Published the 'night' before Christmas, these two articles, one from the Badlands Journal and a letter from the Merced Sun-Star, suggest that actually, there's quite a bit stirring throughout California, particularly in the state's Central Valley. People are really angry. We will see that anger become ever more focused. There's one big lawsuit pending now. Expect others this coming year.
More people than ever have come to learn what a scam this project is that is being imposed on all of us in this state. Very few people are willing to confront the reality of a direct conflict with the government, whose intentions are in their own best interests and totally against ours, the voters and taxpayers.
But, there is a sea change taking place. People are beginning to stand up and say, we have had enough of this delegation of power those who misuse it in our name. This coming year we will see a greater assertion of our "people power." Rail Authority. . . . .Governor Brown. . . . .be afraid. . . .be very afraid.
So here is one reason why people are so angry. They, we, are not confronting mere incompetence and mismanagement. It's the intentionality of deceit, the pursuit of fraud, the arrogance and sheer willfulness to take advantage of the voting public and the taxpayers that is now well established and so profoundly disturbing.
And where is it coming from? Our own government, our elected officials, those who are supposed to represent us. We are being had by our representatives and it is unacceptable.
Please, in the coming year, tell everyone you know, carefully and patiently, what this project is all about, and what harm it will do to all of us. We are being defrauded.
We have had enough!
Merry and Happy Christmas and New Year.
=======================
Published on Badlands Journal (http://www.badlandsjournal.com)
Californians voted for high speed flak
By: Badlands Journal editorial board
We agree with Merced County Planning Coimmissioner Jack Mobley's letter below.
The people of California generally believed that they were voting to spend $9 billion to plan for a railroad along existing rail routes from LA to SF to travel at a high rate of speed.
What they bought for their money was dishonest ridership. cost and job estimates, routes going through both suburban and rural areas that would be extremely disruptive to flows of existing traffic and the movement of farm machinery, staff barring the public from public meetings, supine federal resource agencies selling out the environment "because The Boss wants high speed rail." and a seemingly endless stream of ubiquitous, meaningless flak fomented by local land-sue authorities and their boosters like Merced trying to cover up their disastrous failures of judgment about housing and growth by denying the simple facts Mobley outlines below.
The destruction keeps on going on, directed by our leaders, the same shoddy actors as always, individuals incapable of thinking beyond the idiotic economic model of growth defined by Finance, Insurance and Real Estate special interests.
They imagine, as always, that if they cannot bring Silicon Valley (evidently the only healthy part of the state's private economy outside of wine and movies) to Merced, they will make commuting to the Sacred Shrine of High Tech/Bio Tech an effortless, high speed cruise (at a price yet to be determined but undoubtedly with Starbucks on board) through Pacheco Pass to the very doorsteps of their "campuses."
Wildlife and farm machinery will compete for access to rare underpasses.
Below Mobley's letter find some examples from a week's worth of news clips of high-speed-rail flak art and the consequences of getting caught at it.
Badlands Journal editorial board
12-24-11
Merced Sun-Star
Jack Mobley: A joke on California…JACK MOBLEY, Merced…Letters to the editor
The recent high-speed rail meeting in Merced reminded me of the joke involving a lawyer, an engineer and an economist. Stranded on a desert island, they took turns at formulating a way to open their only can of food. The economist began with, "First, assume we have a can opener ... " The High-Speed Rail Authority is the economist in the joke, with the line being, "assume we have the money ... "
That's the joke on the citizens of California. There's no money at any level of government. Congress has wisely stopped any more federal money from flowing into the project, and on a local level it is ludicrous to think about any money being available. Private money is too smart to get involved, and yet the authority is pushing as though they had a limitless credit card.
Experts around the country agree that this project won't work. Three other states have refused federal money for similar projects because they deemed them impractical. Here in California, the finances didn't work when the assumption was 41 million riders and $43 billion.
Why would it work now with half the riders and over twice the cost?
Let's fix and expand the infrastructure all Californians use. Unless we do that, our economy will never recover. We have a chance now to stop the high-speed rail boondoggle before it breaks the economic back of California.
No comments:
Post a Comment