It Runs On Rails

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I was talking to Charlie the other day and he mentioned an incident I don’t remember, possibly because I am younger than he and only came to the US 39 and a half years ago, when some idiot activists put themselves on the path of a train, not realizing that when the train could “see” them it was too late for it to stop.

Of course, I knew this was stupid because I took the train to school between 7th and 11th grade. (12th I was in the US.) And every time I rushed in, as the train came down the tracks towards me, I knew exactly the risk I was running.

In fact, “throwing yourself in front of the train” was just a way to describe “committing suicide” kind of like other cultures use “putting your head in the oven.”

If you sense a metaphor coming, you’re absolutely right. Because when Charlie was talking about this incident, what light up in my mind was “like our government/regulations/economy.”

The important thing to remember about trains is that they are very large, very heavy and run on tracks, which means they have very little friction. They need a long time to stop, and if you want them to change directions, you need to take them to a special place, where they can be turned and put on a different track.

This is a better metaphor for our system of government and the economy that suffers under it, than I wish to say.

Yes, our economy is all sorts of screwed up by our government and institutions which were captured almost a century ago, just about. And no matter how hard we work, we cannot possibly even know everywhere that has been corrupted and infiltrated.

The other thing we can’t do is turn it around on a dime.

Look, even Milei in Argentina with his chainsaw and working with a smaller (though perhaps more corrupt) economy has only managed to reduce spending by third, after what? Two years?

I expect great things from the incoming administration. And I don’t say we don’t hold their feet to the fire. Holding their feet to the fire is what we’re here for. Because if we don’t the left will. And we can’t let them forget who is boss. Us, not the lefty press.

But give them a little elbow room, okay? Don’t assume “they betrayed us” at every step.

It’s going to take a little bit to turn this train around, and it might be needed to get it to a place where the turnaround is possible.

Honestly, I understand the impulse to say “stop them doing this thing that is the same the bad people did” because I am one of those people who feel this way too. But with some things, like say the spending cap? They’re going to need room to turn us around, or the crash will be harder than we’re ready to withstand.

Sure, come next year, if they’re still asking us to raise the spending cap and to do all sorts of things that are bad for the economy? Then it’s the time to get very vocal.

For now? Hold your breath and give them room to maneuver. Trump has earned that much from us. He’s earned our confidence while he turns the train around.

Trains and economies and governments are notorious for not turning on a dime. And for having inertia to stay on a certain course once they engage it.

Turning around will be painful enough. Give them room to do it, then hold your breath that it doesn’t all fall apart while the turn around is happening.

We’re known to be fractious, unforgiving and vigilant. These are good qualities.

But let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot before we take the first step.

Hold your breath and wait. In six months is the time to grumble. And in a year the time comes to be really upset.

For now. Watch and wait.

180 thoughts on “It Runs On Rails”

        1. Given it’s the meth-heads who have developed expertise in surviving the cutting out of live high voltage supply wiring in order to rip out and sell the copper wiring to fund their pharmaceutical needs, I’d say Hunter is a better bet for such metal salvage operations.

          And going forward, I’m absolutely certain that “10% for the big guy” is out the window like an out of favor Putin associate after the 20th.

          The main question is when will Frau Doktor Jill declare her Senate candidacy, and where will she carpetbag for a possible seat.

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          1. Surely New York. They’ve provided that benefit to other Democratic family members with no proper claim to residency: Robert Kennedy and Hillary Clinton come to mind.

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            1. Well Chucky ain’t gonna retire to let her take that NY seat, not while there’s still a single video camera or microphone anywhere in DC that he can race to stand in front of, and Gillibrand won’t gift her the other seat.

              I guess New Jersey has newbie Kim, just since last year after the “Oh, you mean those gold bars?” Menendez indictment “retirement”, but there’s no prospect of any Ambassadorial appointment at least until after 2028 to pay Kim off to get him to quit, and the other seat is Booker, so nfw.

              As far as I’ve seen there are zero announced retirements from the Senate seats coming up in the 2026 election, so no easy targets.

              I would not be surprised if the Party looks sourly upon her offer to run, given everything that her insane clown puppeteering of Brandon has done for Dem prospects – the only thing they can point to is that the entire Brandon debacle for some unknown reason did not cause them to lose control of the House even worse, with some credit for not closing worse going the to the miracle votes they kept finding over the month of counting in the close California House races.

              And the 2026 Senate elections are being touted as “tough” for the Dems, so I would bet they would be reluctant to run anyone for Senate with much baggage. But she’s delusional and I bet she tries.

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            2. Well Chucky ain’t gonna retire to let her take that NY seat, not while there’s still a single video camera or microphone anywhere in DC that he can race to stand in front of, and Gillibrand won’t gift her the other seat.

              I guess New Jersey has newbie Kim, just since last year after the “Oh, you mean those gold bars?” Menendez indictment “retirement”, but there’s no prospect of any Ambassadorial appointment at least until after 2028 to pay Kim off to get him to quit, and the other seat is Booker, so nfw.

              As far as I’ve seen there are zero announced retirements from the Senate seats coming up in the 2026 election, so no easy targets.

