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| Home Front: Politix |
| VDH - Is America Entering a Dark Age? |
| 2019-10-11 |
| [PJ] Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks. Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers' monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions. We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock. Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years? Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno -- and not yet a foot of track laid. Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system? California's roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network, either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to spend the money on redistributive entitlements. When California had to replace a quarter section of the earthquake-damaged San Francisco Bay Bridge, it turned into a near-disaster, with 11 years of acrimony, fighting, cost overruns -- and a commentary on our decline into Dark Ages primitivism. Yet 82 years ago, our ancestors built four times the length of our singe replacement span in less than four years. It took them just two years to design the entire Bay Bridge and award the contracts. Our generation required five years just to plan to replace a single section. In inflation-adjusted dollars, we spent six times the money on one quarter of the length of the bridge and required 13 agencies to grant approval. In 1936, just one agency oversaw the entire bridge project. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #12 Civilized countries have functional rail systems. I've been to Japan and seen theirs and it is wonderful. Watch this. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-10-11 20:17 |
| #11 Abu Uluque - I knew before the vote their business plan was unworkable and they would lie/cheat/steal to get SOMETHING started to try and make facts on teh ground before it was exposed. I'm not happy to say I was right - so much wasted money for Jerry's Browndoggle. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-10-11 19:35 |
| #10 He used the term Mexifornia in one of his books on the subject of his home state's astonishing decline. That's a useful lens through which to view the problem: political and cultural convergence with our unbelievably corrupt, incompetent oligarchy to the south. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-10-11 15:56 |
| #9 Half-listened to part of an interview (w whom, I don't remember) a couple of weeks ago. Covered the usual stuff. Tone was more casual than usual, which was cool, but what eventually got my attention (and left me kinda depressed) was the degree to which he (VDH) sounded really ground down. Hopefully just a bad day... or the end of a long one. |
| Posted by: Percy Pelosi5907 2019-10-11 14:46 |
| #8 Stately Hanson Manor is somewhere near Selma I understand his neighborhood is a different flavor of third world hell. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-10-11 14:22 |
| #7 It took 16 months to build The Pentagon for 1B$ in 2018 funds. Prior to construction start on 11Sep1941 (60 years to the day before 9/11), planning was completed and contracted out in six weeks following Congressional approval. Gen Groves supervised the project. His next command was the Manhattan project. In the course of three years, he supervised the construction of the towns of Hanford, WA; Oak Ridge, TN; and Los Alamos, NM, along with numerous scientific laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and power stations and other infrastructure. |
| Posted by: KBK 2019-10-11 14:05 |
| #6 OK. I have a confession to make. I voted for the California bullet train. I like trains, I don't like traffic jams and I don't like spending money on cars. Civilized countries have functional rail systems. I've been to Japan and seen theirs and it is wonderful. So I voted for the train. But here's the thing: In another era, we would have been able to build it just like we built the dams and canals and bridges and it would have been successful. These days all we can do is build carpool lanes and bike lanes while people trying to get to and from work sit in traffic jams. We have a few regional commuter trains but now some of the stations have become homeless encampments. We can't even figure out what to do with the homeless freaks who pee and poop on our sidewalks. The pathetic little trolley trains in San Diego run late more often than not and they stink like pee because homeless people ride for free. Nice people don't even consider commuting to work on it. I used to think this state was going down the tubes but now it's too late. We've already gone. We can't do squat anymore. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-10-11 12:56 |
| #5 PG&E outage map. Stately Hanson Manor is somewhere near Selma, a flaming kite flight or two SE of Fresno, IIRC. But I suspect you already knew that. ;-) |
| Posted by: Percy Pelosi5907 2019-10-11 11:12 |
| #4 Apparently he still has electricity. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-10-11 10:37 |
| #3 Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years? It took 410 days, which is one year and 45 days to build the Empire State Building. That was over 200,000 hours of labor, during the course of roughly 14 months, to build what was the tallest building at that time. How long did it take to build the Interstate highway system? (One answer is that it is still being built.) The initial construction of the Interstate, as proposed in 1956, was completed in September of 1991 and at the time had a total length of approximately 40,000 miles. Actual Cost to build the Interstate Highway System was $114 Billion over 35 years ago, and $500 billion in 2008 dollars. Too many regulations, too much internecine fighting in Congress, too much Banana Republic stuff going on and too many lawyers and lawsuits. That aside, 500 miles of border wall is scheduled to be complete by 2020. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2019-10-11 09:09 |
| #2 Ditto for water projects. Ditto for mass transit. Ditto for the policy toward the homeless. Ditto for our massive public pension insider dealing shitshow. Ditto for the "sanctuary" shitshow. Ditto for the collapse of the CA public schools under the twin onslaught of foolish pedagogical changes + the illegals and their progeny - now 53% of the total school population, climbing inexorably by 1 percentage point every year-- and if whom over 70% are failing basic math and English. Ditto for desalination projects in SoCal. The Israelis have put such projects online. In decades, California's have gone nowhere thanks to The Idiot State's political and bureaucratic dysfunction. I could go on but it's too depressing to contemplate all the ways this state has been ruined. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-10-11 05:53 |
| #1 Yet 82 years ago, our ancestors built four times the length of our singe replacement span in less than four years. It took them just two years to design the entire Bay Bridge and award the contracts. Parasites are overwhelming the host. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-10-11 02:47 |