Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

[Judas Maccabeus]

It is a driven tunnel,using a boring machine. It is the ventilation structures as well the “we were not consulted “ line, in spite of meetings that have gone on for a five year period. I heard Al Sharpton is involved, so it is almost certainly a shakedown for cash.

And then we see the real reasons we don't have better public transportation in America.. any project like this gets a serious shakedown for cash. The money gets spent on endless lawsuits, and the actual project doesn't get built.

The civil war era tunnel this replaces is going to cause a catastrophic failure sooner or later. So we get civil war era speeds.

[Josh]

A cash shakedown for a bored tunnel seems a bit ridiculous. I mean, technically I do own the mineral rights beneath me... but if they build a railroad tunnel underneath my property, I have a difficult time seeing how I'm being harmed.

As far as exhaust goes, it can't be much different than the exhaust already spewing forth from the railroad lines around here. Part of choosing to live in a city means that things like railroads are necessary, too.

[Judas Maccabeus]

A cash shakedown for a bored tunnel seems a bit ridiculous. I mean, technically I do own the mineral rights beneath me... but if they build a railroad tunnel underneath my property, I have a difficult time seeing how I'm being harmed.

As far as exhaust goes, it can't be much different than the exhaust already spewing forth from the railroad lines around here. Part of choosing to live in a city means that things like railroads are necessary, too.

No exhaust fumes at all. 100% electric locomotives by law. That was one of the concessions already made.

[Ken]

So this is the actual news reporting on the so-called civil rights complaint about the train tunnel: https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/ ... l-program/

Anyone can file a compliant and the applicable agency is compelled to investigate and respond, even if the response ends up being "nothing to see here folks"

I don't see any reporting presupposing that this complaint is going to be successful. Maybe they might get some "mitigation" out of it but that isn't likely to be in the form of cash. But more likely something along the lines of modifying the ventilation fan locations or some such change in some detail of the project design. Assuming the complaint has any validity to begin with. The actual complaint claims:

As a result, Amtrak will demolish and acquire hundreds of homes and businesses in majority-Black neighborhoods to construct both the tunnel and a corresponding emergency ventilation facility located directly across the street from an elementary school.

That is either true or false. If false, it will be easily rejected.

Similar thing is happening in the Portland area where a freeway expansion project is going to cut right next to an existing middle school that has a majority of Black students. What they are likely to get out of it (if anything at all) is getting a new school built further away from the freeway. Which is probably very appropriate in my mind. And it should be highway funds that pay for it, not school district tax revenue.

[Judas Maccabeus]

So this is the actual news reporting on the so-called civil rights complaint about the train tunnel: https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/ ... l-program/

Anyone can file a compliant and the applicable agency is compelled to investigate and respond, even if the response ends up being "nothing to see here folks"

I don't see any reporting presupposing that this complaint is going to be successful. Maybe they might get some "mitigation" out of it but that isn't likely to be in the form of cash. But more likely something along the lines of modifying the ventilation fan locations or some such change in some detail of the project design. Assuming the complaint has any validity to begin with. The actual complaint claims:

As a result, Amtrak will demolish and acquire hundreds of homes and businesses in majority-Black neighborhoods to construct both the tunnel and a corresponding emergency ventilation facility located directly across the street from an elementary school.

That is either true or false. If false, it will be easily rejected.

Similar thing is happening in the Portland area where a freeway expansion project is going to cut right next to an existing middle school that has a majority of Black students. What they are likely to get out of it (if anything at all) is getting a new school built further away from the freeway. Which is probably very appropriate in my mind. And it should be highway funds that pay for it, not school district tax revenue.

First off, it is not hundreds of occupied homes. It is more like 10-30. Secondly, the vent shaft won’t ventilate much of anything. It is primarily an escape shaft. None of the trains produce exhaust, that is why they are electric. Thirdly, who cares what the racial makeup of the school is, it is a totally irrelevant point. However, with the current climate here, it is critical. With a 70% black population it is simply not possible to avoid black neighborhoods.

If is was anything but the current justice department, it would just be dismissed. However they seem totally obsessed with not displeasing the constituency they feel they need to get elected, it will almost certainly be settled, with a large cash payout. And, of course, you have to pay off the “activists” as well.

The Democratic Party machine seems obsessed with “people of color” in spite of the fact that they make up only 30% of the population. They just finished making sure a white guy did not get the senate nomination. Ask how I know? My son in law is a political operative……got the other party.

Reason 3 why I won’t move to the city. The reperationist politics.

[Ken]

First off, it is not hundreds of occupied homes. It is more like 10-30. Secondly, the vent shaft won’t ventilate much of anything. It is primarily an escape shaft. None of the trains produce exhaust, that is why they are electric. Thirdly, who cares what the racial makeup of the school is, it is a totally irrelevant point. However, with the current climate here, it is critical. With a 70% black population it is simply not possible to avoid black neighborhoods.

If is was anything but the current justice department, it would just be dismissed. However they seem totally obsessed with not displeasing the constituency they feel they need to get elected, it will almost certainly be settled, with a large cash payout. And, of course, you have to pay off the “activists” as well.