              I would not be surprised if the Party looks sourly upon her offer to run, given everything that her insane clown puppeteering of Brandon has done for Dem prospects – the only thing they can point to is that the entire Brandon debacle for some unknown reason did not cause them to lose control of the House even worse, with some credit for not closing worse going the to the miracle votes they kept finding over the month of counting in the close California House races.

              And the 2026 Senate elections are being touted as “tough” for the Dems, so I would bet they would be reluctant to run anyone for Senate with much baggage. But she’s delusional and I bet she tries.

              Liked by 1 person

        1. I rather like our Archbishop in Portland, Alexander Sample.

          Long time pal of our current pastor, and said pastor does offer Latin Masses once per week.

          When Benedict was named Pope, I imagined divisions of mechanically-perfected Panzer V tanks rolling out from under the Vatican, to take back the Papal States.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. Doesn’t surprise me. Seems like exactly the sort of thing this current pope would do.

          However, the religious news isn’t all bad right now. On X, there was a lot of chatter today over the news that the LDS Church has started cleaning house at BYU. Given the news that’s been coming out of there the last few years, it appears that the wokies have heavily infiltrated some departments in the university. The Church leadership has noticed, and – after giving some warning notices – has decided it’s time to start dropping the hammer.

          The leftist Salt Lake Tribune was – predictably – outraged at the idea that a university that is largely funded by a particular church, and that is managed by that same church with the goal of providing a world-class education to members of that church, might decide to take action if it becomes apparent that there are a number of instructors who are teaching principles in seeming opposition to the those of that church.

          May the same happen to the Jesuit-run universities.

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          1. Re Jesuits going full Society of Jesus on Jesuit Universities: Yeah, maybe with the next Pope. Things may be moving around and about a bit within the Church, but the Jesuits are rather closely held control-wise, so…

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              1. Yes. People who have not really dug in seem to think Rome’s response to the Protestant Reformation was all hardline crackdowns and inquisitions, but a major aspect of the response was a lot of reforms, addressing the real Issues that the Protestants were pointing out.

                The SoJ became pretty bloomed into a reformation order, and their establishing universities which did not enforce strict Catholic doctrine on the student body was part and parcel of those reforms.

                These days other orders are a lot more traditional.

                Liked by 1 person

          2. Largely funded? Entirely owned and operated by. It’s a privately owned religious school, so the church can run it literally any way it dang well pleases. I’m glad to hear they’re taking an interest in running it as a school and not just another leftist diploma mill.

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            1. Some money does come from student tuitions, which is why I wrote “largely”. Though even then, the Church subsidizes the tuition for students who are members. And afaik, even non-members pay substantially less than they would if they went to many other private universities.

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                1. I know BYU didn’t accept government assistance in the past explicitly to avoid government interference. I’m not sure whether that’s still the case.

                  AFAIK, tuition can be paid via student loans.

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              2. True, tuition is a source independent of the org that operates the school. I wasn’t thinking of that. Not sure how dependent they are on tuition as far as their budget goes; it all depends on how the church wants the university’s finances to work, I guess. The LDS church has an enormous amount of money, to the point where they probably don’t have to care about tuition at all if they didn’t want to.

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                1. The Church has always avoided handouts. Even in the welfare system people are encouraged to volunteer hours rather than accept a handout. I assume “free” tuition would count in the same category.

                  Then they have the Pathway program, designed to allow students to do GED or basic college courses for credit online for a small fee–IIRC, about $50 per course. Even if you can’t pay full price, pay something.

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        4. Looks like one of those hoary old rhetorical questions just got knocked in the head.

          “Is the Pope Catholic?”

          “That’s a matter of opinion.”

          At least water is still wet and bears still shit in the woods, right?

          Liked by 1 person

  2. The metaphor I’ve usually heard was “turn a battleship around.” But trains may be a better metaphor because they’re designed not to turn around, short of being disassembled and reassembled.

    And leftists, politicians, and leftist politicians love trains. Road-building graft can net them just as much money, but in trains they see opportunities for Planning and Authority and Control – for the Exercise of Power, which they love even more than money.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Try turning a supertanker, or the humungous containerships like the one that got stuck in the Suez, or one of those huge LNG boats. CVN’s are downright spritely compared to the big merchant stuff.

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        1. USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was the “Cigarette Boat” of supercarriers. It was so grossly over-engined, it might have doubled as a speed tug for carriers. Eight reactors, since prior designs had eight boilers. Most others get by nicely with two.

          I was told by former crewmember that on her initial trials, they never maxed out “flank” bell. Stuff started getting damaged so they backed off. Even nearing refuel point, she had more than enough power to hit her official “flank” bell. Zowie.

          Pity lasers didnt become a thing prior to her retirement. She could easily have been refitted to handle a large brace of zapguns.

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          1. I heard they once got the ‘Big E’ up to almost 60 knots. Shaking was so bad they didn’t try for any faster, even though there was plenty more power.

            They mothballed 6 of the 8 reactors during the first overhaul. All subsequent CVNs have been designed with 2 reactors.

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  4. Having ended my Sunday Twitter fast, I have learned that:

    The Phantom’s Shiny Pony is resigning as Party leader (but not as prime minister).

    It’s snowing briskly in DC, and the city is quiet. Election certification today, protected by snowstorm.

    Liked by 2 people

        1. First time since 1959 no Castro in power in Western Hemisphere. (grin)

          “Well, …. bye.”

