I mean, I would love that, but unfortunately it will be easier and cheaper for the US to adopt electric airplanes than trying to build several tens of thousands of miles of high speed rail to create even 2 transcontinental lines.
Electric airplanes don’t exist, and making one long distance while still being fast isn’t feasible with current battery technology. Battery technology is rapidly advancing though.
And yet, China has already made enough high speed rail to go fully across the United States 10 times, East to West. (Which is predicted to increase to 16.5 US widths (43k miles), in 12 years!)
Electric jet turbines exist, this dude just followed the designs that MIT made. They just need investment, and aren’t cheaper than jet fuel.
Also China has laid a lot of rail on their east coast. You’ll notice that they aren’t laying high speed rail into the center or western portions of China, but then authoritarian countries can do infrastructure projects easier than democratic countries.
I actually watched that video when it came out. You misunderstand how it works, it actually burns butane gas and produces carbon dioxide. The reason he calls it electric is that it uses a fan instead of a turbine to speed up the air before the combustion.
The reason why we can’t make electric planes isn’t because we don’t have the engines, its because batteries are just too heavy to fit on something that needs such light weight and high energy.
And if you want to know the real reason why China can make so much rail, RM Transit on Youtube has some great videos on the topic, iirc it was mainly because other countries contract way too much out, work at very small scales, and stop and start construction often, preventing skill and momentum from building up. And in the U.S. general just bad management is another big factor.
I always find it funny when the US is called “the centre of the free world” or the “defender of democracy” when they don’t even defend their own democracy. They need to make some massive changes:
preferential voting (should slowly erode the two party system)
taking executive power away from the president and giving it to Congress (i.e. having an executive government of ministers and a Prime Minister)
having Congress appoint the president based on merit instead of popular vote (since the last point gives them ceremonial duty only)
either ban or severely cap political advertising
improve education standards for the poorest Americans
abolish conscription
misinformation laws (though a very difficult topic to cover)
put Donald Trump in jail - he’s done the crime, make him do the time - in a real democracy the rich can’t just get away with serious crimes
House expanded to 1 seat per state for every 50k permanent residents of that state, arranged in districts of no less than 5 and no more than 9 representatives allocated along municipal and zip code divisions, then along shortest split line divisions where that results in especially population packed districts.
Senate expanded to 27 senators per state, 21 senators to every county level division with a larger population than any state, and 15 senators to every indigenous nation (even if they don’t have a reservation) and labor union of 5,000 or more members.
House elects the ministers of the executive, including the chief executive, as well as the next four “back-up” ministers who receive the same briefings as the minister themselves, Senate elects the president and shadow ministers to each department, again all who get the same info as the appointed minister.
The “president” has the power to call the Senate to a veto vote on legislation that’s passed the house, which has to pass by the nearest margin to the passing margin in the house rounded up.
The “president” also gets the power of pardon still BUT the house can by simple majority veto any individual person in any given group of pardons, and can also veto awards presented by the “president”
All elections take place every 4 years all at once, no primaries no divergent election years at state and municipal level no shorter term lengths, if it needs to be replaced more than every 4th year make it an appointed position, congressfolks are elected every 4th year, senators are elected every 12th to fit to the scheme.
All elections are multi-seat STAR
Drafts are banned unless in the case where the US is being directly invaded or legally considered to have been invaded via mutual defense treaty, and only if Congress and the Senate in a combined session vote to authorize it after 5% or more of available forces to the theater in question have been lost in a span of less than a month.
Constitutional amendments have to be proposed and approved by different bodies, if the House and Senate jointly propose, the States have to approve, if the States propose, a national referendum has to approve, and if a national referendum proposed a combined session of the House and Senate has to approve, if the body proposing does so by simple majority, it has to be approved by a 2/3rds majority, and if it’s proposed by a 2/3rds majority, it only has to pass by a simple majority to be approved.
