Too much blue and not enough red on this map
Political Discussion
- Thread starter David A.
- Start date
Too much blue and not enough red on this map
avecigrec
Well-Known Member
Ah yes, the old "paying people for something you DIDN'T do" game. I do it all the time, it's why I'm broke!
Nee Lewman
बैस्टर्ड
It’s funny to me that this is supposed to matter. Trump is the president elect and he nominated Gaetz for AG. Seems like this dude is just one of the gang.
Jan
Well-Known Member
Countrr argument: they are socially much more progressive then they are economically and that hurts them and alot of issues. It would be better to Form allirnced withvtze poor and the working class if they would profit economically from demselben politics but they are basically neoliberale as well. We see that on europe, too. I recently saw a somewhat feel-good movie about how gay activist group ( i think in the 80s) were supporting miners strikes in England and coming to the miners towns to support them. They were not very welcome but miners needed every support they could get and in the years after miners would be marching with the Christopher Street days parade. I think that's the coalitions we are missing right now and we will need to keep neo-facism at bay
The state of public transportation does not look good for our future in the United States.
Pretty much every public transportation system is running at a deficit. Budgets are being cut, not increased as needed to continue to provide service, fares are increasing faster than inflation and thus fare skipping is up.
This was just in the news within the last week or so:
apnews.com
Basically, a 21.5% fare hike goes into effect January 1st. Additionally, a 7.5% fare hike that is separate is coming up for a vote later this month and if passed both fare hikes would go into effect. If both fare hikes go into effect bus and subway tickets will go from $2 to $2.90 for a 1 way / single ride ticket. Additionally, substantial service cuts are expected to be necessary and take place in July. SEPTA is the sixth largest public transportation system in the United States.
Here in Massachusetts public transportation rates go up every year. Service levels of certain bus routes and commuter rail have never returned to pre pandemic levels. And even before the pandemic, service frequency wan't enough to make public transportation an attractive option. It still stands out to me, seeing a post from a European visiting the area complaining about 1 train every hour makes zero sense. That frequency is no where close to what they have in Europe and makes taking the train in the United States very inconvenient. No wonder Americans don't use public transportation. Additionally, 1 train ever hour is during peak commuting hours. During the weekend mid day or after the evening commute it's 1 train every 2 hours with the MBTA commuter rail.
In Western Massachusetts, in the country I grew up in, public transportation via bus service ended within the last couple of years. The public transportation system went bankrupt and closed up. There is no longer any bus service available leaving people only with the option of Uber or Lyft which is significantly more expensive for the poor that depend on the bus service to get to the grocery store.
Speculation has major cuts or elimination of public transportation budgets coming during Trumps next term. Which will make things significantly worse.
How about expansions of public transportation? It's looking bleak right now. Pretty much all expansion of upgrades to existing infrastructure is being paid for by federal money in Massachusetts. They have gotten a lot of work done over the last 4 years on repairs needed to infrastructure after 40 years of deferred maintenance. But they have a long way to go. And current expansion projects (which are just returning service to where it once was before it was cut are in jeopardy if the federal budget goes away). From the 70's through early 90's the MBTA cut a lot of the commuter rails reach as it was projected people would continue to abandon trains and drive. Now that ridership and demand is growing, they are finding the need to try to bring back service to these areas. Such as the south shore, further west and connecting the north and south ends of Boston back together by rail (which was severed during the big dig in the 1990s).
The return of rail service from Southern New Hampshire to Boston looked very promising, but it looks like as of last week politicians are kicking the can down the road to the next generation. The MBTA cut commuter rail service to New Hampshire in the 1970's after New Hampshire stopped providing any money or subsidization to the rail service. With the cost of living becoming so high in Massachusetts, there has been a a lot of people moving to Southern New Hampshire to commute into Boston daily over the last 25 years. The commute into Boston via I-93 is miserable, gridlock and stop and go traffic. This has made a very vocal demand to expand the MBTA commuter rail back into Souther New Hampshire. Something state law makers, mostly republicans are very against. They are okay with taking tax money from the populated areas of the state and using it in the rural areas for road work. But taking that money and using it to benefit the populated areas and provide service like commuter rail to Boston makes their heads explode. They keep saying the money could be better spend on the states roads as a whole, rather then benefiting a few communities that the expended commuter rail would service. They also like to vilify commuter rail as a "19th century technology" and that we need to invest in more modern technology such as improving our roads and buses. Thus they expanded I-93 to 3 lanes from Manchester to the MA state line (which solved nothing because the bottle neck is in MA where the high way can't be expanded any wider to do how densely settled the area is around the highway) and subsides bus service where people can just sit in traffic for hours on a bus instead of driving.
