Joe Biden said as much, out loud, several times.

Also, not for nothing, long distance sleeper trains are actually making a comeback in Europe and Asia… so maybe we’re actually ahead of the curve on this one.

if it actually ran at an acceptable speed.

So, a train service between Chicago and Miami via Washington DC (as Amtrak’s Floridian will take) is just about 1700 miles (about 2700 km). It would take a train traveling at about 235 mph (378 kph) to meet that seven hour target with zero stops along the way. There’s maybe five train services in the world that even get close to that operational speed and they all travel between cities that are like 250 miles (about 400 km) apart.

Do we need high speed rail in the USA? Yes, absolutely. Is a high speed rail route between Miami and Chicago viable? No, not really. (Edit: my phone keeps auto correcting “it” and “is” to “it’s”)

I guess… I am the target market… I take Amtrak from Savannah, GA to Washington DC (about 12 hours) to visit family at least once a year. This new route is basically the same service, but instead of terminating in NYC, it now goes to Chicago (two other trains still follow the route up to NYC). It’s much more comfortable than the bus and way cheaper than flying; it’s usually about $100-120 for a coach seat round trip. Now that I can get a one seat ride all the way to Chicago, because I’ve never been, right now I’m planning a trip there next spring once I get my tax return.

Do they not sell kids joke books in the check out line at the grocery store anymore? Used to be tons of those.

It’s almost as though -maybe, just maybe- the people who are registered Republicans like the Republican Party.

For this groundbreaking insight, I’ll take my $20k/month consulting fee from the DNC now.

I would volunteer for a campaign (or even just donate) in a heartbeat… but it’s unethical… I’m one of our nation’s poor, underpaid and overworked local news media staffers. To be clear, I’m not a journalist, but the rules preventing any appearance of impropriety apply to me as well. I can’t give up my job to work pro bono on campaigns (and it’s dubious for me to donate). I can’t have the journalists I work with appear to have any kind of hand on this (or any) election.

I beg you, please vote for Harris/Walz… that’s my personal opinion which does not reflect the stance or opinions of my employer or any of our clients/sponsors… which include the Donald Trump for President 2024 campaign and it’s affiliated PAC’s (honestly it’s wild having the fucking Trump campaign being both the reason I cannot but barely afford my bills and the thing getting me close to paying them). Seriously, the years 2016 to 2020 were a living hell for us working in local news. Fear of constant threats if we depicted “dear leader” in any light other than brilliant magnificence. How dare we report on the things Trump said and did if it looked bad in any way. Seriously… it was the most stressed I’ve been in my entire life and I’m a queer atheist living in the deep south. Also, no, I’m not moving… all my stuff and most of my friends are here.

I hate living in a swing state. The campaign ads I’ve gotten this year are fucking insane. I keep telling myself “it’ll be over soon.” Also and yes, yes, yes, I voted for harm reduction/prevention… can I get an early break from all the mailers, texts, emails, and ads?

The racist joke was made in October.

My elderly dad called me a few years ago to let me know that we’d have to change up all the security stuff for our family phone plan because he gotten scammed. He said he got a call from someone claiming to be a representative of the phone company who said they’d like to lower our monthly bill. I stopped him and said “well, that should have been your first clue… when in the last decade of us using them has that ever happened? When was the last time our bill went down instead of up?”

Sure, the scams like pig butchering look dumb from the outside, but never think shit like this can’t happen to you. There’s TONs of ways scammers can trick you, but usually they’ll seek out vulnerable people. Sure the gullible are vulnerable, but just because you’re not vulnerable right now, doesn’t mean you won’t be at some point in the future. Desperation can make scholars into fools.

Democracy dies in something something or other.

Apparently, they are also used for treating erectile disfunction.

Doesn’t Medicare Part D already cover stuff like penis pumps? Have sworn I read that somewhere.

“Shit, sorry babe, I haven’t hit my deductable… I need some money for more condoms.”

Metra is more of a commuter system than a metro system… but when looking at systems like San Francisco’s BART, the line between a metro and a commuter railway gets blurry.

I think one of the bigger things keeping metro rolling stock from using double decker units is the need to go underground. Increased height means larger tunnels or deeper cuts and that can get cost prohibitive. This is especially the case when simply lengthening the tunneling needed for longer station boxes/platforms to support higher capacity single deck trains is less costly.

Tell your boyfriend, if he says he’s got beef, that I’m a vegetarian and I ain’t fucking scared of him.

I have a cousin who’s on the spectrum; I’m pretty sure he knows more about Japanese automobiles than he knows about his own children.

American here but, from what I understand of Pan-European politics generally, it’s more of an attempt to unify everyone else and not necessarily to draw away far-right voters.