The Democratic Party machine seems obsessed with “people of color” in spite of the fact that they make up only 30% of the population. They just finished making sure a white guy did not get the senate nomination. Ask how I know? My son in law is a political operative……got the other party.

Reason 3 why I won’t move to the city. The reperationist politics.

The Justice Department today is mostly the same Justice Department that existed under Trump, Obama, and Bush. The number of political appointees is very few, about a dozen. Mostly confined to the upper levels of of the Attorney General's office. All the senior career staff span many administrations.

And in any event, it isn't the Justice Department that deals with this anyway, it is the DOT. Maybe the complaint has validity, maybe it doesn't. Or maybe it does and the mitigation is already built into the project which seems most likely. I guess we will find out.

Also I suspect it was the voters who decided who the next Senate candidate will be, not the Democratic Party machine. From what little I paid attention to the race, it appeared that both candidates were part of the Democratic establishment. David Trone is a multi-millionaire Democratic member of Congress and owner of a multi-billion dollar liquor store empire. Hard to get any more establishment than that. And he had plenty of Democratic Party establishment endorsements. https://www.marylandmatters.org/2024/04 ... e-primary/ Looks to me like he was actually trying use his liquor millions to buy himself a Senate seat and the voters weren't impressed. He dropped $61 million of his own money into the race: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... one-money/

[Josh]

Looks to me like he was actually trying use his liquor millions to buy himself a Senate seat and the voters weren't impressed. He dropped $61 million of his own money into the race: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... one-money/

As opposed to the donors buying the other candidate a Senate seat?

[temporal1]

.. The name of the bridge will continue to be a controversy. What it is called likely will depend on who is elected president. ..

From Day 1, i was shocked there was a bridge named Francis Scott Key! What an oversight.

i’ve been waiting for organized political activists to loudly+proudly assert this is the single most important factor involved.
They’ll get to it.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Looks to me like he was actually trying use his liquor millions to buy himself a Senate seat and the voters weren't impressed. He dropped $61 million of his own money into the race: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... one-money/

As opposed to the donors buying the other candidate a Senate seat?

It is not so much donors as the amount of pull she got from the “machine “. If you want to know, Trone was the more “progressive “ candidate. He was simply not part of the party’s preferred demographic. Trone would have been far easier for Hogan to defeat, as he is even further towards the progressive side than Alsobrooks.

The machine controls the public employee union and the money and footsolders they deploy in get out the vote efforts. In a thinly contested primary, that is critically important.

How do I know this? Wife was a member of the public employee union. She refused to participate, but they still got her money. Opt out will incur an “agency fee” roughly the same as union dues. They got you both ways.

[Ken]

Looks to me like he was actually trying use his liquor millions to buy himself a Senate seat and the voters weren't impressed. He dropped $61 million of his own money into the race: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... one-money/

As opposed to the donors buying the other candidate a Senate seat?

It is not so much donors as the amount of pull she got from the “machine “. If you want to know, Trone was the more “progressive “ candidate. He was simply not part of the party’s preferred demographic. Trone would have been far easier for Hogan to defeat, as he is even further towards the progressive side than Alsobrooks.

The machine controls the public employee union and the money and footsolders they deploy in get out the vote efforts. In a thinly contested primary, that is critically important.

How do I know this? Wife was a member of the public employee union. She refused to participate, but they still got her money. Opt out will incur an “agency fee” roughly the same as union dues. They got you both ways.

Like I said, I'm not super familiar with Maryland Senate primaries but NPR did profile this race a couple of weeks ago which I listen to while riding to work. And I looked it up to read more.

It very much sounds like it was the primary voters who decided this and not some "machine". Both candidates were Democratic insiders who had lots of establishment support and funding. As for public employee unions? The biggest public employee union in Maryland is the teacher's union (NEA).
They have the most "foot soldiers" of all spread across the entire state and not just the DC suburbs. But they endorsed Trone. What does that do to your theory of machine politics determining this race? https://www.marylandmatters.org/2023/11 ... -official/

Rep. David Trone (D-6th) officially garnered the endorsement of the National Education Association in his run for U.S. Senate, based on a recommendation from the Maryland State Education Association.

The Trone campaign hopes the national association’s three million members will help galvanize support in the congressman’s quest for the Democratic nomination next year.

“David Trone is a proven champion for America’s students and Maryland’s working families,” Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement Tuesday. “In a time when some extreme politicians are focused on banning books and taking away learning opportunities for students, David Trone has partnered with parents and educators to ensure students can get the one-on-one support they need, keep students and educators safe from gun violence, expand school-based mental health programs, and address educator shortages.”

Trone thanked the association and highlighted how he will work to protect project labor agreements for workers who renovate and build new schools.

“I thank the National Education Association and the remarkable educators they represent for their support and recommendation of the United States Senate,” Trone said. “The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher for our educators, our students, and our communities.”

It appears from what you said that the more moderate candidate won and the candidate who has the better chance of winning in November. From which I would conclude that the voters chose wisely. I'm not sure what race has to do with it. Why are you bringing up race?

And yes, candidates do dump lots of money into Senate races. But to dump this much personal wealth into a primary campaign is quite unprecedented and apparently it broke records. Normally the big money gets rolled out for the general election campaign for all the marbles.