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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Jan 14, 2016 - 03:57pm PT
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5. The owner of an automobile still has the option of using public transit when desired. If desired, the automobile owner can still use a bus, train or car pool. It's up to the owner.
Because we have an automobile culture, most places in the US cannot support good public transportation. SF/New York/Chicago are the exceptions. Almost everywhere else sucks. If you are too poor to afford a car, too elderly to drive one, too drunk to drive one, etc. you are SOL. Self-driving cars if they actually do happen, could help solve this.
The newer urban areas didn't form in a way that accommodates the automobile because of stupidity, but because the residents recognized, and rationally preferred, the advantages of travel by private automobile. The sooner advocates of public transit figure this out, the sooner we may acquire a rational public transit system.
Markets do a great job for some things. But it is simply not true that a series of individual choices, that all look reasonable to the individual, always produces the best outcome for the group.
I would prefer to live in a city that has a Paris or London style underground. SF has decent public transportation but getting around inside of they city is mostly buses and surface Muni (Bart mainly gets you in and out of the city). So even taking public transportation is just as a slow as a car. Whereas far more of London or Paris is served underground which doesn't suffer from auto congestion. The free market is not going to create this. Just as GM and the free market didn't build our interstate highway system.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2016 - 05:59pm PT
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Craig: That's incorrect. You are a natural born citizen if you were born a citizen either because you were born on US soil or to a citizen parent. A naturalized citizen is one who became a citizen through the process of naturalization.
In any case, it's totally bogus idea that you'd need to be born a citizen to be President. An anachronism that we would, were we a rational people, eliminate.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2016 - 06:04pm PT
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Republican debate starting and I will be using it as an excuse to increase my post count. You knucklehead should join in.
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dirtbag
climber
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Jan 14, 2016 - 06:11pm PT
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I guess Cruz and Christie would start a war with Iran over the 10 sailors held by Iran?
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Winemaker
Sport climber
Yakima, WA
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Jan 14, 2016 - 06:23pm PT
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Here is a recent comment of mine from the "Are You Ready for Donald" post:
I was born in Christchurch, NZ. My father was American, my mother a Kiwi. My birth was registered with the US Embassy as a 'citizen born abroad' and I still have the original document. I was acknowledged by the US, at birth, as a US citizen. I was a natural born citizen from birth. I have always thought that I could be president.
New Zealand also recognizes me as a citizen, because my mother was a Kiwi and I was born in NZ; I also have an NZ passport. My daughter, who was born in Seattle, is a US citizen by both birth and parentage; she is also a New Zealand citizen because I was a natural born Kiwi. My daughter has NZ citizenship and also has an NZ passport.
Cruz, although I really loathe the guy, was born American because his mother was an American. If his birth was not registered with a US embassy, however, I think that citizenship vanished. There are reports Cruz' mother voted in Canadian elections; if she did, she had effectively renounced her US citizenship. So, in my supremely considered legal opinion, if Cruz was not registered at birth as a US citizen born abroad, he is not eligible to be president.
Interestingly, Mitt Romney's father George Romney was born in Mexico and was running for president without anyone bringing up all the 'natural born citizen' stuff. And finally, the Repubs can't have it both ways; if Cruz, who WAS born outside the US, can be president, then Obama, who WAS born in the US and who had an American mother, is eligible to be president. The same rule that applies to Cruz has to apply to Obama; the Repubs should apologize for all the bullshit about Obama's birth. But that will never happen.
Edit: I just tried watching the Republican 'debate' and had to turn it off as I couldn't take the bullsh#t. It looks like attack Hillary and Obama night. They live in an alternate reality where facts don't matter and the Kool-aid drinkers are sucking it up.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2016 - 06:32pm PT
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Trump is blaming the birther issue on Democrats. This is impressive.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2016 - 06:33pm PT
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Dirt posted I guess Cruz and Christie would start a war with Iran over the 10 sailors held by Iran?
No, the whole premise of their argument is that they are such badasses that Iran wouldn't have dared try it to begin with.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2016 - 06:36pm PT
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How would a President Trump unite the party
The party? How about the country?
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2016 - 06:57pm PT
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Rubio is going hard right on some of the rhetoric. It's interesting to see how things go with the clock running down.
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Splater
climber
Grey Matter
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Jan 14, 2016 - 07:35pm PT
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JE wrote:
"4. The automobile is the most fuel-efficient enclosed powered vehicle for a single occupant. No one disputes that public transportation is fuel efficient per passenger - when it's full. When it's not -- as in the case of, for example, many buses, subways, etc. outside of peak hours -- it is terribly fuel-inefficient."
"5. The owner of an automobile still has the option of using public transit when desired. If desired, the automobile owner can still use a bus, train or car pool. It's up to the owner."
As August wrote, you don't get the choice in most places. Smart growth and public transit are afterthoughts.
We readily complain about the cost of public transit, yet most are unwilling to admit that any road without full cost tolls is a massive subsidized incentive to single car sprawl.
