[JonathanTurley] In the dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell wrote, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” The true meaning of that line was never more clear than watching the truly bizarre photo op of California governor Gavin Newsom heralding the success of the greatest boondoggle in history: his high-speed train to nowhere. Without laying a single yard of track after burning $12 billion, Newsom showed a diesel freight train on a conventional track to create the appearance of a working railroad.
I have been writing about this boondoggle for years. Newsom promised years ago that the project would be transformative. It was, but not as he promised.
Voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue in 2008 after absurdly low estimates of the projected cost. Influential figures and companies stood to make a fortune, and the key was to secure a “buy-in” worth billions, so that it would become increasingly difficult to abandon the project as overruns and delays sent costs soaring.
Now the official estimate of future ridership has dropped by 25% , and it demands billions more to complete a project delayed by decades. Remember that this entire project was meant to create a rail line of only 171 miles. It is projected to exceed $128 billion and could ultimately cost a billion dollars per mile. There are still uncompleted environmental assessments and challenging rail lines through the mountains.
There is still no train and not a yard of track almost 20 years later.
The inspector general, Benjamin Belnap, issued a scathing report on the first phase of the still uncompleted project. That is only the stretch from Merced to Bakersfield which was supposed to be completed by 2033. Belnap wrote:
“With a smaller remaining schedule envelope and the potential for significant uncertainty and risk during subsequent phases of the project, staying within the 2033 schedule envelope is unlikely. In fact, uncertainty about some parts of the project has increased as the authority has recently made decisions that deviated from the procurement and funding strategies that were part of its plans for staying on schedule.”
Rather than deliver on the promise of high-speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the Merced-Bakersfield line would now cost $35.3 billion, exceeding the 2008 projection for a complete system.
Merced and Bakersfield have a combined population of roughly 500,000. That works out to roughly $22,000 per person, based on state ridership estimates.
However, Newsom still wants to be president even as citizens are fleeing his state in record numbers. The “train to nowhere” is a problem. Even the New York Times is writing editorials on whether Newsom will be the next mistake of the Democratic Party.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
02/07/2026 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
LA to SF is the most obvious place for HSR in America. Stop by LAX and planes leave every 30 minutes, it's stupid. In China they execute government officials who steal money like this. Pedophiles, too.
#2
Newsom will not be president. He thinks there is a chance. There is no chance.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2026 7:38 Comments ||
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#3
Maya Singer will tell you otherwise, o' fifty shades of graft:
Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address…
Newsom’s lanky frame was folded onto a sofa a bit too low-slung for him. This made him lean back—away from me. Or it could be that his body language had nothing to do with ergonomics and is a function of Newsom’s quality of being at once gregarious and aloof.”
For full effect, locate a text to voice and choose a male voice designated something like Tracy.
Well, sometimes I see a certain resemblance to Michael Douglas, in all his glamor and sleaze.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2026 11:56 Comments ||
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#5
#1 LA to SF is the most obvious place for HSR in America.
Jairong
Once again, loud does not equal smart or right. The ridership projections were a lie, like the costs and timeline. Even the Gepids know it was NEVER going to be HSR from start in LA to finish in SF
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2026 12:16 Comments ||
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[Babylon BEE] WASHINGTON, D.C. — With President Trump and Republicans campaigning hard to shore up election integrity in the U.S., congressional Democrats agreed to negotiate on the issue on the condition that death certificates be added to the list of acceptable forms of voter ID.
Though initially opposed to any form of legislation mandating voter ID, Democrats surprisingly came forward with a proposal to compromise by guaranteeing that presenting a current death certificate would be accepted as valid identification to vote in elections.
"It's our base's most widely used form of documentation," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. "We didn't want to open any kind of discussion with Republicans about requiring voter ID unless it included death certificates. If they're not willing to consider granting us that request, then it's a no-go. How would our voters be expected to contribute to democracy if their death certificates aren't accepted as identification?"
Democrats stressed that including death certificates on the list of valid forms of identification was vital to any potential agreement on the issue. "This is about making sure our voters aren't disenfranchised," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "While it's often challenging for our supporters to obtain drivers' licenses and other forms of official ID, we have millions and millions of registered Democrats who have valid death certificates. Their voices must continue to be heard."
At publishing time, Democrats had updated their demand to allow documentation from every other country in the world be acceptable to vote in the United States.
[X] When he's right, he's right. Iran is developing an ICBM that can reach the continental US. This is our problem now. We could have stopped them ages ago and now it's time to pay the piper.
Future meetings between the U.S. and Iran are a waste of oxygen. There's no road towards an agreement between Tehran and Washington on Iran's future nuclear capabilities. pic.twitter.com/y2YoVvZCwu
Of course there is no path to agreement. Iran insists on its right to have nuclear weapons so it can coerce Saudi Arabia and destroy Israel on its way to ruling a worldwide Shiite caliphate. President Trump will not permit any of that, and will demonstrate this kinetically if Iran does not take this limited time opportunity to surrender. But the dawa, the invitation, is a necessary step in the process. The Mullahs will recognize this, because they issued their dawa to surrender to President Trump in their first message to him. The negotiations also give the US Navy time to get all their assets in place, and do whatever coordination is necessary with the IDF before activities commence.
Former Ambassador Bolton is unfortunately not nearly as brilliant and insightful as he imagines, in my observation, and gets rather tangled up in Trump Derangement Syndrome, to the detriment of what logic he can generally muster..
#3
Diplomatic Foot walk likely.
But it would show the USA tried again and the Iranian Islamic's lied again. Which then, justifies any serious actions that Trump and others decide to slap Iran's Radical Islamic leadership with.
#6
Why is he still talking? Why are people listening to him? He was selling intel to foriegn actors. He’s not an appropriate source for news.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2026 7:41 Comments ||
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#7
The IDF had better do tits part, by which I mean a LOT.
Don’t bluster, Jairong, it’s not becoming. As if Israel hasn’t been actively fighting Iran for over twenty years, which is why Iran didn’t fight the Twelve Day War last June with thousands of nuclear tipped missiles.
#8
I guess Jairong is probably not a leg man. Just putting that out there.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2026 11:56 Comments ||
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#9
Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2026 12:09 Comments ||
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#10
The timing issue. by which I mean the Olympics and Superbowl, might play a part in the long, noise filled run-up to kaboom.
As a positive aside, the incessant media over-coverage of the Guthrie tragedy and the Olympic Games has had one highly gratuitous consequence - it has suffocated the insufferable media-supporting preening of Don Lemon and his publicity tour!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