          And let me be the first to say “Truck off, you hoser.”

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          1. So, in typical Left fashion, he isn’t really resigning. He stays “as caretaker”, who will take the same care after as before.

            ShitWeasel.

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            1. That’s SOP in the Canadian system. The resigning PM stays on until his party elects a new leader. But since Parliament is prorogued until the convention, he can’t do anything but sit in his armchair and swivel.

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        1. Yeah, that sort of thing is largely an issue in the US.

          Of course, even a blackface scandal wasn’t enough to finish the career of Governor Northam in Virginia after it was discovered that the highest-ranking person in the government who didn’t have a “should be fatal” scandal sitting in his closet was a Republican.

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  5. We were south of the ice path, so we got rain. I feel for Western NC and eastern Kentucky. There are a lot of one-lane roads back in the hollows in KY and I would purely hate trying to drive on them right now.

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    2. Was looking to ice-test / skid-pad my new ride, but alas, must wait a bit longer.

      Highly recommend: first good snow/ice event, take your primary vehicle to a parking lot and practice skid recovery. Learn what if feels like “impending skid” and what to do and -not- do. This simple practice habit may save your life someday.

      Ideal facility is a large empty parking lot with enough raised curb to prevent unwanted exit, and nothing else. No park stones, not light poles. Recon when clear, so you do not discover buried curbstone. (ouch). If you stay under 10 or so, unlikely to damage anything bumping the perimeter curb.

      This also works for “wet”, but most folks get that fairly often.

      Have fun.

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      1. About half a century ago, I did much like this in an empty parking lot at the U of Redacted. My MGB could do interesting things when the roadway was slippery, and I was doing this more for fun than education. I returned and told my roommates about it, and we went in one of the cars; a medium sized Pontiac. Equal amounts of slipping and sliding, but unlike the first experience, we had a spectator show up.

        Officer Friendly said what we were doing was not going to get us thrown in jail, but “somebody” complained (presumably they saw me) and we had to knock it off. Yes sir!

        Previously, I had practiced stopping/sliding at ice-covered intersections (U of R was known for multiple ice storms each winter). I felt it good when I could get stop with both right or left wheels on the limit line. No, no other idiots people were on the road at the time.

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        1. Key is finding out who “complained”. You have a Constitutional right to face your accuser, at least in court. Now if it was the owners of the property, and they were afraid of liability issues, then they have the right to tell you to get lost.

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          1. It wasn’t worth it. We’d had our fun and since the lot was just off a main street, it could have been anybody. (Anybody willing to deal with the weather if they were on the road. I don’t believe there was residential in the area, so it would most likely be a drive-by spotting.

            ‘Sides, I never found it worthwhile to argue with a policeman… If he had the inclination, we could have been cited for something minor. Would have been hard to charge anything worse, since the lot was empty and we were far away from any barriers/curbs/lights. (Circa 1972 or so and U of R had had the usual demonstrations-turned-riots, so yeah. College students weren’t terribly popular in the town, and this was city police.)

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          2. If they were still spinning when the cop showed up (which I imagine was the case), then he alone could serve as a witness if it went to court.

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            1. Yep. Being polite to the officer was quite helpful. I only recall one instance when we got hassled by a cop. We were returning from a long road trip and stopped for gas across the river from St. Louis. Said cop saw us (with 30+ hours worth of road weariness and body odor) and started aggressively asking what we were doing at 0 dark 30. We explained, and he said there had been a robbery in either St. Louis or East St. L and he was looking for the perps.

              Protip: Blythe, CA is a bad place to need auto repairs if you have an unusual vehicle. In the early ’70s, a Pontiac counted as such. (Bad news: New Year’s Eve. Good news: One of the guys had family living there. Cousin was in hospital with pneumonia, and we got the use of his house for the cost of cleaning it. He wasn’t that bad of a slob. Mostly. :) ) Got back on the road late Jan 2. Missed one day of classes. No sweat.

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    3. Yeah, having driven a ton of them in Eastern Kentucky to go to hiking amid some of the best rock formations in the East, I have to shudder at the thought of driving them in this weather.

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      1. There are. Both Samaritan’s Purse and Team Rubicon have teams on the ground, and it’s ugly.

        Give what you can.

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  6. Our enemies have spent a great deal of time and effort (and our money) building the train tracks so they run to the wrong places. We need to lay new track, and block off or tear up the bad tracks. Otherwise, the trains can only go where our enemies wanted them to go.

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    2. As a game master, I have long thought of my role as like that of Gromit frantically laying down track in front of the toy train he’s riding in.

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      1. I’m sure you know you can slow that down by casually rolling a couple d20s and glancing through your notes.

        “What are you doing?”

        “Oh, nothing, just anticipating … you’re doing fine, please continue.”

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        2. I can’t recall when I last ran a game that used d20s. Big Eyes Small Mouth, Champions, and GURPS all use d6s; World of Darkness games use d10s; Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest use percentiles . . .

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  7. Thomas the Tank Engine and other train shows (including various Westerns) were good for this, as was living near tracks oneself. When you’ve seen how turntables work just to get Thomas and the others in their “sheds” for the night, or watched a freight train barrel past while the caution bars are down, the idea of walking out in front of a train remains on the Top Ten List of Ways To Suicide. A train is big. It has mass and inertia going for it. It will not stop in time.

