American Politics Impeachment: 2 fast? No, we're 2 furious

[Washington Resistance Army]

To be honest I feel as though this impeachment effort may blow back against the Democrats. The impeachment trial is going to swallow up time in the Senate, which does not give Biden time to pass his agenda, confirm his picks, and get COVID relief out to bolster the economy. You are effectively dragging the Trump show into the Biden presidency, which I think few people actually want.

afaik Schumer and co. have already hammered down that they're just going to split their time in the Senate so it won't really impact much.

[Ifreann]

I don't think that this is the kind of Senate business that will fade from the limelight.

Well, what I meant was they want the death threats to stop being so frequent.

Don't think that's gonna happen any time soon.

[Valrifell]

Cars are bad for the planet, though.

Let’s say a new Maglev train system is built. How many people do you think are actually going to stop driving their cars to work and use it instead?

Alls it takes is a reminder that you're free from traffic headaches for the rest of your life and you'd save a ton of money on gas.

Like it's a super marketable switch.

[Phoenicaea]

^_repubblica fascista, i agree. you have to decide whether to move on trains. i stressed the absurdity, in my opinion, of keeping airlines usage, and city cars, as first choice.

train is uncomparably better. this way you will also develop precision machinery, instead of always having to buy it from financially lesser countries through empire styled means.

[Repubblica Fascista Sociale Italiana]

Let’s say a new Maglev train system is built. How many people do you think are actually going to stop driving their cars to work and use it instead?

Alls it takes is a reminder that you're free from traffic headaches for the rest of your life and you'd save a ton of money on gas.

Like it's a super marketable switch.

Sure, but if there’s one thing about Americans, specifically suburban middle class Americans who currently drive cars to work, it’s that they’re extremely resilient to change (one could even argue that the rise of the modern suburb in the 50s is testament to the fact, as "suburban life" shows that people wanted stability more than anything). It’s unlikely a very high amount of people would stop their years old routine for new trains

[Valrifell]

Alls it takes is a reminder that you're free from traffic headaches for the rest of your life and you'd save a ton of money on gas.

Like it's a super marketable switch.

Sure, but if there’s one thing about Americans, specifically suburban middle class Americans who currently drive cars to work, it’s that they’re extremely resilient to change (one could even argue that the rise of the modern suburb in the 50s is testament to the fact, as "suburban life" shows that people wanted stability more than anything). It’s unlikely a very high amount of people would stop their years old routine for new trains

Let's do some social engineering, then, and tax the f u c k out of petroleum products.

[Ethel mermania]

Cars are bad for the planet, though.

Let’s say a new Maglev train system is built. How many people do you think are actually going to stop driving their cars to work and use it instead?

If I live 30 + miles from civic center... me. If it's a subway ride away, not so much.

Maglev's are tremendously expensive to build.

[Senkaku]

Let’s say a new Maglev train system is built. How many people do you think are actually going to stop driving their cars to work and use it instead?

If I live 30 + miles from civic center... me. If it's a subway ride away, not so much.

Maglev's are tremendously expensive to build.

All high-speed rail is, maglev might become comparable if all this room-temperature superconductor stuff pans out. So are highways, incidentally.

[Repubblica Fascista Sociale Italiana]

Sure, but if there’s one thing about Americans, specifically suburban middle class Americans who currently drive cars to work, it’s that they’re extremely resilient to change (one could even argue that the rise of the modern suburb in the 50s is testament to the fact, as "suburban life" shows that people wanted stability more than anything). It’s unlikely a very high amount of people would stop their years old routine for new trains

Let's do some social engineering, then, and tax the f u c k out of petroleum products.

That would be ideal, but in a country obsessed with "freedom" and "liberty," it would be too much to expect very high taxes to pass congress. Singapore’s authoritarian government succeeded in actively discouraging car use and encourage public transport, but Singapore isn’t a country where "deficit hawks" dominate politics

[Valrifell]

If I live 30 + miles from civic center... me. If it's a subway ride away, not so much.

Maglev's are tremendously expensive to build.

All high-speed rail is, maglev might become comparable if all this room-temperature superconductor stuff pans out. So are highways, incidentally.