These failures and with a population boom in 2020 with even more people leaving MA the demand for commuter rail is higher than ever before and very front and center as a top political need. So the Republican law makers passed a law stating that no state money can be used or budgeted for passenger rail. Bastards.
However, with Biden's infrastructure bill, federal money was approved to pay for building the stations, upgrading the tracks and signal systems in full for commuter rail. That just left them to figure out who has to pay for subsidizing the tickets, as MA would not foot the bill alone. The Democrat candidate for Governor this year made a campaign promise that she would bring Commuter Rail to NH and would make sure it's subsidized. However, sadly, the Republican candidate won and she is very against subsidizing commuter rail. Thus it was determined after the election that the state can't be counted on help subsidize the service and therefor it would fall entirely on the towns/cities that the commuter rail services to foot the bill.
In the latest meeting about moving the commuter rail project forward last week, the towns said they just don't have budget to do it alone, and therefor they are opting to not pay for commuter rail subsidize at this time. Which means they are kicking the can down the road to the next generation and have opted for now expended commuter rail service into New Hampshire.
Why is public transportation funding such a contentious issue. Especially from conservatives or red states saying instead of funding public transportation on populous areas the money should be funned to rural areas for better use with making repairs to our infrastructure. I know my step father has this view as well, but he works in construction. And repairs to infrastructure keeps in working so he want's all the highway projects that he can get.
Pretty much every public transportation system is running at a deficit. Budgets are being cut, not increased as needed to continue to provide service, fares are increasing faster than inflation and thus fare skipping is up.
This was just in the news within the last week or so:
Philadelphia mass transit users face fare hikes of more than 20% and possible service cuts
Philadelphia’s mass transit system is proposing a 21.5% fare increase starting New Year’s Day and also considering severe service cuts that would take effect in the summer.
apnews.com
Basically, a 21.5% fare hike goes into effect January 1st. Additionally, a 7.5% fare hike that is separate is coming up for a vote later this month and if passed both fare hikes would go into effect. If both fare hikes go into effect bus and subway tickets will go from $2 to $2.90 for a 1 way / single ride ticket. Additionally, substantial service cuts are expected to be necessary and take place in July. SEPTA is the sixth largest public transportation system in the United States.
Here in Massachusetts public transportation rates go up every year. Service levels of certain bus routes and commuter rail have never returned to pre pandemic levels. And even before the pandemic, service frequency wan't enough to make public transportation an attractive option. It still stands out to me, seeing a post from a European visiting the area complaining about 1 train every hour makes zero sense. That frequency is no where close to what they have in Europe and makes taking the train in the United States very inconvenient. No wonder Americans don't use public transportation. Additionally, 1 train ever hour is during peak commuting hours. During the weekend mid day or after the evening commute it's 1 train every 2 hours with the MBTA commuter rail.
In Western Massachusetts, in the country I grew up in, public transportation via bus service ended within the last couple of years. The public transportation system went bankrupt and closed up. There is no longer any bus service available leaving people only with the option of Uber or Lyft which is significantly more expensive for the poor that depend on the bus service to get to the grocery store.
Speculation has major cuts or elimination of public transportation budgets coming during Trumps next term. Which will make things significantly worse.
How about expansions of public transportation? It's looking bleak right now. Pretty much all expansion of upgrades to existing infrastructure is being paid for by federal money in Massachusetts. They have gotten a lot of work done over the last 4 years on repairs needed to infrastructure after 40 years of deferred maintenance. But they have a long way to go. And current expansion projects (which are just returning service to where it once was before it was cut are in jeopardy if the federal budget goes away). From the 70's through early 90's the MBTA cut a lot of the commuter rails reach as it was projected people would continue to abandon trains and drive. Now that ridership and demand is growing, they are finding the need to try to bring back service to these areas. Such as the south shore, further west and connecting the north and south ends of Boston back together by rail (which was severed during the big dig in the 1990s).