    Same for big rigs, which are almost mini trains on roads. That’s a lot of mass and inertia headed your way, and while there are drivers who can work magic in a rig, expecting miracles of them is insane. Give them room to move and maneuver. Don’t crowd them – for your own safety and theirs!

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    1. I watch any number of reincarnated Kamikaze zip in front of big rigs, 2-3 car lengths. Like a bug before the windshield…..

      One truck had a freaking -railroad- air horn which he used on one dumb (HONK!). Dipstick almost spun out swerving/jerking for that ginormous HONK!-YOU. Illegal as heck, but what a hoot!

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      1. The local county highway is a shortcut for truckers, and an occasional one uses a railway horn. Pretty impressive, and I have to remind myself that the railroad going through $TINY_TOWN was removed 50 years ago.

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    2. The viral hit “<a href="http://<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IJNR2EpS0jw?si=CUP6o5UozoAku70q&quot; title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>Dumb Ways to Die” started out as a rail safety advertisement. And it’s pretty darned catchy, too.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. I’ll never forget one amazing truck driver on U.S 41. Some idiot (with three passengers) in a Lincoln town car decided to pull out onto the highway without room to complete the maneuver in front of an oncoming fully loaded gravel truck. There was a steep culvert not far off the road on the right.
      The gravel truck driver could not stop put managed to steer right to the edge of the culvert and run over the trunk of the Lincoln instead of slamming into it. There were no casualties.
      Incredible emergency reflexes.

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    5. I’m kind of surprised that we don’t see more suicides of people jumping off an overpass right in front of an oncoming semi. On the other hand, there are a lot of overpasses with fencing on them to prevent just such an occurrence; and to make it harder for people to drop heavy objects on passing vehicles.

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    6. I drive a day cab (no sleeping bunk) and generally pull a trailer 57 feet long. Figure about thirty two thousand pounds empty. Heaviest load I carry is thirty eight thousand nine hundred pounds of honey in twelve roughly 4x4x4 foot cube tanks. Those are fun on curves.

      I stop faster when loaded, as the tires have something to hold them down. There’s a lot of chatter of the tires, even with ABS, empty.

      Tires are inflated to 95 to 100 PSI too, so there’s not a lot of bounce on them, or give.

      I spend most of my time looking for people trying to kill themselves around me. Similar mindset to riding my motorcycle, where they’re (not) looking to kill me.

      My current scorecard is a Mercury Sable (illegal lane change in an intersection,) Honda Accord (left a parking lot and drove under the trailer as I was driving down the road), and a Porche ###? who failed to beat me through an intersection.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Kill stickers are amusing.

        —

        A former roommate had an assortment of amusing kill stickers on his pizza delivery vehicle. He started adding “mountain lions”.

        “Mercury?”

        (pause, blush) “Gratuities.”

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    7. I drive a day cab (no sleeping bunk) and generally pull a trailer 57 feet long. Figure about thirty two thousand pounds empty. Heaviest load I carry is thirty eight thousand nine hundred pounds of honey in twelve roughly 4x4x4 foot cube tanks. Those are fun on curves.

      I stop faster when loaded, as the tires have something to hold them down. There’s a lot of chatter of the tires, even with ABS, empty.

      Tires are inflated to 95 to 100 PSI too, so there’s not a lot of bounce on them, or give.

      I spend most of my time looking for people trying to kill themselves around me. Similar mindset to riding my motorcycle, where they’re (not) looking to kill me.

      My current scorecard is a Mercury Sable (illegal lane change in an intersection,) Honda Accord (left a parking lot and drove under the trailer as I was driving down the road), and a Porche ###? who failed to beat me through an intersection.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. This is a good day for our neighbors up north, and therefore a good day for us.

    In other news, I discovered an extremely tightly wrapped piece of ten-year-old pork in the back of my freezer, and it was delicious. Thank you, shrink wrap, or whatever the store used.

    No, I don’t know why I didn’t find it before.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, it looked beautiful through the wrap. Like I’d just put it in the freezer yesterday.

      The FDA says you can eat frozen meat “indefinitely,” as long as it’s tightly wrapped and kept frozen. That is no lie.

      Still not recommended, but delicious anyway. I thawed it, stabbed it with a fork, put lemon juice on it, rubbed spices over it, and baked that sucker in foil. No freezer burn at all.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. We’ve eaten 6-year-old halibut that was vacuum-packed with no issues. You’re indeed correct that you can eat meat that’s sat in the freezer for years; we do that regularly – that’s assuming there were no holes in the packaging!

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      2. There’s a roll of pancetta in the RedQuarters freezers that has become a family heirloom. We really do need to use it, but given the cost of good pancetta, I’m almost scared to. Is it food, or an investment?

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        1. I am trying the carnivore diet for health reasons (immune system), with a side of “It’d be really nice if I lost a few pounds, but nicer still if I could breath despite it being Cedar Fever season in Texas.”

          So far, the biggest progress is that I am beginning to hope that maybe in a month or so, I’ll be able to defrost one of the deep freezers by simply emptying everything into another one, instead of the whole cooler staging shlep. But even there, I have hopes!

