maybe Xan can figure out how to branch this topic off as another thread?
Oh well, the 2020 election is a long way off….

Let me suggest that we can advance our debate about rail by comparing the US system to the country with cheapest, most convenient, and most connected system in the world: Switzerland. I lived in Europe for 6 years and had a sabbatical in Switzerland several years ago, so I have some basis for this comparison.

I will add a second post later comparing the US to the Swiss system, but first, some observations for Americans about the Swiss rail network and why and how it works for the Swiss.

I. The Swiss rail system is cheap, convenient, connected—for the Swiss

Cost (relatively)
-Driving a car is extremely expensive in Switzerland. The country does not have a single oil well. All oil is 100% imported. As a result, gasoline at the pump costs twice as much as it does in the USA. Because of its mountainous geography, construction of Swiss autoroutes are much more expensive per mile than in the USA. Driving on the Swiss autoroutes (like our interstate highways) also requires a purchase of an expensive annual sticker, which those ingenious Swiss have designed to help transfer the cost of their road network from themselves to foreign drivers and truckers.
-The Swiss federal rail system is 100% electrified and runs on hydroelectric power generated from the country’s plentiful natural glacier-fed rivers.
-Much of the operating cost of Switzerland’s passenger rail system itself is heavily subsidized-- not by Swiss citizens-- but by wealthy foreign tourists headed to Swiss ski resorts and foreign business travelers to the big Swiss banks and insurance companies located in Geneva and Zurich. In addition, Swiss residents can purchase an annual card that gives them 50 % discount on all domestic train tickets. That fact alone should tell you something about who is obliged to subsidize the Swiss rail network.

Convenient (for the majority of the population)
-90% of the Swiss population lives in the Geneva-Lausanne-Bern-Zurich-Basel corridor, which is about 200 miles long. Note that this is also shorter than the Richmond-Washington-New York-Boston corridor (almost 600 miles).

Connected: (internationally and locally)
-Technically speaking, the Swiss have no domestic high speed trains (because of their problematic geography). They do, however, connect seamlessly with the French, German, and Italian high speed international rail networks, making rail travel to Paris, Berlin, and Rome very convenient.
-At the local level, every Swiss village is connected to the Swiss rail system via the Swiss postal bus network. Obviously, this has a profound effect on the domestic politics of rail within Switzerland, which has the highest per capita rail usage in the world.
“Groucho Marx wrote:
A stock trader asked him, "Groucho, where do you put all your money?" Groucho was said to have replied, "In Treasury bonds", and the trader said, "You can't make much money on those." Groucho said, "You can if you have enough of them!"
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by WiseOne » Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:09 pm

OK I'm the guilty party. We started branching off from the Green New Deal, which recycled some oldie but goodie proposals from the past. OK to keep talking about rail??? We're in good company - Ayn Rand was into rail too, judging by her novel Atlas Shrugged.

Good info on Swiss rail, and yes clever of them to get visitors to pay an extra "rail tax". If they went road rather than rail though, you'd probably be dealing with a similar scheme for maintaining said roads.

Given Switzerland's unique features, it might be better to compare the US to a a country like the UK or France. Bigger, with some far-flung cities and probably no fewer problems with maintaining/running their railroads than we have. There are rail connections in France from Paris to Lyon & Marseilles. That's 300 and 400 mile distances, respectively, with train travel times of 2.5 and 3.5 hours. I'm totally jealous...there are precious few situations in the US (if any) where you can take any mode of transportation covering that distance in that amount of time. Before you claim "air travel", don't forget the part about having to get to the airport 1-2 hours in advance in order to go through your TSA adventure. And with rare exceptions, airports are far away from city centers so there's generally more travel time involved on that end.

I'm about to fly off on a business-related trip tomorrow, so I'm griping more about air travel than usual knowing I'm about to run that gamut again.
boglerdude
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1313
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 1:40 am
Contact:

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by boglerdude » Sun Mar 17, 2019 11:32 pm

I dont like him but hes right about autopilots

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskTrumpSuppor ... ex_to_fly/

> you can be sure we'd end up with the same security theater on the trains

Probly not, aircraft disasters are a lot more disturbing. No one cares how many die in auto accidents
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by dualstow » Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:54 am

MangoMan wrote:
Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:10 am
RE the TSA, if rail ever took hold here, you can be sure we'd end up with the same security theater on the trains. How do they not already have that on the East Coast route?
...
I always think that, too, and I try to enjoy the freedom while I can. Lots of cops and sniffer dogs, but so far no hassle. It’s so great.
RIP Marcello Gandini
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by dualstow » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:18 am

What do you all think of the WALL plan?
I think many (most?) of us here are pro-immigration as long as it is legal and well-vetted, with a better job of vetting than we’re doing right now.

I’m asking about the physical wall, though. I have read that what’s already up is helping to slow mass illegal immigration, but to put up more wall will give diminishing returns. Not to mention the high cost.

Do you agree?
RIP Marcello Gandini
flyingpylon
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:04 am

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by flyingpylon » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:43 am

If nothing else, good fences make good neighbors. A good fence clarifies things.
stuper1
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 1365
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2013 7:18 pm

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by stuper1 » Tue Mar 19, 2019 12:18 pm

Agreed, good fences make good neighbors. As soon as all the rich Democrat politicians don't see the cost-benefit to a big wall around their house, I might be more sympathetic to their arguments.

Not sure about anyone else on this site, but I am definitely not pro-immigration. We have plenty of human capital to work with already and plenty of problems to solve. All humans are created equal right? Why can't some of these not-so-great countries pull themselves up by their bootstraps and solve some of their own problems themselves and become great on their own, rather than sending all their best people to live here?
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: Will Trump be Re-elected?

Post by dualstow » Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:40 pm

Two votes for more wall, then.
stuper1 wrote:
Tue Mar 19, 2019 12:18 pm
...
Why can't some of these not-so-great countries pull themselves up by their bootstraps and solve some of their own problems themselves and become great on their own, rather than sending all their best people to live here?
It’s more of a case of the people sending themselves, not being sent. I certainly have seen young refugees interviewed on places like reddit. Young privileged people who were able to fly here rather than walk across a desert. There were people who asked them, “Why didn’t you stay and fight so that your country could be better?”

Hmm, if I were Syrian or Iraqi and I could get on a plane, I would take that plane.
RIP Marcello Gandini
Post Reply