February 26, 2019--Express to Nowhere

Remember the "bridge to nowhere?" It was to connect nowhere with nowhere.

It was a nearly $500 million boondoggle project in Alaska paid for by earmarks, pork-barrel legislation, in which a project is funded by a stroke of a senior member's pen rather than having to go through the normal legislative authorization process. Powerful Alaskan Senator Ted (Uncle Ted) Stevens was the force behind the infamous bridge since it meant jobs for his constituents. It was never completed as the plug for it was pulled in 2005 when earmarks in general were under attack by "good government" forces.

Now, in California, we have the train to nowhere. 

With the help of billions in federal taxpayer dollars there was a plan to build a high-speed rail line that was to connect the state's Central Valley to Silicone Valley. As originally budgeted a decade ago it was projected to cost $45 billion. But it swelled to $98 billion, more than doubling, and so the newly elected governor, Gavin Newsom, recently cancelled it. 

To tweak dark blue state California, Trump moved swiftly to criticize it as an example of governmental incompetence and corruption and is attempting to claw back $3.5 billion of federal dollars, presumably planning to use the liberated money to help build his Wall.

The California plan called for 171 miles of high-speed rail. About half of that is in various forms of completion. In contrast, during the decade since the California High-Speed Rail Authority was established, China has built 16,000 miles of high-speed rail.

I am reminded of another rail project that is way over budget and taking forever to complete--the Second Avenue subway in New York City.

It was first proposed in 1919, but work on phase one did not begin until 1972. It was halted just three years later and wasn't resumed until 2007. The initial phase, two miles of tunnel and three stations, was completed ten years later, in 1917. It cost $4.45 billion and was more than $500 million over budget. 

There are three more phases planned. The second is projected to be completed by 2029 and when all four phases are finished it will be 8.5 miles long and include 16 stations.

New York City has a total of 236 miles of subway track and 472 stations. It was built in about 50 years. At the rate the Second Avenue Subway is being worked on, to construct that many miles of tunnel, track, and stations would take 1,180 years and cost about $600 billion. Of course, plus billions over budget.

April 25, 2014--Two Weak Men

Does anyone think the situation in Ukraine is headed in a good direction when two weak men's manhood is challenged?

One parades around topless, flexing in leather outfits while the other puts on a veneer of cool in search of his inner macho.

This may be one of the best recent examples of how the personal trumps the rational. It's all about mine-is-bigger-than-yours.

In an Enlightenment, post-Cold-War world reasonable self-interest is supposed to prevail. As the Godfather taught, "It's not personal. It's business."

Well . . .

A little history might be helpful--

In the 17th century, war between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth resulted in Russian imperial control of most of what is now--at least for the moment--eastern Ukraine. And it wasn't until after the First World War that what we now think of as Ukraine was assigned its current borders and became semi-independent.

This is a mere sketch of Ukraine's shifting geography. If inclined, one can look back as far as the 7th century or as recently as the 1950s to see more ebb and flow.

So, in a rational or objective world, for the United States to be lecturing Russia, actually Putin, about Ukraine's immutable borders makes about as much historical sense as Putin chiding the United States, actually Obama, about our Southwestern borders, much of which belonged to Mexico until the mid-19th century. If we applied the same principles to ourselves that we are pressing on Russia, it would mean relinquishing Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and California.

So, what we are seeing is neither about history nor the aspirations of peoples from polyglot backgrounds (look at a current ethnic map of Ukraine if you want a glimpse of these deeper, nationalist problems) assigned to a fiction of a country, but rather the flexing of the out-of-control egos and vulnerabilities of two men who are locked in a dance likely spinning toward disaster.

It doesn't take a seer to predict that before too long Putin will make direct moves to re-annex at least the eastern half of Ukraine and who knows what else after that. And, in response, when Obama's layer of seemingly admirable cool cracks, who knows what fires within might be smoldering and what he might feel propelled to do.