This morning our safety director who hires drivers talked about a 9 hour bus ride and no other way to get one of our drivers here in Tampa from the east coast of Florida. I recently sent my son's girfriend on a 8 hour bus ride from Lake City, Fl down to Tampa and the driver was 5 hours late loading in Lake City... causing her to miss a connecting bus in Orlando and having to spend all night in a seedy bus terminal in Orlando. And so I look at would be US Senator Rick Scott who hasn't lifted a finger to improve our mass transit system here and meanwhile bus and train service are slow and tedious and the highways get more clogged with traffic and accidents every day. But Scott has done nothing about it other than reject a project that could have at least alleviated some of the clogged road traffic: "Just days after the White House revealed its ambitions for a $53 billion, six-year plan for an American high-speed rail network, the place where it was all supposed to begin now appears to be out of the running. Today, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) announced that he would refuse $2.4 billion in federal funds to build a rail line between Orlando and Tampa. The project’s construction would have required $280 million in state aid to be completed, but projections had indicated that the line would cover its own operating costs. The Obama Administration has funded the project more than any other outside of California and hoped that the scheme, which would have opened in 2016 as the first line in a nationwide network, would serve as a model for the rest of the country. Numerous private corporations — including international conglomerates such as Siemens, Alstom, and JR East — have indicated that they would be willing to pick up the state’s tab and cover construction and operations risks, in exchange for the right to operate the trains. Yet Mr. Scott has moved to squash the project nonetheless, acting before those companies were supposed to respond to the state high speed rail authority’s request for proposals. This is a shortsighted move that will only benefit others: The federal funding will be redistributed to projects in states such as California and Illinois."
For those of you not living in Fla. this rejection of Fed. funds goes back to 2011. Here's an article written years later about the decision. http://floridapolitics.com/archives/212375-joe-henderson-rick-scott-rejecting-high-speed-rail-may-right
Gipper.... Not sure if you get up every day and merely hit the local Villages links and never have to deal with traffic in Florida or certainly not the mass transit system or lack thereof but it's a disgrace and has only become worse over the past 8 years of Scott's governorship. I do have to drive around the state and it's just ridiculous how bad it has become. The knock on a highspeed rail between Orlando and Tampa is that it was limited but that is one hell of a congetsed mess of a trip and anything to alleviate the pressure would have been welcome. GOP grandstanding like Trump is fond to do is sometimes nothing but harmful and misleading..... like Scott's refusal to look at our mass transit issues.
You're very intuitive Ralph..... 8) It kinda gets under my skin when the slimeball talks about how he "knows business" in his TV ads when the "business" he ran bilked the US taxpayers of so much money in the biggest Medicare fraud in history that they paid a then record 1.7 billion dollars in fines levied in the case. He knows business sorta like Donald Trump knows bankruptcies and paying income taxes.
Lol, even a middle aged deplorable gets it right at times... As a citrus grower wishing for any help at the moment which includes hurricane Irma Federal funds declared a job well done publicly with much fanfare by both left and right State senators (yeah Nelson and Rubio) the mid terms and state campaigns are a fricken nightmare. Neither party wants to really expose themselves in one direction or the other and those running for governor are as shitty acting as those running for senator... My ass aches with the promises made to help out and if it happens at all funds will be dispersed 14 months later, problem is business capital runs out at 9 months...Imagine your employer cutting all cost across the board by 45% and hoping that enables them to survive and you get a taste of what is our reality at the moment. Yeah hurricane Irma from September 2017 is still dictating our business direction as it totally kicked our ass
That happened to me in 1992 right after I bought a house in the George Bush Sr. recession....my income suddenly fixed and cut. Then of course there was the layoff of layoffs for me in 2008 in the Great Recession of George Jr. Man those Bush's were pretty hard on me. But back to Trump..... yes he's a circus clown of a man whom even many of his supporters acknowldege to be so but seriously..... if you studied the situation closely and looked at the policies, track record and years of political experience you can't blame voters for Trump coming up with the only logical reason they voted for the A-hole.... Hilary was "evil".... LMAO Good grief......
Harvey of course is still a factor in Houston. In the neighborhoods around here many many homes are still just sitting there empty for either homeowner lack of funds or insurance issues. Plus there are new subdivisions going into the floodplain but they are getting the ok to build if they raise the lots 2 to 4 feet. Great for them, but that water is going someplace, most likely to older subdivisions down stream or next door. More Dams, deepening the pool, wider deeper bayous to handle the drain off all years away .
Terry our weatherman reminded us the other day how terrible Harvey was to Texas, specifically Houston. Rainfall amounts totals were 45" to 60" in areas which are indescribable to say the least. I can only imagine folks are still dealing with the after effect. As for the new subdivisions one can only hope those in charge have considered those downstream.. I'll be honest, my feelings won't be hurt if we don't endure another hurricane for a while..
Imo Hillary is an oligarch who ran a poor campaign and was expected to be victorious despite her lack of connection to a good portion of the American public. In the end it was hers to lose and she did just that...Question now is with the Democrats shifting farther left in their ideology who will run in 2020 with the ability to reach across the widening gulf in what is our society...
Republicans are well aware that a centrist like Bill Clinton was in his time represents their most lethal threat. They will let the strong more centered Dem candidate eat up the liberal one like Hilary did to Sanders because in reality the far left liberal is no real threat and in fact is their best hope for an opponent. It's that more middle of the road Dem they ( and the Russians? ) will focus on destroying .... :wink: :shock: