I just read an interesting, but sad, article by Victor Davis Hanson about the high speed train that was being built in California and I couldn't help but realize the similarities between it and my state's failure to have a vision for the future when it comes to transportation needs in this region of the country. Ours, it seems, is just as big of a debacle as theirs.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, but more specifically in the Puget Sound of western Washington, the population is densely concentrated and mostly liberal, if not radically socialist in some instances. Because of the diversity of businesses - Boeing, Microsoft, Nintendo, the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma - to name a few, the regional economy has been stronger than most other regions in the country over the last decade.
I've cringed in the past every time our Seattle Seahawks football games were broadcast on a Monday night game during the fall when the weather was beautiful, because I knew others watching in the rest of the country were viewing gorgeous views of the Olympic Mountains to the west across the Sound, and Mt. Rainier to the southeast; towering in the distance over Seattle. This was an invitation to them to come and enjoy the fantastic summers which occur occasionally here.
As a consequence, the growth of workers moving into the region from out of the state during this same period has increased exponentially. The commute from the suburbs both north and south of Seattle, geographically constrained by a narrow strip of land with the sound on the west and Lake Washington on the east, the I-5 corridor's commute has become a nightmare.
Traveling a distance of around 30 miles during peak commute times in the a.m. and p.m. can take as much as two hours; especially on the rainy days. And there are a lot of those in the Pacific Northwest!
So, the region's Sound Transit and state's Dept. of Transportation's solution to this growth has been to implement High Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV, lanes along both I-5 and I-405 along the eastern side of Lake Washington through Bellevue, to relieve the congestion. Some sections of the I-405 on the east side - already paid for through various state and federal taxes - are charging peak commuter fees for HOV lane occupants!
While some segments of I-5 have been widened - such as the current section between Tacoma's SR-16 and the Tacoma Dome grade over the Puyallup River - much of the corridor remains gridlocked every business day; if not on many weekends.
Sound Transit, an appointed board of individuals with connections in high places within the state's governmental infrastructure, has over the last decade or two, proposed and implemented its solution of floating initiatives for tax payers to vote on promises of alleviating the congestion by building a light-rail system. Initially, it started with a proposed expansion of the Monorail system which, at that time, was still operating from the 1962 World's Fair. This failed to pass the voters' smell test for an adequate proposal that would produce a satisfactory "bang for the buck" solution.
Then Sound Transit passed "ST1", which was a light-rail system which would connect the Sea-Tac Airport to downtown Seattle. However, cost overruns put this portion in the red financially. "ST2" was passed by the voters to extend the light-rail system from downtown Seattle up to the University of Washington. Yet, this too went into financial red ink. These two "in the red" initiatives totaled $1.5 billion!
Only last fall, Sound Transit managed to convince both the legislature, and voters, to pass yet a third project to further expand the light-rail system out in three directions, but had a unique timetable for collecting taxes and completing these extensions.
While the taxes are now being collected - increased property taxes by an average of $100 per month in three counties, car tabs increased by as much as four times the previous amounts charged for newer cars, and a smaller sales tax in certain sectors - the timetable for collecting the total of $54 Billion will be over 30 to 40 years! Yet, there is no specified build requirement timeline by Sound Transit for any extension project to begin for the north or south segments!
So, those of us now paying these taxes to support a 19th century technology to solve a 21st century problem, will NEVER get to step onto one of these "rapid transit" trains, because they won't be built soon enough before we die!
Oh, and did I mention that Sound Transit is currently requesting federal funds to be used for paying off the $1.5 Billion in red ink for ST1 & ST2? Oh yea!
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Collusion of A Coup
Most people who are paying any attention to the current scandal in "the swamp", depending on which news sources they frequent, believe they know precisely what's going on. But which of the two versions is factual, and which is fanciful?
For nearly two years now, we've heard the mainstream media pound the drums of the narrative that candidate, and then president-elect, Trump, was a secret agent of Vladimir Putin and the Russian intelligence community in an effort to undermine democracy in America. There's no need to provide any link here, as the coverage has been so proliferous that many who are horrified for various reasons that Hillary didn't win the election, believe it because they hate and despise him. Yet, there's not been ONE credible piece of evidence that has been found to substantiate this accusation by the liberals.
