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Order Daniel Greenfield’s new book, Domestic Enemies: The Founding Fathers’ Fight Against the Left: HERE.
California’s ‘train-to-nowhere’ program started with a $10 billion budget in 2009 which shot up to $135 billion with no end in sight. The Trump administration has tried to cut off billions in federal funds for the money pit on rails and there are signs that even state voters are growing sick of it.
But California Democrats had an answer.
Around the same time that the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery after an appearance with Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrating the progress of the ‘train-to-nowhere’, Democrats were moving forward a bill to ban the public from getting crucial information about the project whose budget is more than 5 times that of NASA.
The cost of returning to the moon is estimated at under $100 billion. California is spending more than that on a rail project that still hasn’t gotten anywhere and which no one is interested in.
California Democrat legislators had already become infamous for covering up their own corruption. The California legislatures claimed that disclosing how much they were spending on defending their members against investigations would “violate attorney client privilege”.
The California State Senate had refused to release records of federal law enforcement subpoenas and search warrants, claiming that “the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.”
The public interest in this case is that of members of the legislators being raided by the FBI.
The secrecy around the California Capitol Annex for legislators, where costs shot up from an estimated $543 million to around $1.2 billion, has become equally infamous. The project’s leaders found an innovative way to keep the public from learning about what was going wrong by forcing over 2,000 people, including senior government officials, to sign non-disclosure agreements. Who weren’t they allowed to disclose it to? The general public. Obviously.
Only in California would top legislators sign NDAs so the public won’t find out that they’re shipping granite to Italy at a cost of over $5 million to build a lavish palace for themselves.
Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco claimed that, “while I believe transparency is critical to maintaining public trust and did not sign this agreement lightly, it was necessary in this instance to protect sensitive information related to the project’s security.” Like the security of the two million pounds of granite being shipped to Italy from California which Assemblywoman Lia Lopez actually claimed was done to reduce the “spending of taxpayer dollars.”
Using the same facade of legality to ban the public from learning about their abuses, California Democrats introduced California Bill 1608 under the innocuous title of ‘Office of the Inspector General, High-Speed Rail’ which bars disclosing details about investigations into the project.
Buried in te technical verbiage, the renewed office of the Inspector General for High Speed Rail would be exempted “from all contract requirements of the Public Contract Code that require oversight, review, or approval by the Department of General Services or any other state agency” for “a contract up to $1,000,000 in value.” The new office will be doing the one thing the train project already does all too well: spend insane amounts of money without any oversight.
When million dollar spending by an inspector general’s office is treated as chump change, that’s a symptom of how a $10 billion project somehow turned into a $135 billion project. But this is a bill that casually mentions “additional activities, not to cumulatively exceed five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000), that maximize the efficiency of delivering the project.”
The project has been underway for 17 years and was due in 2020. But surely dumping another $500 million into the hole on wheels will “maximize the efficiency of delivering the project.”
Why specifically $500 million? KCRA’s Ashley Zavala, one of the few indefatigable investigative reporters left in the local media, has suggested that the entire bill is meant to cover up a $537 million ‘change order’ to the contract as part of a settlement.
But who knows because the whole point of the exercise is hiding things from the public.
By the time you get to Sec. 10 (b), California Dems write in this truly extraordinary piece of legislative legerdemain ordering that “none of the following items or papers of which these items are a part shall be released to the public by the Inspector General or the employees of the Inspector General” which include “papers, correspondence, or memoranda pertaining to any audit or review”, internal staff discussions and “any record of an investigation conducted under this division” unless the Inspector General decides to issue an official report if he determines “it necessary to serve the interests of the state.” It’s an official bill banning disclosures of abuses in the single most wasteful and corrupt government project in California history.
The public gets no say in any of this. Instead, the whole thing is routed through a government official who gets to determine what if anything is released, and only if he “has substantiated a violation of laws, rules, or regulations, or mismanagement, gross waste of funds, abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to the public health and safety.”
Notably, it needs to be a “gross abuse of funds”, not a plain old abuse of funds and a “substantial” danger to public health and safety, not just an ordinary sort of danger.
A $135 billion train, a $1.2 billion capitol annex and FBI raids all form part of the same picture.
“This is a good thing for the public,” Assemblywoman Lori Wilson insisted. “We want maximum transparency and maximum accountability for this project.”
And nothing says maximum transparency like a literal ban on government transparency.
