Friday, May 24, 2019

Trump takes his hands off the wheel


 

Union Station is falling apart, sometimes on commuters' heads. 

     Infrastructure is not sexy.
     Roads and bridges, railroad tracks and tunnels. Nobody says, “You know what I love about Chicago? The electrical grid; it’s so robust!”
     Though I admit I find infrastructure — well, if not quite a turn-on, than at least interesting. I’ve watched roads built, cement poured, tunnels dug, bridges installed. It’s not boring.
     And it’s important. A nation’s infrastructure is like a body’s veins and arteries, bone and sinew. You might not take pride in your Achilles tendon, but if something goes wrong with it, you try to walk and instead pitch forward on your face.
     You probably noticed infrastructure in the news this week. The president stormed out of a meeting with Democrats Wednesday; they were supposed to talk about long-delayed infrastructure repairs. But Donald Trump vowed not to address this urgent, bipartisan problem while the Democrats are plumbing the depths of his administration’s corruption and criminality.
     On one hand, it is not the biggest setback. Just as the environmental standards being scrapped tend, upon closer examination, to have been implemented by Barack Obama in 2014, so nobody was rushing to fix our national infrastructure before Trump brought his circus to Washington. Obama’s 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act grew construction efforts by only 1 percent in 2009 and 2010. (I like to point out where Obama fell short, just to mess with Republicans’ heads, showing it is possible to view your own side critically. I sincerely believe Republicans don’t know it can be done, beyond occasionally muttering, “I wish he didn’t tweet so much” which is like pointing out Satan has a loose button on his coat).


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10 comments:

  1. I knew the infrastructure meeting was doomed when Shumer and Pelosi walking in with a 33-page proprosal for Trump. He would get bored when he realized that there were no pictures, and his name wasn't at the top of the first page.

    As an aside, he just announced a $16 billion farm bailout which China is paying for, you know, with the tariffs he's imposed. Apparently, he still thinks China is actually sending us money which he then gives to farmers. Sigh.

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  2. Union Station has been totally owned by Amtrak for years. But the Republicans have wanted to put Amtrak out of business for years, so they've starved Amtrak of funds & Union Station's platforms are falling apart & falling down.
    Several years ago, New Jersey's fat pig of a governor, killed building two new tunnels under the Hudson River & a bridge in NJ & transferred the money to roads in Southern New Jersey to satisfy political debts to the politicians there who supported that creep.
    As for Dump's infrastructure plan, his idiotic idea two years ago was to borrow money & then use it to rebuild some roads, which would've ended up costing triple than just funding it through taxes. Undoubtedly, he wanted to pay back some crooked bankers that financed him over the years!

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  3. I checked Facebook: my liberal cousins are aghast at our narcissist President with his silly rant, while a few rightists chimed in to blame the Democrats for hounding our poor beleaguered leader with contrived and falsified accusations without rhyme or reason. Maybe Pelosi should offer a temporary truce: for let's say 6 months, the House will put their investigations on hold and cooperate with the President to pass essential legislation. No, no. Give him an inch...and we'll just be back arguing about the Wall.


    john

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  4. It's like Christmas everyday. Just the fact the establishment hates Trump means he's doing everything right. And you bet everything on a bogus Mueller report and handed him 2020! I just love how he goes around the media via Twitter and drive the international secular elites wild. We never believed the media narrative and we still don't! MAGA2020

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    Replies
    1. How old are you?
      Aren't you a little old to be still believing in Santa Claus?
      You're gonna get a lump of coal one of these days.
      No worries...Santa will make sure it's clean coal.

      Delete
  5. Someone has far too much time on his hands!

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  6. What a sad and frightening state of affairs.

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  7. Don't forget the dinner plates.

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  8. So...there are Cub plates and White Sox plates.
    Are they road plates or home plates?

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