House Speaker election/circus/all ages carnival - ongoing coverage

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

What else is Sherman hiding?

House Speaker Mike Johnson was once the dean of a Christian law school. It never opened its doors

Mike Johnson does not typically mention one aspect of his work before being elected to Congress. He was once chosen to be the dean of a small Baptist law school.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Pray that the election results are so wide that he can’t mess with it,may be a huge problem getting them certified if it’s close.

First he has to make it to whenever the budget comes due, and then has to make it a full year til the 2024 election, neither of which are guarantees when driving the Kaucus Klown Kar.

 

[zinfamous]

MAGA Mike Johnson Once Warned About Dangers of Living Under Democracy

Republicans’ new House speaker tried to warn people about why democracy isn’t actually good.

newrepublic.com

Well...Maga Mike has been trying to scrub his social media pages. He's anti-democracy.

Unlike a loudmouth like Gym Jordan, Maga Mike is more insidious. He's a threat to freedom. He wants to turn the US into an authoritarian state with the bible as the law of the land.

yeah, frankly I don't think any evangelical should be allowed anywhere near any public office in this country. it's fucking unconscionable. All these assholes are fucking jihadists.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Sherman doesn't like trains.

House set to vote on spending bill with big Amtrak cuts, prohibition on California high-speed rail funding​

Trains.com on MSN.com|1 day ago
The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on an appropriations bill that would cut Amtrak funding by more than 60% and block federal support for the California high speed rail program. H.R.

 

[fskimospy]

Sherman doesn't like trains.

House set to vote on spending bill with big Amtrak cuts, prohibition on California high-speed rail funding​

Trains.com on MSN.com|1 day ago
The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on an appropriations bill that would cut Amtrak funding by more than 60% and block federal support for the California high speed rail program. H.R.

It’s going to be a fun next year or so where they pass endless messaging bills with no chance of becoming law.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Sherman doesn't like trains.

House set to vote on spending bill with big Amtrak cuts, prohibition on California high-speed rail funding​

Trains.com on MSN.com|1 day ago
The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on an appropriations bill that would cut Amtrak funding by more than 60% and block federal support for the California high speed rail program. H.R.

It’s going to be a fun next year or so where they pass endless messaging bills with no chance of becoming law.

What even is the point though? Just easy targets to pick on?

 

[MrSquished]

THere is nothing fun about a paralyzed government.

 

[akugami]

Sherman doesn't like trains.

House set to vote on spending bill with big Amtrak cuts, prohibition on California high-speed rail funding​

Trains.com on MSN.com|1 day ago
The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on an appropriations bill that would cut Amtrak funding by more than 60% and block federal support for the California high speed rail program. H.R.

That's damned criminal. We should be increasing train usage for human and goods transportation. Only the last mile should be by freight trucks and rental cars.

I know it's convenient to just hop in a car and drive 3+ hours to your destination, but trains can take many cars off the main traffic corridors, and not impact your time.

For example NYC to Washington DC is roughly 4.5 hours drive by car. Current trains take about 3.5 hours, which means zero time savings considering you have to wait to get on and off the train. This train goes about 85mph. If we had a fast high speed rail that can go 200mph like in other countries, that would cut the travel time down to less than 2 hours. And then you can just rent a car for the last mile. Same thing for freight.

 

[nakedfrog]

That's damned criminal. We should be increasing train usage for human and goods transportation. Only the last mile should be by freight trucks and rental cars.

I know it's convenient to just hop in a car and drive 3+ hours to your destination, but trains can take many cars off the main traffic corridors, and not impact your time.

For example NYC to Washington DC is roughly 4.5 hours drive by car. Current trains take about 3.5 hours, which means zero time savings considering you have to wait to get on and off the train. This train goes about 85mph. If we had a fast high speed rail that can go 200mph like in other countries, that would cut the travel time down to less than 2 hours. And then you can just rent a car for the last mile. Same thing for freight.

Yes, every time I look at the option of rail travel, it's both more expensive than flying and slower than driving.

 

[VashHT]

Yeah I don't get the hatred of trains in this country, I've been to enough other countries with good rail systems to believe it will work if we actually put effort towards it.

 

[MrSquished]

nothing unusual here, please move along

 

[HomerJS]

Screw the exhaust, lets discuss the cold air intake that gives it +10HP

I was going to get one of those. May still do it. I looked at exhausts when I got my Infiniti Q50S but ARK was just too loud. Wound up getting Magnaflow.

 

[HomerJS]

Getting back to the Speaker, he's going true to form of a MAGA shitbag. He's trying to separate Israel aid from Ukraine aid and wants to offset by depriving the IRS of enforcement money which would INCREASE the deficit.