Fuel efficiency is not the only measure. How about the cost of highway patrol, drunk drivers, land use, pollution, etc. How about the cost of the additional miles driven because sprawl externalizes costs? We have spent trillions of military dollars pursuing foreign oil.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 14, 2016 - 09:13pm PT
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From CNN http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/14/politics/republican-debate-2016-live-updates/
Top candidates discussed overall during the debate on Facebook
1. Donald Trump
2. Ted Cruz
3. Marco Rubio
4. Ben Carson
5. Chris Christie
John Kasich and Jeb Bush were almost non-factors.
So------- Although some folks, who keep track of political posts on ST have me pegged as a liberal, I am currently registered as a Republican, and voted Republican in many presidential races until 1992, when I reluctantly concluded that I wasn’t stupid enough to keep voting for Republican Presidential candidates.
I was going to vote for John McCain, until he brought Sarah Palin on board.
I think of myself as a member of a now almost extinct group, a “liberal-Republican.”
Tonight, I was as usual, impressed by the intelligence of John Kasich, and I liked most of what Jeb Bush had to spew.
Ben Carson was unimpressive & way to cerebral for Republicans to embrace.
Chris Christie seemed to be a 1960’s politician that was somehow time-warped forward to present times. (which may be what the Republican base wants?)
Marco Rubio got ripped by Cruz for being soft on immigration and in return ripped Cruz for voting against a Defense budget bill, and emerged as a blood-drenched victor. (Which the Republican base might like?)
Cruz, kept reminding us of a sad blood-hound, and although he did some great spewing, did nothing to win us over.
Trump. My only major thoughts on his spewing tonight, are that he never backs down, and maybe a Trump-Kasich ticket could be what happens for the Republicans.
Spew on!
I do want to add that the overwhelming theme of the Republican candidates is that America is in great danger from Isis, times are tough, and that we should all be very afraid-----until one of them is elected president.
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crusher
climber
Santa Monica, CA
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Jan 14, 2016 - 09:35pm PT
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Fritz you are generous. I am sorry for you and the country as a whole that your party has been hijacked by such nut jobs. Kasich is the only one who sounded somewhat lucid and as if he's living on planet earth today with the rest of us.
Debate just more fear mongering and lies, platitudes and really misleading comments meant for the ignorant and misinformed. Especially entertaining was Donald and Ted's cat fight about, what?! A Republican birther issue - how rich is that?!
Winemaker ++++
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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Jan 14, 2016 - 10:05pm PT
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watched a good chunk of the republican debate...
wow.
from the parts i watched it seemed like at least 50-70% of the conversation by both the moderators and the other candidates was either a direct or indirect response to what trump has said in the past or during the debate... the only one, other than trump, who seemed like he wasn't primarily just a reaction and had actual leadership charisma was surprisingly enough cruz...
very strange stuff, given how verifiably and objectively mistaken the world that trump verbally creates is relative to the one that can be shown to actually exist...
it's like watching a strange hostage situation where the hostage takers are a willfully misinformed populace and the hostages are anyone within the republican party who actually has a rationally functioning brain...
while it might be surficially great for the democrats to watch the republican party fall into dead end emotionally pandering reactionism [they're actually seriously debating whether to ban all muslim immigrants/visitors?!? they're actually seriously debating threatening large >20% tarrifs being placed on china?!?!] having one party trend towards a leader that is nothing more than a third world style strong man fascistic act making empty and bellicose promises completely detached from any possible objective reality is, in the long run, not healthy for a country that only has two parties...
so again i'll just leave with what i started with:
wow.
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Escopeta
Trad climber
Idaho
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Jan 15, 2016 - 04:34am PT
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I'm curious to understand if all the chatter, banter, vehemence, angst and posturing about the next presidential election is because people truly believe in their heart that the choice of President going to have an impact on the direction of the country- In any meaningful way?
Stated another way: Do the people that engage in the deep discussions about candidates (pro and con) feel like the President is able to fix whatever problems you might see with our country?
I have revealed my bias previously in that I don't see it that way at all but I'm curious why others are so apparently convinced.
If its nothing more than something to talk about, that's cool too.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Jan 15, 2016 - 04:43am PT
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I can't watch those hideous Republican debates anymore.
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
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dirtbag
climber
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Jan 15, 2016 - 06:23am PT
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FWIW...(spoiler alert: it ain't worth nothin')
I had been stating that Rubio is the most likely candidate to become the republican nominee.
I actually now think Trump is most likely their guy. His poll numbers just keep creeping upward, and it's getting late in the game. No one is even close. Cruz seems to have stalled and Rubio is stuck.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 15, 2016 - 07:36am PT
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Escopeta: Long ago on ST a conservative poster named Lois liked to deeply, deeply, deeply engage and discuss beliefs & issues. She eventually got banned, despite having a few supporters here. I sure as hell was not one of them.
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10b4me
Mountain climber
Retired
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Jan 15, 2016 - 07:57am PT
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Stated another way: Do the people that engage in the deep discussions about candidates (pro and con) feel like the President is able to fix whatever problems you might see with our country?
.
I can't answer that question, but apparently the repub presidential candidates think they, and only they can fix any perceived problems.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Jan 15, 2016 - 08:16am PT
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I actually now think Trump is most likely their guy. His poll numbers just keep creeping upward
Very scary, especially considering the economy might be be taking a header. Recessions typically mean a party change at the White House.
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