Ned_Flanders
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It's genuinely scary the under investment in maintenance of bridges, highways, overpasses, and rail in the USA.
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Play Nice 46th President of the United States: Joe Biden (1) O Brave New World
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It's genuinely scary the under investment in maintenance of bridges, highways, overpasses, and rail in the USA.
I always wonder if Americans know how poor their infrastructure is? The ones who travel to Asia must be stunned at how far the US has dropped behind, but then not many of them travel so perhaps they take it for granted.
It is like travelling back to the 1970s going to their airports, catching trains etc.
Ned_Flanders
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Rail is a big worry. A lot of the bridges are in shocking condition, and many Freight lines run through densely packed residential areas on track designed back in steam
It's a genuine miracle there hasn't been some high profile collapse that resulted in hundreds dead tbh
Going to Japan and look at the bullet trains, I'm so sad we don't have s**t like that even in Australia, imagine going to Sydney from Melbourne on a 2 hour train ride
Ageing water and sewage pipes.
Ageing politicans?
GreyCrow
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Not enough barrels to fill
Infrastructure is usually a side effect of needing to win a district or state - ( not that it ever should be)
It also highlights the schism between States and Federal - at least here the Feds give out the money and the States pretend they are doing the heavy lifting
Infrastructure is usually a side effect of needing to win a district or state - ( not that it ever should be)
It also highlights the schism between States and Federal - at least here the Feds give out the money and the States pretend they are doing the heavy lifting
So much of the highway system was expanded in the 50's and 60's. Typically with a 50-year design lifespan. Very little of it has been replaced or properly monitored/maintained. ~60yo infrastructure going un-monitored is just a ticking time-bomb. Most collapses/failures are not catastrophic, though, and wouldn't really make the international news cycle. It'll just slowly continue to deteriorate and the maintenance bill continue to expand.
There have been some shocking RW media news articles about the infrastructure bill. One BB article said 6% of the $3 trillion was going to roads and bridges and then said $600m was going to roads and bridges. (they don't do math over there).
Another claim they continually make is that telecoms, water and power aren't really "infrastructure" so shouldn't be in the bill.
They're not even pretending they're not the party of stupid any more.
Schneebly11
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Driving on the highway from LAX to Vegas a few years ago it was unbelievable. I thought it was a third world country with the potholes, the cracking, the congestion, and the massive amounts of blown tyres and debris littering the road. I’ve never seen anything like that, not even a third world country.
Take the train? Sure, if you want to get to your destination several days later and feel as if you’re entering a ghetto.
Compare to “scary communist China”. 30,000kms of high speed rail built this century without issue. The US has built about 150kms of track between two small centres in rural California, and trains won’t start operating a revenue service on the line until 2030!.
No wonder nations around the world are signing up to China’s BRI. That way they’ll actually get infrastructure thats delivered on time.
Schneebly11
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Put yourself in the shoes of a third world country. You're going to be indebted to someone, China, US, the IMF, some multinational bank. So you choose China and get fairly good ports, roads, railways, energy and telecommunications infrastructure. If you default on the loan and China takes control you still get to use that infrastructure. The IMF uses the same debt trap diplomacy to gain control too. With the USA you get, well, a military base? Or a neighbouring country gets a US military base and the US military can use it to bomb your country, vapourising your infrastructure?
It's not hard to see why they are falling into China's sphere. The USA did a similar thing, the Marshall Plan after WW2, to win influence. The whole fact the US and it's allies are not countering the BRI with their own global infrastructure initiative is a stark sign of American decline. The fact they can't even build their own infrastructure in their own country is an even further sign of US decline.
With the May 1 deadline for American withdrawal from Afghanistan approaching, Biden is looking at extending American stay, with Jen Psaki adding that the deadline wasn't negotiated by this administration.
Besides the moral case, where it's clear the US needs to just get the hell out of there, it's politically questionable why Biden would want to have any kind of ownership of this debacle when the easy out is there. Questions aside about whether the US would seek to renegotiate the agreement to withdraw or just unilaterally remain (risking fresh anger and violence), it's another strike against America's role as a global leader when a change of government can lead to just a total tearing up of the agreements of the prior government.
Besides the moral case, where it's clear the US needs to just get the hell out of there, it's politically questionable why Biden would want to have any kind of ownership of this debacle when the easy out is there. Questions aside about whether the US would seek to renegotiate the agreement to withdraw or just unilaterally remain (risking fresh anger and violence), it's another strike against America's role as a global leader when a change of government can lead to just a total tearing up of the agreements of the prior government.
I think the war is lost and Biden's not going to be blamed for that, even if he withdraws all the troops and it's under his watch in which the Taliban re-takes control of the country.
There is of course the moral reason to remain, which was the same reason they went in, in the first place. But there's really very little up-side to any decision.
One sign that Biden has started surprisingly well is how the RWNJ's on Fox/Sky (and their watchers) have been losing their minds over him.
For one thing, I'm actually surprised that he's made a honest attempt to address serious infrastructure problems. I guess Americans were getting tired of all those floating bridges that don't float.
I still say that this will just slow American decay rather than stop it, but keep it up I say!
For one thing, I'm actually surprised that he's made a honest attempt to address serious infrastructure problems. I guess Americans were getting tired of all those floating bridges that don't float.
I still say that this will just slow American decay rather than stop it, but keep it up I say!
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All politicians make promises during campaigns that they have no intention of keeping once they’ve been safely elected to office. "Crazy Joe" Biden is no exception. String puller "Cackling" Kamala Harris knows the term “infrastructure” is popular with the public. Voters love it! One word answer for that is "Pennsylvania". In the election campaign he traveled to Pennsylvania late in August 2020 and, in a memorable appearance in Pittsburgh, made an overt promise that he would not in fact ban fracking, and discussed the importance of the role natural gas would play as a bridge fuel in his administration’s energy plans. The Green New Deal will be his iceberg! There will be some infrastructure spending as a feature of a bill focused on other priorities, surely no one believes "infrastructure" is his main goal here? But it sounds nice and America sure does need it, but will it get what's needed? Natural gas was doomed the moment he started waffling on about his $2 trillion clean-energy plan ! All this is only a matter of when? "Crazy Joe" hasn't started well.
Well, just what were you expecting from a modern US president? To be George Washington Mk 2?
Even Biden's proposals RE infrastructure are considerably more impressive than whatever Donald 'Paul Ryan' Trump proposed.
Wars have been fought over oil?!
I look forward to democracy being restored to Scandinavia and the British Isles.
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Nice cherry pick. Are you asserting that Scandinavia and the British Isles are the world's only oil producers?
FFS, Bush jr started a war over oil. Did you forget that?
GreyCrow
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What are your thoughts on Australis border policy of detention of children on Nauru
Gough
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You literally can't win with you guys, if Biden carries on with Trump's policy for some reason you're suddenly concerned with the morality of locking up asylum seekers, if he softens the policy you pretend to worry about the humanity of people you've never shown the slightest care for in the past.
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