          And archeological discoveries of hamburger, and when did we even get that fish, and….

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          2. I was doing keto, but carnivore was way simpler to manage.

            If nothing else, the nearly-crippling allergies and autoimmune problems mostly went away. Carnivore is worth it just for that. 120 pounds in 13 months was just a nice freebie by comparison.

            Downside: it took several before/after sets of blood labs before my GP stopped freaking out. Carnivore or strict keto return numbers that lab results are trained to interpret as “impending kidney failure.

            It’s still an ongoing problem with referrals, who don’t know, and apparently don’t want to know, and certainly don’t want to actually look it up. Low-carb diets have been around for longer than most doctors have been practicing, but the medical industry hasn’t managed to recognize them yet.

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    2. Yow – I thought we had the record with a two-year vacuum-packed whole small chicken from Granzins… which, BTW was still most excellent when thawed, spatchcocked and oven-roasted on a bed of onions and ciabetta bread…

      Vacuum-sealers are the most totally worth it, for keeping stuff wholesome in the freezer for long periods of time.

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      1. About two years ago, we found an 8yo chuck in the bottom of the chest freezer. A little freezer burnt but otherwise it looked OK. So I figured what the heck, might as well give it a shot, id onle out some onions, and seasoning, and it was the best pot roast I’ve ever had. Not that I intend to intentionally replicate the experiment, but it was the juiciest I’ve ever gotten one.

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      2. About two years ago, we found an 8yo chuck in the bottom of the chest freezer. A little freezer burnt but otherwise it looked OK. So I figured what the heck, might as well give it a shot, id onle out some onions, and seasoning, and it was the best pot roast I’ve ever had. Not that I intend to intentionally replicate the experiment, but it was the juiciest I’ve ever gotten one.

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    1. Gold star for even KNOWING the term “wye”. (I only recently learnt it myself via getting into model railroading.)

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        2. There’s a firefighting wye fixture to get two daughter hoses off of one main feeder. Come to think of it, I have a few for the garden hoses.

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    2. No, we don’t need to go backward. We need to lay new tracks to better destinations.

      Today’s problems are the solutions to yesterday’s problems. Going back won’t solve them; it will merely resurrect those old problems and remind us how much worse they were.

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      1. We need to build an interstate highway system that replaces those metaphorical railroads.

        No centrally planned train schedules or track deconfliction, just lanes for individual trucks. And just pave more lanes if they get busy. And trucks drive where they need to drive to deliver the goods.

        Work around.

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  11. If we even get a 5 or 10 percent reduction in the size of government in one year I’d be thrilled. This is going to be HARD, folks. The “Swamp” is going to fight back with every dirty trick at their disposal. Assassination of the president will be a continual threat; Vance had better be prepared. I am hoping for the best, but crossing my fingers. We are in for a rough ride; hopefully it will end in a better place.

    Liked by 1 person

      2. They’ll try to make it look like our own guys are betraying us, not that it’s their dirty tricks.

        Don’t forget (and ma’am, don’t let us!) that we just saw the fourth anniversary of Been There, Done That. And there’s still folks “on the Right” who buy the nonsense that the January Sixth entrapment stunt was a pro-Trump “Insurrection.”

        Liked by 1 person

          1. The Permission-Machine essay I linked on Facebook (by one CDR Salamander) gives a pretty good idea—BLUF is, by believing Trusted Sources who’ve convinced themselves of the King’s New Clothes. Then it’s peer-pressure and confirmation biases all the way down.

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  12. While celebrating the resignation of Fidel fils, remember he’s not actually leaving office until the party finds a replacement for him. Which, the way he seems to want it done, will likely take some time.

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    3. Somehow I suspect that our Forty-Seventh POTUS (to be) pried Monsieur Trousseau into the “Liability” column with his offers/threats to annex Canucks outright. Rather like the bad shot in Butler, PA drilled Biden right through what was left of his re-election prospects.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I should do so!

      Also remember that the patron saint of the USA is Our Lady.

      Any Southerner knows if you want somebody to help you, it’s best if you get his mother to ask on your behalf. 😃

      Liked by 1 person

  14. I grew up across the road from the Chicago and North Western rails running iron ore from the mines up near Ishpeming to Escanaba. It was at a crossing. The train once hit a car (Chevy Vega) at the crossing (lights and bells only, no guards), and most of the train went past before coming to a stop. The trains were near a mile long. When one stopped between our crossing and the next down the road, the ends were just a few yards away from the two crossing nearly exactly a mile apart.

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    1. The town I grew up in was bisected by the CB&Q main lines. We’d get commute traffic, freights and the California Zephyr. One horrible day, some kids were at the pedestrian-only crossing (might have had gates; it’s been a lot of decades) and didn’t notice the train westbound coming. IIRC, it was 4 kids.

      To make matters more interesting, a few days later, a car stalled downtown crossing the tracks. The driver got out, but the eastbound Zephyr hit the car. The engine ended up across the street in front of one of the stores, but there were no casualties. Sort of.

      The really bad bit: Same engineer for both incidents. No way in hell could he have stopped.