 

[fskimospy]

Yes, every time I look at the option of rail travel, it's both more expensive than flying and slower than driving.

Rail travel in the US is awful for several reasons but none moreso than the mandate for Amtrak to cover the entire country. This is idiotic.

One of the big reasons rail travel is expensive, especially in the northeast, is that the profits from there are used to subsidize pointless and empty trains throughout the rest of the country. They should just stick to where rail is profitable and make it awesome there.

 

[Indus]

Rail travel in the US is awful for several reasons but none moreso than the mandate for Amtrak to cover the entire country. This is idiotic.

One of the big reasons rail travel is expensive, especially in the northeast, is that the profits from there are used to subsidize pointless and empty trains throughout the rest of the country. They should just stick to where rail is profitable and make it awesome there.

Another reason to add to the list why a national divorce is a good idea!

 

[Brainonska511]

Rail travel in the US is awful for several reasons but none moreso than the mandate for Amtrak to cover the entire country. This is idiotic.

One of the big reasons rail travel is expensive, especially in the northeast, is that the profits from there are used to subsidize pointless and empty trains throughout the rest of the country. They should just stick to where rail is profitable and make it awesome there.

That's a bad take. Many of those "empty" trains are actually selling out, because those trains are providing key connections for people that either can't afford air travel or live in limited air service areas. And who cares if it is profitable? Roads aren't profitable people aren't bitching about that as we dump a ton more spending into those. Most mass transit around the world is not profitable if you look only at revenue and costs, but there are plenty of externalities that are good for moving people by train vs car (including opportunity costs related to reducing needs for road construction).

What we should be doing is focusing more on improving hubs and spokes to connect key cities, enforce laws that prioritize passenger rail over freight on shared track to reduce delays, and picking off the low hanging fruit to improve services (better rail to support higher speed (up to 125 mph) and better frequencies). We can also work to build separate high speed segments where it makes sense.

 

[fskimospy]

That's a bad take. Many of those "empty" trains are actually selling out, because those trains are providing key connections for people that either can't afford air travel or live in limited air service areas. And who cares if it is profitable? Roads aren't profitable people aren't bitching about that as we dump a ton more spending into those. Most mass transit around the world is not profitable if you look only at revenue and costs, but there are plenty of externalities that are good for moving people by train vs car (including opportunity costs related to reducing needs for road construction).

What we should be doing is focusing more on improving hubs and spokes to connect key cities, enforce laws that prioritize passenger rail over freight on shared track to reduce delays, and picking off the low hanging fruit to improve services (better rail to support higher speed (up to 125 mph) and better frequencies). We can also work to build separate high speed segments where it makes sense.

I don't agree - just two routes, the Northeast Corridor and the one up the coast of California account for half of all Amtrak riders. The entire rest of the country accounts for the rest. There might be some other routes that could be profitable on their own (ones between Chicago and neighboring cities come to mind) but basically all routes other than those two are unprofitable.

Rail thrives in densely populated areas and on trips that are relatively short (like a few hundred miles or less). Europe is densely populated and the distances are pretty short. The US, outside of a few areas, is relatively sparsely populated and the distances are long. I just don't see it beating cars for short trips or planes for long trips in most of the country.

I bet the NEC would really thrive if fares from it were no longer used to subsidize operations elsewhere as then ticket prices could go down.

 

[MrSquished]

now all we need are democrats with resources to make this shit have an impact, if they figure out how to do messaging

 

[iRONic]

Did I read a link here that said the guy has never had a bank account?!?!

I can't keep track of all the skeletons…

 

[alien42]

Did I read a link here that said the guy has never had a bank account?!?!

I can't keep track of all the skeletons…

Yup, not sure why it wasn't linked to in this thread...

Does New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson Have a Bank Account?

Speaker Mike Johnson has never listed a bank account on his financial disclosure. In fact, on his newest disclosure he doesn’t list a single asset at all.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[nakedfrog]

That's... weird.

 

[pmv]

Yup, not sure why it wasn't linked to in this thread...

Does New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson Have a Bank Account?

Speaker Mike Johnson has never listed a bank account on his financial disclosure. In fact, on his newest disclosure he doesn’t list a single asset at all.

www.thedailybeast.com

Is he paid his salary in cash?

 

[MrSquished]

Is he paid his salary in cash?

maybe it goes to Mother.

 

[IronWing]

Is he paid his salary in cash?

He cashes his payroll checks at Walmart, or, and this may sound crazy, the guy lies on his financial disclosure statements.

 

[nakedfrog]

He cashes his payroll checks at Walmart, or, and this may sound crazy, the guy lies on his financial disclosure statements.

Sir, are you implying that a good, upstanding Christian man would simply lie about something?