However, if one considers the analysis of a very respected scholar at the Hoover Institute of Stanford University; Victor Davis Hanson, we learn of the other side of the story which has, over just the last few months has unfolded some very disturbing facts which congressional intelligence committees in Congress are now revealing. One could also view Dick Morris' most recent video post about this issue in comparing Watergate, Iran/Contra & this current scandal.
The machinations by such players as Senator Schumer, Reps. Pelosi, Schiff and Swalwell, are attempting to play the "razzmatazz" game through the complicit media - with Swalwell even attempting to do so on Tucker Carlson's show - to confuse and distract the public from these revelations, and they are looking more stupid and guilty of covering up the truth with every passing day.
Note: Ann Coulter's latest article is titled nearly like mine. The last half gets to her main points after spending the first half to provide the specifics of what's gone on.
But the bigger issue, in my view, is this... if no government bureaucrats involved are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced in this clear violation of attempting to first discredit a presidential candidate opposing Hillary Clinton, then throwing everything the media has at the president elect to get him ousted from his elected position, what are voters - especially those who voted him into office - to think of our representative republic?
The favor-ability rating of Congress is already at only 7%, so how much lower can it get from there? It's my belief that if such a possibility comes to pass, then it will become crystal clear to just over half the country that the media cannot be trusted or believed and many will throw in the towel when it comes to participating our democratic process.
At that point in time, the liberal/progressives will have essentially won their war on destroying the American dream of individual opportunity and freedoms. Future generations will most likely be consigned to working at an ever increasing growth rate in their share of wages for "the state" to expand its entitlement programs. And as I've already pointed out in another post, that seems to be our nation's current course; even with this administration. Unless, by some unforeseen miracle Pres. Trump's got an economic miracle up his sleeve. I can only pray that this is so!
Best Secretary to the President... EVER!
I think the Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, is one of the brightest people in the current administration. She also has a quick wit about her and if you doubt it then read below. It's got to be the answer of the year. During a recent press conference, a reporter with MSNBC hollered from the press corps, "Where is President Trump hiding his tax returns?”
Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, astutely responded, "We've found a very secure place and I'm certain they won't be found.”
"And just where is that?", said the reporter, sarcastically.
Mrs. Sanders grinned sardonically and said, "They are underneath Obama's college records, his passport application, his immigration status as a student, his funding sources to pay for college, his college records, and his Selective Service registration.”
Are We Becoming "Moral Feckless Cowards"?
"As long the people fear the media's shaming ability so much, they will sell their own principles in order to be accepted by that regime. So, I think it's the humiliating power of the press..."
Was the person who said this speaking about some despotic regime like North Korea, the former Soviet Union, or Castro's Cuba? No, this person is talking about what is happening today in our own United States of America.
This individual pointed out that "In his speech at Harvard, Solzhenitsyn said, Veritas - truth - we will spend our whole lives chasing it, because it eludes us. And he said, that the media has more power in western countries than the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch. But to whom is it accountable?"
He is someone who knows first-hand just how oppressive and intimidating our current "soft tyranny" from the federal bureaucrats has become in recent decades, for he has spent his brief, but brave career exposing the truth about the sinister and diabolical plans by liberals and progressives that have been implemented to very gradually shift and morph the public's standards from one of moral absolutes, to today's "anything goes" cultural mindset that the mainstream media has been pushing and supporting for decades now.
I believe that most every other individual out there who has been around for at least four decades has, from week to week, month to month, and year to year, witnessed and wondered about some of the revelations of corruption and deceptions being exposed. Weinstein, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the DNC's paid for Trump Dossier' to influence the election's outcome, these are threatening our ability to exercise our freedom of speech, our religious beliefs and traditions, or our children's exposure to undesirable issues or topics inappropriate for their age. We can no longer just wonder why this is happening and not risk any consequence for standing up against it.
I urge you to watch this video and read the article at this link about what he says regarding this corrupting of our freedoms and liberties by an enemy within that we must fight back against with conviction if we are to win. For, in their winning, we will doom our future generations to servitude; much like the current horrors we hear about coming out of North Korea today; all because we were feckless moral cowards.
Was the person who said this speaking about some despotic regime like North Korea, the former Soviet Union, or Castro's Cuba? No, this person is talking about what is happening today in our own United States of America.
This individual pointed out that "In his speech at Harvard, Solzhenitsyn said, Veritas - truth - we will spend our whole lives chasing it, because it eludes us. And he said, that the media has more power in western countries than the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch. But to whom is it accountable?"