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        1. There is a train line that runs along W Hwy 126 on the south side (crosses overhead between Greenhill and Fisher Lane, east of Fern Ditch, I mean Fernridge). Between Veneta and Notie, there are a number of small farms/ranches whose roads take off from the highway, that require going over uncontrolled tracks (no bells, no lights, very dark at night). The only way you know you are coming to the track is it is a steep climb up to and down off the tracks. Hard to see down the track line either way during a summer daylight down the cleared tree lines, let alone in a rainy foggy day, during the day. Want to know what it is like at night? Worse, at least the one I traversed weekly (because was taking agility with my dog), had a gate on the grounds side. Barely enough room for a crew cab long bed pickup to park on the steep incline to allow opening or closing the gate (which worked opposite the track so at least could park within inches of the gate). Could not leave the gate open during classes either. I have a healthy fear, er respect, of train crossings.

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          1. *shudder*

            At least our tracks were in a flat area so we could see a train coming at least half a mile away. Sitting on the front porch on a summer evening, listening for the train horn…

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            1. Shudder is right.

              Ground flat. But tracks raised a good 5′ off level ground, because too high percentage of winter flooding (not deep but guess trains do not want water up over tracks). Could see down tracks, at least the road that went into the farm the arena the trainer rented, both directions. But 100% right of way cleared timber. It was just DARK at night because no lights what so ever. Granted had a train been coming either direction, the train light would have been visible quite a way, but dang. Other part of it was how close being parked while you got the gate going in, more than one vehicle, but not two, and how steep it was. Definitely “put it in park and set the break, do not rely on the ‘park & hold’. Do not walk in front of the car.” I trust our Santa Fe, but dang.

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    2. We have a nearby RR crossing. Full lights, bells, and guards. There is a switching yard just south of the crossing, freight trains generally can see coming because they are coming out of the yard or into it, so coming slowly (also means if moving south, then two, and maybe three crossings, are all blocked (very *irritating). Which means that if the crossing activates, nothing can be seen either direction (including anyone working on the system), then that does NOT mean a train is not coming. It means Amtrak is coming, it is not moving slowly. (At 4 PM means “Oh look it’s the noon train” 😁Not that bad. But mom did have the “pleasure” of having her Amtrak ride south get delayed multiple times because freight trains “have the right of way”.)

      (* Worse downtown. Freight trains can block tracks between Blair and Broadway, easily. Having Irving, Irvington, and sometimes Awbrey Ln, blocked, is 1.8+ miles of train. Irving and Irvington blocked is a regular occurrence, That is .9+ mile train. Downtown also a PIA, but you’d expect multiple intersections across the blocks to be blocked, because they aren’t a mile apart.)

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      1. ESL has a yard in Marinette, so there is some blocking there, also several lines to mills or foundries, Employer’s property, shipyard etc
        Guards are hit and miss as the tracks come at odd angles so guards are impratical often enough, or the line is so little used as to be a waste of resources. Back in my hometown, the old Soo Line yard (now CN) has warning signs as the trains are on remote 90% of the time, and they are blocking the rather busy secondary road from the west into town. The main route has a viaduct. so if you’re caught and in a rush, a bit over 3 miles and 4-ish minutes to get under the tracks. a mile up the road out of site of the yard is a warning sign and flashing lights for when they will be blocking the road,

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      2. Flyover Falls has a switching yard south of town near the Walmart. When the railroad (not sure if it’s Union Pacific or BNSF–we’re at the crossover point) went to remote controlled switching engines, they closed the crossing (and the road. Not heavily used.) That used to be the easy way to get to the animal shelter, but it wasn’t long after that that the shelter moved to a better location and closer to town.

        Maybe not 4 hours for Amtrak, but I’ve had multiple experiences with 3 hour delays at F-Falls, both northbound and southbound. Boarding the 8PM train at 11PM was zero fun when I had to do it as part of our move. (Take the train, rent a truck and haul shop stuff and canoe ballast back to Oregon. Was not going to let it in the hands of the movers…)

        Same delays in August 2005. Had to pick up Mom and the 3 hour delay was nasty. (She flew into San Jose and took the train. No flights to F-Falls at the time, and Medford was going to be a problem.) Found an acute shortage of payphones, so got my first cell phone that day.

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  16. But, if we could even reduce slightly while unleashing the economy we might be able to rise above the debt and reverse course.

    My biggest fear is it will be like when George W Bush came in and they will say: “There is no deficit, we can do all sorts of good things for everyone!”. Which of course meant the spent us farther into a hold…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Seems the instant they get into office they forget the First Law Of Holes:

      When you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING!!!

      But they Just. Can’t. Stop. and now we’re $35 TRILLION in the hole. 0bama took us from $8 trillion to $20 trillion and the curve has been rising ever since.

      I didn’t vote for that. Did you?

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      1. Old school Dem, yeah. But no matter what you say about GWB, he’s so far right of the current Dem CoG that he’s nowhere near being within the present day Dem bell curve.

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  17. Don’t assume “they betrayed us” at every step.

    This is going to be hard to do. So far, we HAVE been betrayed at every step.

    Even by Trump, if unwittingly. (Is intent necessary for betrayal?) I mean, he created CISA, and look how much damage that did. Every new government department or power is a betrayal in itself, because it WILL be weaponized by leftists against us. You’d think the Republicans would know this by now, but I guess they’re not called the Stupid Party for nothing. Maybe Donald Trump has learned some things during his years in the wilderness. We’ll see.