What is ominous about this is that the new bill no longer even uses the ‘fig leaf’ terminology of the “public interest”, but instead substitutes a different term; “the interests of the state.”
The “interests of the state”, a phrase more commonly associated with Communist dictatorships, recurs throughout the bill, such as “the Inspector General determines it necessary to serve the interests of the state” or ” individuals attempting to harm the interests of the state”.
California’s ruling class is starting to admit, in legalese if not in its press releases, that the public interest and the interests of the state are not the same, and that the latter preempt the former.
The absurdity of claiming that hiding FBI investigations of their members of the cast of Italian bricks for their political palace is in the public interest was a bit much. Like hiding abuses in their $135 billion ‘train-to-nowhere’, that’s not in the public interest, but in the interests of the state.
California has become a corrupt totalitarian state, as the David Horowitz Freedom Center extensively chronicled in our pamphlet ‘Corrupt California: Political Criminals and Criminal Politicians’, and its political interests now pass laws openly legalizing their corruption.
To put things in context:
The Transcontinental Railroad took approximately six years to build, with construction running from 1863 to May 10, 1869. It spanned roughly 1,776 to 1,912 miles of track connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Oakland, California. The project cost an estimated $60 million to over $100 million in 1860s currency.
Key details regarding the construction:
Duration: Construction began in 1863 and was completed with the “Golden Spike” ceremony on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah.
Total Mileage: Sources generally cite between 1,776 and 1,912 miles total. The Union Pacific built 1,086–1,087 miles from the east, while the Central Pacific built 690 miles from the west.
Cost: While estimates vary, one common figure is $60 million in contemporary funds (roughly $1.2 billion today), though some estimates range as high as $100 million.
Labor: The massive project was built by around 21,000 workers, including3 thousands of Chinese immigrants (for the Central Pacific), Irish immigrants, and Civil War veterans.
Challenges: Workers had to blast through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and span vast deserts, often working entirely by hand.
Ponder that.
but that was back when we actually built things, instead of announcing that we’re going to build something to create a dozen environmental reviews, DEI jobs and the whole rest of the neverending projects
we can’t manage a bridge these days, but sometimes we can repair an overpass
When politicians are involved, they generally make things worse. People generally find it hard to believe, but the politicians generally can’t do anything right, except get elected.
A competent private engineering firm can generally do things like building an overpass.
Could have fixed California water infrastructure with that 135 bazillion, of course.
The political system generally makes it impossible to do things right, unless some clever individuals have found a way to manipulate the system in a positive way.
Yes, which is why a Third World country like Indonesia is kicking our ass.
The transcontinental railroad didn’t have unions, environmental lawyers, or a developed area with citizens trying to bleed the government. Small communities competed to be near periodic rail stations.
Although the math is wrong on every website I( found that listed the exact dates of the Empire State Building’s construction because March 17th, 1930 to April 11th, 1931 was one year and 26 days, not one year and 45.
The Empire State Building was constructed in only one year and forty five days, from March 17th, 1930 to April 11th, 1931 It was the tallest building in the world for 41 years until the North Tower of the World Trade Center was completed in 1972.
That was then, this is now. The train to nowhere project began in 2003 and 17 years later it “still hasn’t gotten anywhere.” Even the so called impact studies are ongoing.
So what’s your point? That commercial production in America is a sick joke?
Ian Choadri, the CEO of the Phantom California High-Speed Rail Atrocity, makes well over $5 million a year for doing nothing.
he just got arrested for domestic violence so he’s doing something
just not what he’s paid to do
Totalitarian states with centralized economies inevitably become inefficient, corrupt, and collapse like the Soviet Union.
If the corrupt State of California economically implodes, will the Federal Government bail out California?
When he was asked what type of government the Founding Fathers had created, Ben Franklin replied “a Republic if you can keep it”.
IMHO, as long as the enemy from within, aka the Democratic Party, exists, then the Republic will be in jeopardy of being destroyed. Donald Trump has risked his life, his freedom, and his fortune to save America. When 75 million Americans supposedly voted for Kamala and Walz, then one is reminded of Ben Fraklin’s warning about keeping the Republic.
If the Democratic Party succeeds in destroying America, who benefits? The beneficiaries from the treason committed by our domestic enemies will be our foreign enemies, China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.. Is it any surprise China gave over $31 million to the Biden Crime Family? Is it any wonder why the leader of the Democratic Party, Hussein Obama, weaponized the DOJ and FBI to try to put Trump in prison?