The return of rail service from Southern New Hampshire to Boston looked very promising, but it looks like as of last week politicians are kicking the can down the road to the next generation. The MBTA cut commuter rail service to New Hampshire in the 1970's after New Hampshire stopped providing any money or subsidization to the rail service. With the cost of living becoming so high in Massachusetts, there has been a a lot of people moving to Southern New Hampshire to commute into Boston daily over the last 25 years. The commute into Boston via I-93 is miserable, gridlock and stop and go traffic. This has made a very vocal demand to expand the MBTA commuter rail back into Souther New Hampshire. Something state law makers, mostly republicans are very against. They are okay with taking tax money from the populated areas of the state and using it in the rural areas for road work. But taking that money and using it to benefit the populated areas and provide service like commuter rail to Boston makes their heads explode. They keep saying the money could be better spend on the states roads as a whole, rather then benefiting a few communities that the expended commuter rail would service. They also like to vilify commuter rail as a "19th century technology" and that we need to invest in more modern technology such as improving our roads and buses. Thus they expanded I-93 to 3 lanes from Manchester to the MA state line (which solved nothing because the bottle neck is in MA where the high way can't be expanded any wider to do how densely settled the area is around the highway) and subsides bus service where people can just sit in traffic for hours on a bus instead of driving.
These failures and with a population boom in 2020 with even more people leaving MA the demand for commuter rail is higher than ever before and very front and center as a top political need. So the Republican law makers passed a law stating that no state money can be used or budgeted for passenger rail. Bastards.
However, with Biden's infrastructure bill, federal money was approved to pay for building the stations, upgrading the tracks and signal systems in full for commuter rail. That just left them to figure out who has to pay for subsidizing the tickets, as MA would not foot the bill alone. The Democrat candidate for Governor this year made a campaign promise that she would bring Commuter Rail to NH and would make sure it's subsidized. However, sadly, the Republican candidate won and she is very against subsidizing commuter rail. Thus it was determined after the election that the state can't be counted on help subsidize the service and therefor it would fall entirely on the towns/cities that the commuter rail services to foot the bill.
In the latest meeting about moving the commuter rail project forward last week, the towns said they just don't have budget to do it alone, and therefor they are opting to not pay for commuter rail subsidize at this time. Which means they are kicking the can down the road to the next generation and have opted for now expended commuter rail service into New Hampshire.
Why is public transportation funding such a contentious issue. Especially from conservatives or red states saying instead of funding public transportation on populous areas the money should be funned to rural areas for better use with making repairs to our infrastructure. I know my step father has this view as well, but he works in construction. And repairs to infrastructure keeps in working so he want's all the highway projects that he can get.
Speaking of rail transportation in Massachusetts. I just was reading up on something the State is doing that will cripple Commuter Rail service and Amtrak Service.
Is I briefly mentioned above, during the 1990's they severed the North and South connection in Boston during the Big Dig. The plan was to move the tracks into a tunnel along with I-93. The tunnel was designed to be two levels, with the train tracks below the highway deck. However, the Big Dig ran way over budget and the cut moving the tracks below the highway in the tunnel. Previsions exist for this to happen later as the tunnel walls are in place for the rail tunnel. They just need to dig out the rail tunnel portion and finish it. They know there is a huge need for it, but all they have done is study after study so far and keep coming to conclusion that it would be too expensive to ever build. The North South Link would be used to connect passengers from the north and south side of Boston together and allow for train service through Boston, rather than terminating on the north or south end and requiring you to take the subway which has no direct connection between the north and south terminals for rail requiring 2 transfers to make the connection.
Anyways, because that was never built we have a new issue. Moving equipment between both the North Side and South Side of Boston. The MBTA's train maintains facility is on the North Side. And Amtrak service between Boston and Maine needs to move equipment from the south side of Boston the North Side. They currently do this through the Grand Junction. It's an outer loop that is single tracked and has a lot of grade crossings. Thus they don't use it for passenger rail and pretty much only make their moves in the over night hours. The MassDOT owns the Grand Junction after the railroad went through bankruptcy years ago.
The issue with that is the MassDOT just came out with plans to close the Grand Junction when they do the Mass Pike realignment project. They say removing the railroad is critical to being able to complete this project and make improvements on the Mass Pike. They would need to remove the bridge that the railroad uses to cross over the Mass Pike s they widen and realign the highway. In addition, the railroad runs in parallel with the highway for a good distance and that right of way could be reclaimed for high way improvements and adding an exit to service Harvard University.