    For myself, the only thing I can do is keep tamping down the urge to hope. Not that I’m blackpilled, precisely; I’m just tired, and there’s only so much of this churn I can take. Expect nothing, and you won’t be disappointed.

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    1. Same. I keep seeing people saying that Trump can reverse Biden’s regulations and EOs with the stroke of the pen. Trump knows better after what happened with DACA. It’s STILL on the books.

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      1. DACA was on the books long enough to establish a precedent. 2-3 weeks before handover? A LOT of those EOs have nothing to stand on, and the courts have zero basis for upholding them.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. And this will stop them…. how, exactly???

          Even if SCOTUS overturns them, which DACA shows is by no means certain, the delay factor will be significant.

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          1. Delays are just going to be part of the process. You know they’re going to fight this every way they can. The question is, how long of a delay? Long enough that nothing actually gets changed? And more than that, how permanent is the fix? Because if it’s just executive orders, the next “progressive” that gets in will undo all of it.

            Liked by 1 person

  18. Kamala and the Senate just certified the vote.

    Kamala is really, really good at smiling when she’s sad. I mean, really good.

    She got all the way through business, her voice didn’t crack more than its usual crackling, and she kept a straight face or smiled the whole way. Also she had a really nice suit on, which she really should have worn before.

    “Nothing became her office more than the leaving of it” is sometimes a real compliment.

    Maybe she will learn something and become a better person. She can get rid of Beat’em up Emhoff. She can enjoy some of her bucks. Maybe she can find out what she can do and love.

    And maybe she’ll just do celebrity politician stuff and collect speakers’ fees for the Party. Hard to say.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Meanwhile, the smile on Johnson’s face was something to see as well. The face of schadenfreude….displayed in the nicest, most polite way.

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      1. Milei had something that Trump needs and doesn’t have: a Congress that passed emergency legislation making what he wanted legal. Given the characteristics of the Senate, and the election fraud in the House in CA, I doubt he could have gotten that kind of backing.

        No one wants to acknowledge the differences between Argentine and American political reality.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. If so, then we need to stop complaining about it, don’t we?

            How much tax via inefficiency will you tolerate?

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              1. No doubt. But his governmental reforms (which he had been promising for at least a year before getting elected, granted) could not happen till he had the power to execute them.

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  20. I know you read Sundance (as I learned about him from you), so I’ve been reading his posts lately very closely regarding the actions of certain technocratic leaders in Trump’s orbit and just how hard the deep state is going to work against Trump. I am very happy to give Trump a lot of leeway here, but there are a lot of people out there against him. He’s going to need a lot of support from us.

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  21. I’ve said it before, but it fits with this topic –

    During Reagan’s first two years in office, the economy was absolutely miserable. I’ve heard that things were bad enough that even Reagan started to wonder if his fixes were going to work.

    But then the economy finished its recovery, and took off. And the result was the biggest peace-time expansion of the economy on record.

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    1. Yes. Lived through Reagan’s recovery.

      We have to look back at what Reagan and Bush 1st gave us those 12 years to really appreciate it. At the time? Hubby and I were in the middle of the crash of the PNW economy crashing. Kind of hard to see things “improving” back then.

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    1. Ayup. And while they work on the federal level, we can work on the town council and the school board level!

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      1. Exactly. Don’t forget your HOA (if you have one), local volunteer groups, and city or county boards. I was amazed to find out that many board positions are filled with only a single applicant, so anyone with the time and inclination can become a bit influential in their community. It’s how I keep busy in my retirement.

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  24. Was going to post on idiot acquaintances denying any significant fraud in US elections. (I decline to discuss political with the irrational. Evidence goes back centuries.)

    Instead, useful stuff.

    When installing or replacing fluorescent / LED tube lighting, with the usual two pin connectors, be sure to first mark the locations of the pins on both sides of the tube, at both ends. This simple 90 second task makes installation, and subsequent replacement, a snap. Highly recommend.

    Lowes has replacement LEDs for fluorescent, that have a switch for color brightness. Dial a yield, and you can easily adjust later by merely powering off, removing the cover, sliding a switch per tube, and presto. Can even mix-n-match to get to Goldilocks.

    -so- very much better publishing useful stuff than “poopyheads are stinkers”.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. A while ago I got tired of buying new fluorescent tubes and replaced the 4ft tubes in the four double garage fixtures with LED tubes that work with or without the existing ballast, and left the ballasts in because lazy.

      Finally went to pull the ballast from the first fixture because of the inefficiency of trickling power through that ballast, and…no workee. WTH. Went online and discovered there was an update to the install sheet and when in direct mode these LED tubes have a very specific preference for which end gets line and neutral on which pin. That was not how the fixture came wired, but fluorescents didn’t care.

      Okay, more rewiring, I got it wired right way around, and I got it to work again, but it was such a pain in the neck (literally, rewiring it all above my head, twice) that I still have not pulled the ballasts and rewired the other three fixtures. Everything lights up, plus doing it will be a pain, so it has moved pretty far down my list.

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  25. I’ve said this elsewhere: Much like the time it takes to lose weight is best estimated as the time it took to gain it, the time it will take to fix the government will be about the same as the time it took to break it.