Not misinformation laws, but false expert laws, presenting of information as if you are an authority on a subject without possessing a license from the government or a nationally accredited organization of the experts you are accused of pushing yourself off as having the authority of or superior authority to. Would go a long way in going after fake medicine at least, if the US press ever formed a licensing organization it’d also allow prosecution of fake news outlets without actually posing a threat to press freedoms since the press itself can protect anyone by just granting them a license
Adoption of IB education model nation wide, year round schooling, multi-teacher classrooms, and rotating classrooms, abolition of private education below the university level at least, and rotating teachers among all schools within commuting distance of them. Also, no funding schools with any local taxes, it all comes from the federal level, only thing that is allowed to change locally is the inclusion of indigenous language and culture classes specific to the local indigenous nations of the area.
Not just locking Trump up, but establishing a specific trial process that deals entirely with illegal acts carried out by public officials that’s rigidly built to be free of influence from anyone who could stand to benefit personally from the results of the trial going one way or the other. Also the same thing but for cops specifically and with undercover agents in the police.
To a certain extent that is basically what I just proposed, the only thing kept over is the Haudenosaunee Confederation style of how a matter is decided on, arguably it actually conforms more since the second house being able to propose a matter is a significant deviation from how the Haudenosaunee do it, for them the roll of the second house is for the smaller member nations to be able to have their say after the two biggest nations have already come to agreement on the issue at hand, and to be able to send a matter back to them to reconsider so that the big guys can’t just gang up on the smaller nations.
Historia Civilis did a pretty sweet write up of it all and honestly the Senate being a conditional block as opposed to a generator of legislation on its own feels more like how a “bicameral” legislative system should actually be designed to work properly.
I like these ideas but the Senate electing the shadow government wouldn’t be very effective if the same party held power in the House and Senate. However, I do think that recognition of a Shadow Government is important, given that it has access to all the same information as the government.
They’re the official shadow cabinet so that the opposition parties don’t take credit for anything they aren’t doing just because they have a guy who they swear would be doing a better job.
The important thing is you corrected someone. You all right in my book. You good people. Salt of the earth as far as I’m god damned concerned! And I’m VERY concerned.
Transcontinental high speed trains
I mean, I would love that, but unfortunately it will be easier and cheaper for the US to adopt electric airplanes than trying to build several tens of thousands of miles of high speed rail to create even 2 transcontinental lines.
Electric airplanes don’t exist, and making one long distance while still being fast isn’t feasible with current battery technology. Battery technology is rapidly advancing though.
And yet, China has already made enough high speed rail to go fully across the United States 10 times, East to West. (Which is predicted to increase to 16.5 US widths (43k miles), in 12 years!)
https://partsolutions.com/engineering-an-electric-jet-engine/
Electric jet turbines exist, this dude just followed the designs that MIT made. They just need investment, and aren’t cheaper than jet fuel.
Also China has laid a lot of rail on their east coast. You’ll notice that they aren’t laying high speed rail into the center or western portions of China, but then authoritarian countries can do infrastructure projects easier than democratic countries.
I actually watched that video when it came out. You misunderstand how it works, it actually burns butane gas and produces carbon dioxide. The reason he calls it electric is that it uses a fan instead of a turbine to speed up the air before the combustion.
The reason why we can’t make electric planes isn’t because we don’t have the engines, its because batteries are just too heavy to fit on something that needs such light weight and high energy.
And if you want to know the real reason why China can make so much rail, RM Transit on Youtube has some great videos on the topic, iirc it was mainly because other countries contract way too much out, work at very small scales, and stop and start construction often, preventing skill and momentum from building up. And in the U.S. general just bad management is another big factor.
The US has about the same chances of becoming a functional democracy at this point as building the first intergalactic super highway.
I always find it funny when the US is called “the centre of the free world” or the “defender of democracy” when they don’t even defend their own democracy. They need to make some massive changes:
Here’s my take on how the US could fix itself up,
House expanded to 1 seat per state for every 50k permanent residents of that state, arranged in districts of no less than 5 and no more than 9 representatives allocated along municipal and zip code divisions, then along shortest split line divisions where that results in especially population packed districts.
Senate expanded to 27 senators per state, 21 senators to every county level division with a larger population than any state, and 15 senators to every indigenous nation (even if they don’t have a reservation) and labor union of 5,000 or more members.
House elects the ministers of the executive, including the chief executive, as well as the next four “back-up” ministers who receive the same briefings as the minister themselves, Senate elects the president and shadow ministers to each department, again all who get the same info as the appointed minister.
The “president” has the power to call the Senate to a veto vote on legislation that’s passed the house, which has to pass by the nearest margin to the passing margin in the house rounded up.
The “president” also gets the power of pardon still BUT the house can by simple majority veto any individual person in any given group of pardons, and can also veto awards presented by the “president”
All elections take place every 4 years all at once, no primaries no divergent election years at state and municipal level no shorter term lengths, if it needs to be replaced more than every 4th year make it an appointed position, congressfolks are elected every 4th year, senators are elected every 12th to fit to the scheme.
All elections are multi-seat STAR
Drafts are banned unless in the case where the US is being directly invaded or legally considered to have been invaded via mutual defense treaty, and only if Congress and the Senate in a combined session vote to authorize it after 5% or more of available forces to the theater in question have been lost in a span of less than a month.
Constitutional amendments have to be proposed and approved by different bodies, if the House and Senate jointly propose, the States have to approve, if the States propose, a national referendum has to approve, and if a national referendum proposed a combined session of the House and Senate has to approve, if the body proposing does so by simple majority, it has to be approved by a 2/3rds majority, and if it’s proposed by a 2/3rds majority, it only has to pass by a simple majority to be approved.
Not misinformation laws, but false expert laws, presenting of information as if you are an authority on a subject without possessing a license from the government or a nationally accredited organization of the experts you are accused of pushing yourself off as having the authority of or superior authority to. Would go a long way in going after fake medicine at least, if the US press ever formed a licensing organization it’d also allow prosecution of fake news outlets without actually posing a threat to press freedoms since the press itself can protect anyone by just granting them a license
Adoption of IB education model nation wide, year round schooling, multi-teacher classrooms, and rotating classrooms, abolition of private education below the university level at least, and rotating teachers among all schools within commuting distance of them. Also, no funding schools with any local taxes, it all comes from the federal level, only thing that is allowed to change locally is the inclusion of indigenous language and culture classes specific to the local indigenous nations of the area.
Not just locking Trump up, but establishing a specific trial process that deals entirely with illegal acts carried out by public officials that’s rigidly built to be free of influence from anyone who could stand to benefit personally from the results of the trial going one way or the other. Also the same thing but for cops specifically and with undercover agents in the police.
I’ve got a whole bunch more of these
It’s going to be easier to just throw out the whole government and start again.
To a certain extent that is basically what I just proposed, the only thing kept over is the Haudenosaunee Confederation style of how a matter is decided on, arguably it actually conforms more since the second house being able to propose a matter is a significant deviation from how the Haudenosaunee do it, for them the roll of the second house is for the smaller member nations to be able to have their say after the two biggest nations have already come to agreement on the issue at hand, and to be able to send a matter back to them to reconsider so that the big guys can’t just gang up on the smaller nations.
Historia Civilis did a pretty sweet write up of it all and honestly the Senate being a conditional block as opposed to a generator of legislation on its own feels more like how a “bicameral” legislative system should actually be designed to work properly.
Yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and step out of this conversation. You clearly have way more knowledge of political science than I do.
I like these ideas but the Senate electing the shadow government wouldn’t be very effective if the same party held power in the House and Senate. However, I do think that recognition of a Shadow Government is important, given that it has access to all the same information as the government.
They’re the official shadow cabinet so that the opposition parties don’t take credit for anything they aren’t doing just because they have a guy who they swear would be doing a better job.
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Sorry, we only have trans-exclusionary feminist trains. Next one boards at Platform 9-3/4.
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I think you’re thinking of “intercontinental” (between continents), rather than “transcontinental” (across a continent)
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That said, high-speed trains that crossed both continents would be amazing.
But our lord and savior Trump says he is going to close the border. Clearly that is the best way forward.
Not to get all John Lennon, but imagine there weren’t any borders to close…
Anyone can do that mistake.
Look on the brigside, if it was a conservarive, that person would think that the trans in transcontinental would mean something “woke”
The important thing is you corrected someone. You all right in my book. You good people. Salt of the earth as far as I’m god damned concerned! And I’m VERY concerned.
“I hear those things are awfully loud”