There was a recent superconductor experiment which did manage to produce a room-temp superconductor... at absurdly high (like 1000x atmosphere) pressures. There seems to be some kind of tradeoff there.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

^i heard americans got a delay in regards to trains. even italy, which was as backward few decades ago, prepared well and got cuttind edge.

obviously, italy will fall backward again, as it ever does, when she will sell out all again for paying debts of her precious, beloved, backward social structure.

the secret was do not pretend to grab the lastest tech out of desert, patiently build your own without tricks instead.

absurd to decently rail the country without petrol taxes and keeping commercial flights subsidies.

It makes sense to invest money into fixing the current rail infrastructure, but building a completely new system when barely anyone uses the existing one is absurd

It's not a clear line between fixing and building. For instance, if you have to replace rails and sleepers, you're obviously going to re-grade the ballast (rocks). You may have to dig up and relay some of it, since dirt works its way up into it and the dirt expands and contracts with rainfall. Or you might dispense with that old system completely, and lay concrete with lugs to attach the rails to.

All that is "fixing" to a high standard that will last decades. However with all that money spent, it's probably worth changing the route of the rail. Quite often that was not so straight, to avoid building bridges or tunnels, and sometimes to route around private or public land that was too expensive or significant.

In the end you have two kinds of "new". The new rail layed on the old route, and new rail on a new route. Anywhere near a city, it might be cheaper to go underground!

The US has enormous lengths of old rail, much of it out of use but with the thoroughfare still there. But it also has a lot of level crossings, which are bad in every way, and expensive to convert. I think there's an argument for building underground rail by the trench-rail-ceiling-infill method (whatever that's called, it's cheaper than boring) then building a city on top of that.

[Nattily Dressed Anarchists on Bicycles]

Let’s say a new Maglev train system is built. How many people do you think are actually going to stop driving their cars to work and use it instead?

Alls it takes is a reminder that you're free from traffic headaches for the rest of your life and you'd save a ton of money on gas.

Like it's a super marketable switch.

The original context of this sub-thread seems to be long-distance commuting, but those are the basic selling points of the bicycle, and, well...

[listens to nearby incessant freeway noise]

...and I say that having used a bicycle and/or bus, while not owning a car, for about a year now.

The trouble in the US at least is that someone has gone to a lot of trouble putting the housing here, the jobs way over there, and telling folk they need a new car on the regular or the Commies win.

Social engineering and "marketing" have already produced a clear winner here.

[Senkaku]

All high-speed rail is, maglev might become comparable if all this room-temperature superconductor stuff pans out. So are highways, incidentally.

There was a recent superconductor experiment which did manage to produce a room-temp superconductor... at absurdly high (like 1000x atmosphere) pressures. There seems to be some kind of tradeoff there.

Meh, they used to think even that might be impossible. Given that particular experiment, and the advances in other higher-temperature superconductors over the past few years and decades, I'm optimistic.

[Senkaku]

I think there's an argument for building underground rail by the trench-rail-ceiling-infill method (whatever that's called, it's cheaper than boring) then building a city on top of that.

Yes-- unfortunately, we've already built most of our cities, and unlike the Chinese we don't have millions of people in the countryside who we can move into new ones...

[No State Here]

Wow the US politics thread discussing actual policy issues instead of thinly veiled insults and shouting matches, I like the post Trump era already

The concept of additional public transport infrastructure has always interested me, as someone who’s lived in the city all my life and used the subway to get everywhere. I believe that cities within the same commuter zone (Richmond - Boston, Dallas-Houston-San Antonio, Miami - Atlanta, etc.) should generally have reliable rail lines to get around, but there’s no point in building a national rail infrastructure any more than we already have.

[Ethel mermania]

It makes sense to invest money into fixing the current rail infrastructure, but building a completely new system when barely anyone uses the existing one is absurd

It's not a clear line between fixing and building. For instance, if you have to replace rails and sleepers, you're obviously going to re-grade the ballast (rocks). You may have to dig up and relay some of it, since dirt works its way up into it and the dirt expands and contracts with rainfall. Or you might dispense with that old system completely, and lay concrete with lugs to attach the rails to.

All that is "fixing" to a high standard that will last decades. However with all that money spent, it's probably worth changing the route of the rail. Quite often that was not so straight, to avoid building bridges or tunnels, and sometimes to route around private or public land that was too expensive or significant.

In the end you have two kinds of "new". The new rail layed on the old route, and new rail on a new route. Anywhere near a city, it might be cheaper to go underground!