    The trick is to keep the trendline moving in the right direction. Hopefully, that trendline will now _start_ moving in the right direction.

    If we immediately cut back to 1880 levels government (adjusted for whatever you’d like), the chaos that would ensue would be immense and reform would be crushed by popular outcry.

    Just getting rid of the Department of Education will wreak havoc on schools. Everything is centered around it from curriculum to sports to lunches. It will take a lot of time to unravel this mess.

    That does not mean there is no low hanging fruit, however. Defund NPR. Defund the Ad Council. Eliminate the Rural Electrification Board. Symbolism and the appearance of progress matters.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Eh. Not really; the cure can be drastic, too, if you’re all right with the level of hardship… or side effects.

      Fasting is generally good for about half a pound a day, if you’re not doing much. If you’re burning calories hard trying to survive as you exfiltrate or rebuild after a disaster, it’s going to go away a lot faster than that.

      If you want to lose a lot really fast and you don’t care how, well, a gent I know lost 13 pounds in seconds by getting amputated below the knee. I don’t recommend that, but it worked.

      It’ll take a lot of time if you subscribe to the sunk cost fallacy… or you think that we “don’t need to hurt the kids” by precipitating chaos. Of course, that assumes the kids aren’t being actively harmed right now, which is false.

      It didn’t take 70 years to extricate Eastern Europe from communism. Once the Soviet Union lost its grip, it fell pretty damn fast in all the outlying conquered countries. Nor did it take years to get Ceaușescu out of power.

      Sometimes change is like frost heaves, or subsidence. Sometimes, it’s an avalanche, or an earthquake.

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      1. “It didn’t take 70 years to extricate Eastern Europe from communism. Once the Soviet Union lost its grip, it fell pretty damn fast in all the outlying conquered countries. Nor did it take years to get Ceaușescu out of power.”

        It took just *one* year.

        Poland and East Germany were the first to go in 1989. Romania was the last, with Ceauscescu dying just before the end of the year. The last communist satellite was Mongolia, where the communists stepped down the following year.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. The amputee reminds me of another weight-loss method: All one need do to lose two hundred pounds or more instantaneously is to mislay one’s wallet at Heathrow or in Piccadilly Circus.

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  26. We have enough problems without trying to annex the dominion by force, and absent force, we probably cannot absorb it.

    That said, mere talk of annexing it may be reasonable, depending on what secret understandings there were between shiny pony, and winnie the pooh.

    What is known about shiny pony, and about Winnie, has been concerning for years, and has had significant implications for US interests. But, with the bouncy castles and the trucks, I first became confident in that being resolvable without violence by the US against Canadians.

    All that said, carbon is a proxy for human population, and carbon control is extermination.

    Many nations are committed to this policy.

    Furthermore, given the precedent potentially established by Putin vs. Zelensky, every nation bordering the artic, pacific, or atlantic is in the US sphere of influence.

    Furthermore, nations which practice arms control are an attractive nuisance to adversarial regimes.

    It might be reasonable to the US to adopt a policy of invasion and ethnic cleansing, where we are specifically ethnically cleansing supporters of gun control. IE, houses that would shoot back do not get cleared. If we are reasonably sure that arms are privately owned, that they are producing or manufacturing ammunition, and that at least militia would resist extermination, then there would be no reason to invade.

    But, we do not have the consensus to adopt such a policy, and most strongly have a need to get our own house in order.

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    1. Or, it could be so that instead of dropping mortar fire on his cabinet picks, the media is going on and on about annexing Canada and Greenland.

      The guy really knows how to runs the legacy media in circles.

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  27. It took at least 100 years to get here it’s going to take a while to fix it. The biggest problem with the left is that they don’t want to put their own money where there mouth is, they want the government to do it for them, even though none of that money is the governments money, Its our money damn it. They like being rich enough to want to keep their own money. Funny how that works isn’t….

    Liked by 1 person

  28. It also really reflects their mentality.

    The Left only has to think about something once. No more thinking once the train tracks are laid down!
    Everything runs according to a single plan, a single schedule, and it’s all under their control.
    And they will have all the cops to keep you on the train, and all the cars so they can go where they want, when they want, how they want.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. We should ditch the Train metaphor and replace it with the Ocean Liner one. It can be diverted, but only slowly. We can nudge the rudder and tinker a bit with the engine speed, but we need to be persistent. Best laid plans and all that…

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      1. The Leftists love trains, more than any other form of large-scale mass transit. To the point where I think the best thing we could do is to lock them in a large warehouse with model train supplies and tell them that the longest, best route will let them be freed.

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        1. Trains (particularly boxcars) are for their enemies or scapegoats, as my family found out in Poland in the early 1940s. Of course they love them.

          Liked by 2 people

    2. The funny thing about the left. They laid down those tracks, created the switches, the plans, the schedules, the cross tracks, all with an end point in mind but no map. Just a theoretical plan laid down by their progressive “ancestors.”

      They have no more idea where the train is actually going than the long dead “experts” they worship.

      Now they barrel forward, singing their triumph song, straight toward a cliff where the tracks abruptly end with no buffer in sight.

      No one is watching. They’re too busy scoffing at those who try to warn them, and stabbing each other in the back as they fight over who gets to run the train, like it’s some electric play set around the living room.

      Liked by 2 people

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