Is it any wonder why the Covid virus created in the Wuhan lab in China made its appearance for the 2020 election? Is it any wonder why Hussein Obama’s puppet, corrupt and demented Joe, gave a pardon to Fauci, who funded the gain of function of the Covid virus, which killed millions? Is it any wonder why the Secret Service under Biden let Trump out on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024 when the Secret Service knew there was a person on the roof with a rifle!?
California may have a train to nowhere. But hopfully thanks to Donald Trump, America is going somewhere great again.
Communism always ends the same way.
But it appears that the communists running that state haven’t run out of other people’s money yet, in spite of the all of the folks voting with their feet.
I left 12 years ago.
They are doing their best to bankrupt California. The natural California economy is so strong that they haven’t got there yet, but they are getting very close.
Yes, they think Elon Musk and the fake tech industry here in Santa Clara Valley will stave off an economic catastrophe.
Oh, they ran out of money alright. They spend money they don’t have like the federal government does. Live now, pay never.
And so will Islamic Republics. Let us not waste our lives and money on something that will happen if we are patient.
Subvert the regime, keep it scared but lets keep our heads about this.
No adventures, please. Don’t listen to the littlest war monger Hughie Hewitt who must have all of his money in defense contractor stocks.
The boy is nuts and obsessed.
A worker’s paradise?
So just what do they have to hide from the citizens in the first place? Something rotten in Sacramento and not just the rotting carcass of a roadkill skunk on the interstate in June
To big to fail. The high speed rail to nowhere has reached that point. Politicians can’t afford to let the public know how they’re wealth has been squandered. Their political futures are at risk. But it can’t just be shoved under the rug because so much has been spent on it.
Meanwhile, it grows bigger and bigger making it harder and harder to avoid. They need an out:
1) The federal govt shuts it down (literally or just withholding funds). The state can point their fingers and hope no one remembers that it’s already spent far more than it was supposed to over a far longer time frame than promised.
2) Completion and hope no one notices the lack of ridership after the initial rush or the growing subsidies to keep it open (like Amtrak is a permanent drain that few are outraged at).
3) The retirement of the majority of bigwigs that made the promises (remember that the remaining bigwigs and up and comers will try to involve future bigwigs so they aren’t left holding the bag all alone).
“Project Security” is a creative way to cover fraud and politicians raiding the till.
Reconstruct it to the International Border at Tecate, Baja California Norte, load up the corrupt Sacramento politicians, and send them south of Tecate. One issue is there would not be any political representation in Sacramento cuz they’re all either corrupt or blind fools. At least the Sacramento air would be cleaner.
And everyone wonders why California is losing population and businesses? Between this and the Somali day care centers, we kinda nail the character of the modern Democrat, don’t we?
The high speed train in Taiwan covers the distance from Taipei to Kaohsiung which is equal to the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It took two years to build. I was in Taiwan every year for 10 years and travelled by car and plane from Taipei to Kaohsiung and met and talked to engineers building Taiwan’s HST and rode THST which took less time and far less hassle than boarding a flight and transportation to and from airports. Travelling at 220 mph.
Why Californians have let this blatant money laundering racket to continue is beyond me. I moved out of California and away from the beautiful Pacific Coast where I was raised when I retired from law enforcement in 2017. I return to Los Angeles county annually for one holiday season or another and it’s not like home. It looks like a mess and the infrastructures is still a mess. California politics is the most corrupt of any state given the massive economy and size and difference in the terrain of the state of California.
The statement “the interests of the state” instead of “the public interest” looks like grounds for federal Constitutional litigation.
Imagine if you will a DATA BASE. – A data base containing ALL the PLAYERS and PAYMENTS associated with the Train to Nowhere! Imagine the list of players and their payments for “Services” and/or “Products”! Now imagine that LIST of STUFF with EVIDENCE of the STUFF actually being RECEIVED! Now compare that list of PLAYERS and their RISE in WEALTH over the YEARS of the Project! I’m guessing that it would be an eye opener of MASSIVE interest! Of all those BILLION$, I bet there are even a few REPUBLICANS who have become filthy rich!
“Thank You Lord. … I live in RED state.”
Oh, we have our problems. But they are NOT Billion dollar problems …..
All too typical. Calexit.