He is someone who knows first-hand just how oppressive and intimidating our current "soft tyranny" from the federal bureaucrats has become in recent decades, for he has spent his brief, but brave career exposing the truth about the sinister and diabolical plans by liberals and progressives that have been implemented to very gradually shift and morph the public's standards from one of moral absolutes, to today's "anything goes" cultural mindset that the mainstream media has been pushing and supporting for decades now.
I believe that most every other individual out there who has been around for at least four decades has, from week to week, month to month, and year to year, witnessed and wondered about some of the revelations of corruption and deceptions being exposed. Weinstein, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the DNC's paid for Trump Dossier' to influence the election's outcome, these are threatening our ability to exercise our freedom of speech, our religious beliefs and traditions, or our children's exposure to undesirable issues or topics inappropriate for their age. We can no longer just wonder why this is happening and not risk any consequence for standing up against it.
I urge you to watch this video and read the article at this link about what he says regarding this corrupting of our freedoms and liberties by an enemy within that we must fight back against with conviction if we are to win. For, in their winning, we will doom our future generations to servitude; much like the current horrors we hear about coming out of North Korea today; all because we were feckless moral cowards.
We Are Living In A Bifurcated Universe!
The latest installment in the media for trashing Pres. Trump's W.H. staff is the Rob Porter "scandal" of his alleged spousal abuse. Yet there's crickets when it comes to their rapist former president, Bill Clinton. Do they tell us what his job in the W.H. was? From what I've been able to determine, it was as a courier between offices. That's considerably different than getting done by Monica underneath the desk in the oval office!
CNN's coverage of the brutal dictator of North Korea and his sister on the Olympic team for that country does its best to appear that it questions whether a propaganda campaign was being played on the public, while the news coverage on the station was complicit in praising her as some wonderful and gracious goddess.
These are only two of the latest examples of just how different and opposed the mainstream media's presentation of current "news" and the views of the other half of the nation differ from each other. It's often more entertaining - some utterly absurd, while others elicit loud laughs - to sift through the morning's subscription emails and read just how ridiculous some of the news pieces are on various developing stories. Some remind me of just how immature and adolescent in tone they are; as if they were coming from some of my former middle-school students writing about all the latest dirt about what was going on in the school between students.
Sad, but this is what passes for news today!
CNN's coverage of the brutal dictator of North Korea and his sister on the Olympic team for that country does its best to appear that it questions whether a propaganda campaign was being played on the public, while the news coverage on the station was complicit in praising her as some wonderful and gracious goddess.
These are only two of the latest examples of just how different and opposed the mainstream media's presentation of current "news" and the views of the other half of the nation differ from each other. It's often more entertaining - some utterly absurd, while others elicit loud laughs - to sift through the morning's subscription emails and read just how ridiculous some of the news pieces are on various developing stories. Some remind me of just how immature and adolescent in tone they are; as if they were coming from some of my former middle-school students writing about all the latest dirt about what was going on in the school between students.
Sad, but this is what passes for news today!
Monday, February 12, 2018
Disingenuousness and Hypocrisy!
The following pasted text comes from Rep. Gael Tarlton (D) - 36th Leg. Dist. - directly from her latest newsletter about all the bills Democrats are boasting about passing as the legislative majority in Olympia now.
Note the style of language used to present the issue of obstructing the feds at doing their job of locating illegal immigrants for deportation.
Question: Where was their defense of religious freedom during the Obama administration over the last ten years?
= = = = = = = = = =
Note the style of language used to present the issue of obstructing the feds at doing their job of locating illegal immigrants for deportation.
Question: Where was their defense of religious freedom during the Obama administration over the last ten years?
= = = = = = = = = =
Protecting religious freedoms from federal attack
The
Washington State Constitution protects our right to practice religion
free from government interference. Religious freedom is one of our most
cherished American rights, and Washington Democrats are ensuring that
right in the face of a hostile federal government.
I was proud to vote for House Bill 2097, which prevents state agencies from sharing personal religious affiliation information with federal authorities.
If
signed into law, this bill will forbid state agencies from assisting
federal efforts to create a federal religious registry, and also prevent
employers from requiring employees to disclose information regarding
their religious affiliation.
I’m proud to serve in a legislative body with a bipartisan commitment to protect people’s religious freedoms.
Your voice in Olympia,
 |
Gael
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)