The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on June 06, 2017, 07:08:06 PM
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https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029163674
Oh my.
Atman (30,396 posts) Mon Jun 5, 2017, 06:53 PM
Get a passport. Travel. See the real world.
Then come back and tell me how American is so cool.
I can't get from Hartford to NYC on Amtrak in two hours, but TURKEY has bullet trains.
Explain to me again how we are #1...with an orange shitgibbon as president.
Long thread, lots of primitive responses.
A few comments selected at random:
Atman (30,396 posts) Mon Jun 5, 2017, 07:12 PM
11. It's expensive to leave. But cheap to stay gone
Yeah, the plane ticket out is steep. A visa might require $2000 in cash to stay for six months. But take inventory of your priorities. Once you're there, you're there. And you're not here, under the lord of the Orange Shitgibbon.
Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 10:17 AM
57. Part (much) of the reason I don't live in Thailand.
To be fair, the main reason is that our children and two young grandchildren are here. We can't be half a world away from them. But from a more practical standpoint, my wife can't get a job in her career field in Thailand. They won't grant work visas for health care professionals, because it would take jobs from Thai nationals. That's fair enough. Ironically, as a graphic artist, I could get a work visa. But you still need to prove you have enough cash on hand to sustain yourself.
No, it's not as easy as people say; "You don't like it here? Leave!" It just isn't that easy. My sister now owns a very popular business on one of the tourist islands in the Bay of Thailand. She's been featured in the in-flight magazines, is a five-star on Trip Advisor. We have a place to stay if we visit, but you have to travel to Myanmar every six months to renew your visa. They don't make it easy. But it is absolute paradise, and dirt cheap to live there. I'd move without hesitation if it weren't for the family in the states.
Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 10:24 AM
59. Watch "The Triplettes of Belleville."
Great movie all around. It's French, but there is no real dialogue in the entire movie, so you don't have to read subtitles. The story focuses on a bike race (Tour D' France) and a trip to the mythical Belleville, which is a thinly disguised New York City. It's at once funny and sad to see how the French artists depict America. Everyone is massive, big fat blobs. But it's true. It's a very accurate depiction. And a wonderful movie.
Star Member Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 08:32 AM
50. My point was simply that Americans need to expand their universe...
...if they have any hope of understanding our own world.
Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 10:20 AM
58. We experienced the "underneath" on our last trip to Thailand.
It was in April, Songkran, the Thai New Year, and also the time when the Red Shirt rebels tend to take to the streets. We had to cut out our three days in Bangkok because the rebels were shooting it out in the streets with the military. Consulate advised no travel to Bangkok. Still, we managed one night in downtown, but never left the Millennial Hilton compound. Still haven't seen Bangkok, except for from a cab window, or from our 30th floor suite.
Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 08:30 AM
48. Where did I say we should emulate Turkey?
I pointed out that Turkey has bullet trains, the U.S. doesn't. That's hardly "emulating" Turkey.
Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 08:30 AM
49. I didn't say I wanted to live in Turkey.
I said Turkey has bullet trains.
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Rob just can`t stop being stupid.
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Atman (30,396 posts) Mon Jun 5, 2017, 06:53 PM
Get a passport. Travel. See the real world.
Then come back and tell me how American is so cool.
I can't get from Hartford to NYC on Amtrak in two hours, but TURKEY has bullet trains.
Explain to me again how we are #1...with an orange shitgibbon as president.
Ummmmmmm, if the East Coast's lack of bullet trains bugs you, take it up with Obama. He had 8 years and didn't do anything about your "problem". But strangely, for all Turkey's greatness in having bullet trains, they've been economically and militarily close to insignificant in the world since the 17th century.
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Atman (30,396 posts) Tue Jun 6, 2017, 08:30 AM
49. I didn't say I wanted to live in Turkey.
I said Turkey has bullet trains.
Big deal, Chicago has real flying bullets. :-)
Why are the DUmmies and the left in general so infatuated with high speed rail boondoggles?
Most nations that have widespread high speed rail systems don't have a lot of towns and cities spread out between the large cities.
Also they have tyrannical governments that can just take the land from people that rightfully own it.
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I have a friend who just returned from France and she was totally disappointed with Paris. Said it was dirty, expensive, the food sucked and everyone was rude. So I guest things have changed much over the years.
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I actually did travel alot. Not so much now after 9/11. If this DUchebag ever went to europe he would know that the average euro lives like a ghetto welfare queen here. The average euro income is like the 51st state here in the USA. So yeah get the **** out and see where we are headed. Want to live good go to a scary CA or SA country.
On edit. The thing that most struck me was that the great euros had washing/drying machines that were smaller than the one (combo) I have now in my RV...in 1982 those machines cost 4 times what REAL laundry machines cost.