What this means is the North and South sides of pretty much completely severed. The MBTA would either need to build a maintain facility on the South Side, or put on 200 additional miles to make a long loop west to get to the North Side. Same with Amtrak to provide service between Boston and Maine. And of course no budget has been allocated to help with any of this.
Because the North South Link does not exist, removing the Grand Junction will put a huge strain on rail service in Massachusetts. Do they even consider this? They may not be because the highway commission only cares about the highway.
Is I briefly mentioned above, during the 1990's they severed the North and South connection in Boston during the Big Dig. The plan was to move the tracks into a tunnel along with I-93. The tunnel was designed to be two levels, with the train tracks below the highway deck. However, the Big Dig ran way over budget and the cut moving the tracks below the highway in the tunnel. Previsions exist for this to happen later as the tunnel walls are in place for the rail tunnel. They just need to dig out the rail tunnel portion and finish it. They know there is a huge need for it, but all they have done is study after study so far and keep coming to conclusion that it would be too expensive to ever build. The North South Link would be used to connect passengers from the north and south side of Boston together and allow for train service through Boston, rather than terminating on the north or south end and requiring you to take the subway which has no direct connection between the north and south terminals for rail requiring 2 transfers to make the connection.
Anyways, because that was never built we have a new issue. Moving equipment between both the North Side and South Side of Boston. The MBTA's train maintains facility is on the North Side. And Amtrak service between Boston and Maine needs to move equipment from the south side of Boston the North Side. They currently do this through the Grand Junction. It's an outer loop that is single tracked and has a lot of grade crossings. Thus they don't use it for passenger rail and pretty much only make their moves in the over night hours. The MassDOT owns the Grand Junction after the railroad went through bankruptcy years ago.
The issue with that is the MassDOT just came out with plans to close the Grand Junction when they do the Mass Pike realignment project. They say removing the railroad is critical to being able to complete this project and make improvements on the Mass Pike. They would need to remove the bridge that the railroad uses to cross over the Mass Pike s they widen and realign the highway. In addition, the railroad runs in parallel with the highway for a good distance and that right of way could be reclaimed for high way improvements and adding an exit to service Harvard University.
What this means is the North and South sides of pretty much completely severed. The MBTA would either need to build a maintain facility on the South Side, or put on 200 additional miles to make a long loop west to get to the North Side. Same with Amtrak to provide service between Boston and Maine. And of course no budget has been allocated to help with any of this.
Because the North South Link does not exist, removing the Grand Junction will put a huge strain on rail service in Massachusetts. Do they even consider this? They may not be because the highway commission only cares about the highway.
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The Denmarkian Wonder
Well-Known Member
Which reminds me, I still haven’t been paid. Don’t make me tell these fine people what you did…n’t.
You have 24 hours to give me my money. And to show you I’m serious…you have 12 hours.
Onion 
haha
haha
Fleetwood-Matt
Well-Known Member
We now have BlueSky. Let the post election exodus of X continue.
This is interesting. One would have thought more than just two states voted unanimously for one candidate. Also look at the star contrast and the other statistics.
Nee Lewman
बैस्टर्ड
This is the problem and what the left will need to figure out. We know that those that voted for Trump voted against their own self interest. There are two things they will need to figure out how to overcome. 1. Getting those who voted that way to believe that (because we live in two separate realities at this point in time.) 2. Also not making people feel stupid when telling them this.
AOC is on the right track. Talk to the voters, especially the ones that voted for Trump and the left because those are the voters that shouldn’t be that hard to reach.
Joe Mac
Well-Known Member
Neither side is in the self interest of those at the bottom of society. I’ve been screaming it for years but no one listens ever. When the bottom of society is abandoned and ignored by all sides they vote for extremes and chaos. They’ve been first ripped to shreds and then ignored for over 40 years now. The dems running as the party of economic consensus in so many ways damned them much more than identity politics which is really just a cheap target.
The western world, and America in particular, is living the second gilded age. If we don’t want that to end like the last one did we need to start going after the billionaires, and hard.
Biden allows Ukraine to use US arms to strike inside Russia — Reuters
President Joe Biden's administration has allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia, two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Sunday, in a significant reversal of Washington's policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
apple.news
Here is another source I found as the NYT linked was paywalled.