The US has enormous lengths of old rail, much of it out of use but with the thoroughfare still there. But it also has a lot of level crossings, which are bad in every way, and expensive to convert. I think there's an argument for building underground rail by the trench-rail-ceiling-infill method (whatever that's called, it's cheaper than boring) then building a city on top of that.

Cut and cover

Just as an FYI 2nd avenue subway which was bored, to get under the utilities and not chew up the streets costs 1 billion dollars per km

Cut and cover destroys the streets for years during construction

[Repubblica Fascista Sociale Italiana]

Wow the US politics thread discussing actual policy issues instead of thinly veiled insults and shouting matches, I like the post Trump era already

The concept of additional public transport infrastructure has always interested me, as someone who’s lived in the city all my life and used the subway to get everywhere. I believe that cities within the same commuter zone (Richmond - Boston, Dallas-Houston-San Antonio, Miami - Atlanta, etc.) should generally have reliable rail lines to get around, but there’s no point in building a national rail infrastructure any more than we already have.

The issue is what exactly defines which commuter zones are where. Atlanta is the best example, it’s pretty much a hub for everyone living South of DC and East of Texas, I often hear people in my area saying they’re "driving up to Atlanta" for whatever reason even though it’s almost 9 hours. I imagine people in Mississippi and all the way up to Virginia may do the same. With this system, Atlanta would pretty much become a mega train hub (although the airport is already basically that for air travel)

[Nuroblav]

Haven't seen this thread on this form in ages, to be honest.

I had a post on another thread concerning the use of trains/public transport - I'll see if I can find it.

To be honest I feel as though this impeachment effort may blow back against the Democrats. The impeachment trial is going to swallow up time in the Senate, which does not give Biden time to pass his agenda, confirm his picks, and get COVID relief out to bolster the economy. You are effectively dragging the Trump show into the Biden presidency, which I think few people actually want.

This was something I wondered about as well - whether it's worth spending time on the impeachment or just getting to work on stuff.

As mentioned earlier, chances are that there'll be a few months before impeachment trials actually take place, giving Biden time to do some other things.

[San Lumen]

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021/01/ ... ommission/

Gov. Larry Hogan Launches Maryland Redistricting Commission To Rebuild District Maps By 2022 Election via executive order.

Maryland is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. Im not opposed at all to independent redistricting but I don't see how such an action is constitutional given the legislature is the one who draws the maps in Maryland.

[Foundhome Republic]

I feel the need to point out that high speed trains of all kinds, not just maglev systems, are used primarily on inter-city routes, not local commuter systems. Yes, there's one or two that run between airports and the downtown areas of large cities, but that is a single-purpose system, not intended for everyday commuter use. Maglev systems, like current high-speed rail systems, are meant to relieve regional air traffic and highway travel. At this, HSR is largely successful, with even rail-adverse American travelers making the Northeast Corridor of the national Amtrak system an attractive alternative.

In my personal opinion, having owned a car and driven to work my entire adult life... cars are misery. In the rural area where I live there is no hope, but if I could just sit and watch the world pass by outside my window as I cruise into the heart of a major city and then roll back out again with somebody else doing the work for me... well, get me that ticket, baby. If I could hop on a HSR and go see a ballgame after work at a city 90 miles away and be back before midnight? Yeah, sign me up.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

disapproval ratings are now as they where back in 2017

[Anatoliyanskiy]

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021/01/12/gov-larry-hogan-launches-maryland-redistricting-commission/

Gov. Larry Hogan Launches Maryland Redistricting Commission To Rebuild District Maps By 2022 Election via executive order.

Maryland is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. Im not opposed at all to independent redistricting but I don't see how such an action is constitutional given the legislature is the one who draws the maps in Maryland.

tbh Larry Hogan is probably the best Republican state governor. Doesn't mean he's a good one, but I agree with more things he's done then other republican governors. Especially this.

[Corrian]

Biden will not be taking Amtrak into his inaugeration

...Ok?

Why does that matter?

Did you like, actually read the link before commenting? Its about security concerns, which is semi relevant to the whole super security we're probably gonna have in this inauguration.

[Senkaku]

disapproval ratings are now as they where back in 2017

it is insane that if you didn't know, you wouldn't be able to tell where the coup happened on that chart lol

[Ifreann]

...Ok?

Why does that matter?

Did you like, actually read the link before commenting? Its about security concerns, which is semi relevant to the whole super security we're probably gonna have in this inauguration.

Does it matter that people are trying to kill the President Elect before he takes office?

*earpiece*

I am being told it does.