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A question for those who know (which I do not), if the DU-whiner gets on the train in Hartford's main station, how many stops does the train make between there and the main station in NYC? My speculation, based on virtually nothing, is that much of that 2 hours of which DU-whiner complained is due to a good number of stops along the way. Anybody know?
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Turkey has bullet trains. Also bullet in brain if you piss off the wrong honcho or just happen to be in the wrong little bit of Turkish spacetime.
C'mon, we know why you don't move to Thailand, it's because of that overseas jurisdiction for underage sex tourism, innit?
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Atman (30,396 posts) Mon Jun 5, 2017, 07:12 PM
11. It's expensive to leave. But cheap to stay gone
Yeah, the plane ticket out is steep. A visa might require $2000 in cash to stay for six months. But take inventory of your priorities. Once you're there, you're there. And you're not here, under the lord of the Orange Shitgibbon.
(http://images.45cat.com/village-people-go-west-1979.jpg)
East, South, North...... wherever.
Just go.
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If he could get up early he could get there in 2hrs in a car!
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If he could get up early he could get there in 2hrs in a car!
That's a big 'if,' my friend . . . :whistling:
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Stupid Atman. Were it economically feasible to build "bullet trains" in the USA, some capitalist corporation would certainly do so.
You just want the taxpayers of the country (a group to which you a (HAHAHA) "graphic artist" are not a member of) to pay for it.
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Stupid Atman. Were it economically feasible to build "bullet trains" in the USA, some capitalist corporation would certainly do so.
...
I've used Sacred Public Transit (bus and light rail) very occasionally. I've observed or learned 3 things:
* Not relevant to your point, between stops along the route and walking to/from bus stops (from home and to work), taking the bus doubles the commute time by car;
* The San Jose Murky Skews, years ago, dared to publish the fact that bus fares pay for 10% of the cost of a ride;
* I ride the light rail about once a year to a race in central San Jose. It's convenient for parking, and allow necessary time for travel, even if a bit delayed is easy. I ALWAYS buy a ticket. There are signs in the cars warning that passengers could be asked to show their tickets and of consequences for fare-cheating. I have NEVER seen a VTA employee actually go through cars, asking to see tickets; I'm sure other riders have noticed this, and have decided to spend their fare $$ on a latte instead;
* Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) admits fare cheating probably costs BART - actually taxpayers - $15M-$25M a year. (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-pegs-fare-cheat-losses-at-15-million-to-25-11082222.php) That's their estimate extrapolated from video-observed cheating. Frankly, I suspect BART fare-cheaters are more creative than BART's security cameras and people.
* BART has security cameras in passenger cars; a few of them are real and work. (http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-admits-77-percent-of-train-cameras-are-fake-6818459.php)
Let's not even go into the consequences of unionized public transit workers - inflated wages, lunatic work rules, screw-you attitudes toward riders and facility/equipment maintenance. As for BART escalators - when they aren't down due to bum urine & crap fouling the machinery - take the stairs and maybe don't touch the hand rails.
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Atman
I can't get from Hartford to NYC on Amtrak in two hours, but TURKEY has bullet trains.
According to Amtrak's schedule, Hartford to Penn Station is 3 hours. So you can't make it in 2, but you can in 3.
Also, potential stops between Hartford and Penn Station are: Berlin, Meriden, Wallingford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford (all in CT), and New Rochelle, NY. No doubt there's passengers at each of those stations wanting to get into the city. Pedro's impatience would have them wait for another train, as he seems to believe a train from Hartford to NYC should take precedence.
Besides, I doubt a bullet train would help. Even bullet trains slow down considerably in high urban areas, the whole eastern corridor from Boston down to DC being essentially one giant urban area.
Poor Pedro.
.
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Texas Toast, was President Trump supposed to have built high speed rail by now? Don't recall that being a campaign promise.
And if it was such an important issue, why didn't Saint Obama take care of it during his 8 years in office?
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Bullet trains are for high-speed runs between big urban concentrations with a lot of relatively-thinly-populated ground in between. In Japan that's because of mountainous topography separating the big cities, in Turkey it's because of big undeveloped areas in between the urban areas. Having driven from NYC to Boston a couple of times back in the late 90s, to me the U.S. Northeast Corridor was pretty much nothing but wall-to-wall cities, and I'm sure it's only gotten worse since then (Even aside from CN's recent efforts to convince everyone employable to leave). Some are more built up than others, but you really can't say where one stops and the next starts without referring to the signage along the way. A comparable train to what Atman is bitching about would be a city-to-city express, like Germany's ICE trains, not Amtrak's daily commuter locals.
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I've used Sacred Public Transit (bus and light rail) very occasionally. I've observed or learned 3 things:
* Not relevant to your point, between stops along the route and walking to/from bus stops (from home and to work), taking the bus doubles the commute time by car;
* The San Jose Murky Skews, years ago, dared to publish the fact that bus fares pay for 10% of the cost of a ride;
* I ride the light rail about once a year to a race in central San Jose. It's convenient for parking, and allow necessary time for travel, even if a bit delayed is easy. I ALWAYS buy a ticket. There are signs in the cars warning that passengers could be asked to show their tickets and of consequences for fare-cheating. I have NEVER seen a VTA employee actually go through cars, asking to see tickets; I'm sure other riders have noticed this, and have decided to spend their fare $$ on a latte instead;
* Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) admits fare cheating probably costs BART - actually taxpayers - $15M-$25M a year. (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-pegs-fare-cheat-losses-at-15-million-to-25-11082222.php) That's their estimate extrapolated from video-observed cheating. Frankly, I suspect BART fare-cheaters are more creative than BART's security cameras and people.
* BART has security cameras in passenger cars; a few of them are real and work. (http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-admits-77-percent-of-train-cameras-are-fake-6818459.php)
Let's not even go into the consequences of unionized public transit workers - inflated wages, lunatic work rules, screw-you attitudes toward riders and facility/equipment maintenance. As for BART escalators - when they aren't down due to bum urine & crap fouling the machinery - take the stairs and maybe don't touch the hand rails.
Monorail, monorail, monorail,monorail, Yeaaaaaaa!
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Monorail, monorail, monorail,monorail, Yeaaaaaaa!
(http://www.modernishfather.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/monorail.jpg)
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Libs & Progs get fixated on bright shiny symbols for which real-world usage does not matter.
"Bullet Trains" are the current fixation. Before that variously, were electric cars (twice), hybrid cars, solar power (twice), wind power (twice). Other than hybrids - which use various technologies that have been around for decades - all have been busts, due to limited utility or stupid utilization.
CA's "Bullet Train", if not euthanized, will be an example of the latter. Ignoring air travel, a high-speed route more or less direct from San Diego or LA to San Jose or SF could make sense, hypothetically. But there are three problems, even with that hypothetical direct route:
* Air travel is easy and well-established - from Lindbergh, LAX, John Wayne, and Burbank in the south to SJC, SFO, and OAK in the Bay Area;
* That direct route goes through mountains, parks, and former military bases, a geographic and regulatory nightmare;
* That direct route follows one or more of the faults in the San Andreas Fault System.
But bureaucracy being bureaucracy - i.e. inane & insane - a direct route is far from what is planned. The planned routing involves crossing the Tehachapi Mountains (Hello! Mountains! Earthquake faults!) going north through the Central Valley, stopping in mutiple cities, including Sacramento, and then turning toward SF (crossing multiple fault zones and either crossing over or under San Francisco Bay). IOW, lots of stops that defeat the "Bullet Train" concept, and consume enormous amounts of fuel, every time the train accelerates from a stop to whatever full speed it reaches before having to slow for the next stop. Even with regenerative braking on a massive scale, that's going to be a lot of wasted fuel!
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FUN FACT: AMTRAK sells a $16 hamburger but loaded cost of burger is $24. So even at $16 per burger, AMTRAK a government run entity, loses $8 on each one they sell.
I'm amazed the train gets there at all.
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FUN FACT: AMTRAK sells a $16 hamburger but loaded cost of burger is $24. So even at $16 per burger, AMTRAK a government run entity, loses $8 on each one they sell.
I'm amazed the train gets there at all.
This is a rather scientific explanation of just how it's powered.
(http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/why-unicorns-fart-rainbows.jpg)
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What they also don't take into consideration is that europeans don't own cars like we do, so mass transit is a more common way to go.
Those people wouldn't be happy if they were chrome plated. all they know how to do is piss and moan and make no efforts to change things for the better. :mental: :mental: :mental:
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What they also don't take into consideration is that europeans don't own cars like we do, so mass transit is a more common way to go.
Those people wouldn't be happy if they were chrome plated. all they know how to do is piss and moan and make no efforts to change things for the better. :mental: :mental: :mental:
Well, O&G, the leftists want us to be like Europe.
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I can't get from Hartford to NYC on Amtrak in two hours, but TURKEY has bullet trains.
What in the hell?
Rob's posts over the years show that his cheese keeps sliding further and further off his cracker. He reminds me of this guy:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CYcw2eqN8M[/youtube]
Rob's out using his four track mind to show us what happens when a doddering old fool has access to the interwebnets.
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Big deal, Chicago has real flying bullets. :-)
Turkey has bullets, too.
For people who get too mouthy about their Caliph-in-the-making Erdogan.
Free speech? Not so much.
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I can't get from Hartford to NYC on Amtrak in two hours, but TURKEY has bullet trains
Turkey also has suicide bombers at the train station too.
If 2 hours is to long, move closer asshole. :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: