Category: Guest Contributors

Tom’s World – 07JUL2026 – Atlanta Road Rage – Part 2

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TomD

Below from Google AI in response to a search. You can see elements of prejudice in the framing of the intended traffic mitigation efforts in terms of “sprawl” and civil rights.

Did it ever come to light who was spearheadding the successful opposition by federal lawsuit to Atlanta metro traffic inittiaves circa 2002?

The prominent federal lawsuits that successfully disrupted and reshaped Atlanta metro traffic and highway initiatives circa 1999–2002 were spearheaded by a coalition of environmental and civil rights organizations, most notably led by the Sierra Club, Georgians for Transportation Alternatives (GTA), and the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice. [1, 2]
The primary public figures and legal minds anchoring this push included:

Context of the Legal Battle
The litigation (most notably Georgians for Transportation Alternatives v. Shackelford and Sierra Club v. Atlanta Regional Commission) alleged that Atlanta’s multi-billion dollar, highway-expanding Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) violated the federal Clean Air Act. Because metro Atlanta chronically failed to meet federal ground-level ozone and smog safety deadlines, the lawsuits successfully froze federal funding and forced a historic out-of-court settlement. [1, 2, 4]

The Outcome
Rather than stopping transit outright, the opposition successfully weaponized federal law to force a massive pivot away from sprawl. The settlement required state and regional planners to scrap dozens of major road-widening projects, reallocate roughly 40% of regional funding directly into mass transit, and heavily analyze the civil rights impact of traffic planning on low-income and minority neighborhoods. [1, 3]

Tom’s World – 04JUL2026 – Atlanta Road Rage

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TomD

 

My knowledge from both a personal and professional level indicate that the Georgia DOT is well funded, efficient and competent. Lord only knows the crisis level if that were not the case. Pure traffic density is the issue.

The density problem was significantly purposefully created by supposed “environmental” groups. The effects of the rapidly developing increasing traffic density has been easily extrapolated for decades. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s a number of projects were proposed to head it off to a significant degree. But, each project was sued into non-existence in Federal court , one by one. Every suit was brought and financed by non-regional environmental groups ultimately financed by, nobody knows. The Sierra Club was the front group for several suits. Whatever the ultimate purpose of the suits was it did not include the well being of the citizens

The biggest hit was an outer perimeter to route non-local traffic, both E-W and N-S entirely bypassing metro Atlanta. I75, I85, & I20 all intersect in the middle of Atlanta constituting a large portion of the total. But noooo. Several other major projects were killed.

You would not believe the competency the GDOT call on to plan and execute MAJOR infrastructure projects. This bunch in FDOT District 3, not so much. They make what would be a 4-5 month project in Atlanta Metro last for literally years. And in the face of rapidly increasing traffic density, the local FDOT’s traffic light timing and coordination is absurdly bad.

I was “involved” with the industry for some time and before I retired couldn’t open my mouth publically.

Picture below: Ga 400 entering Buckhead area of the city on a Sunday morning. Buckhead was the area in the news a couple of years ago that tried to secede from Atlanta due to non-protection from the APD from the hoards of inner city predators.

<a data-flickr-embed=”true” href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomd77/21935250858/in/datetaken/” title=”Into the belly of the beast”><img src=”” width=”2048″ height=”1477″ alt=”Into the belly of the beast”/></a><script async src=”//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 25JUN2026 – More Commies

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Photog said

“Well, nothing new here. Republicans have been screwing up elections since I was a kid.”

Indeed there is a reason they have their sobriquet of the Stupid Party, I just wish they wouldn’t work so hard to earn it.

Is this the apocalypse? I don’t think so, yet. These victories involve ONLY the motivated party types. For example Ms. Chevalier (the most egregious of the DSA winners) won on a vote of 66k voters where the number of voters for the district is north of 750K. What She and the Maine Senate Democrat say is the Democrat party is hurting hard and is afraid to tell the DSA/Socialists to take a long walk off a short pier. The reason for this is their base is shifting. They ticked off the working folks, and many of the Hispanics with favoring other ethnicities (e.g. Sub Saharan Africans) and ideologies (Trans, Islamist, and the underemployed white bourgeoisie wannabes). The Wannabes are young enough and have been inundated with enough nonsense to think Socialism can work and their problem is Nasty billionaire/trillionaires stifling their potential success. The Islamists view the Democrats as useful idiots and a way to power. The other part of the new base loves them some graft and happily provide a cut back the Democrats and the Democrats are hurting for money after Kamala bet the house on a 20-1 shot and a really nice Hermes purse and unsurprisingly lost.

For the present, this lives in the Cities. The hipster wannabes love a city and its close environs (E.g. Cambridge and Somerville in Massachusetts), at present the grifters stay in that vicinity as grifting is harder in suburbs and exurbs where everyone is in everybody else’s business. Islamists, for the present, seem content to be near cities mostly for the conveniences like halal markets and mosques, though those seem to be spreading. As the Hipsters age out will they move to the burbs/exurbs and have kids? For a lot of them I think the answer is no. So we need to keep an eye on cities and subsidies of them. In particular when (not if) New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago Baltimore et alia come to be bailed out at the Federal level The President in charge has to respond like Gerry Ford and say, Drop Dead!!!

The people with a big problem are the Democratic Party. Their leadership Either makes Methuselah look like a spry youngster or can’t even render the dignity of a cat falling off a couch. Hakeem Jeffries is next on Mamdani’s hit list, and as more DSA types get in they’re going to start holding the reins in the Democrat party. If the Democrats had any brains they would not officially caucus with ANY DSA person, However if the DSA types put the Dems over the top for the house in the 2026 election, the Dems’ lust for power will (foolishly) overwhelm their fear of taking a shiv in the back. I think things could get ugly if we get there as DSA could control the Democrat party. The only good news is that DSA control would almost certainly result in a 2028 slate for president and representatives that would be shown the door in all but the blue cities, likely resulting in a McGovern or even Mondale class defeat.

Best plan for the present seems to effectively lie back and think of England. The Senate has stopped the clock on Iran and Trump/Vance seem unwilling to, as the video game says, finish them. Financial woes (especially high energy costs) will favor the Democrats as well as the usual advantage of the party in opposition in a mid term election. And 2028 may not be pretty, as there seems to be some Vance/Rubio disagreement around Iran, and Vance seems unwilling to let go of certain previous supporters (e.g. Tucker Carlson). The only saving grace is that at present there is no one on the Democrat side that has other than a very difficult path to 270 electoral votes (short heavy manipulation of cities in the purple zones). Maybe this will light a fire under the Senate for the Save act, but the Republicans are the stupid party…

Tom’s World – 23JUN2026 – Oil Rig

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TomD

Just happened to be near the Port of Pensacola yesterday and saw this.

 

This is a Gulf of USA (Mexico?, can’t get used to that) open water oil drill rig. It Is not a ship, it is built on a barge and towed to location. The drill rig has been in port for a few weeks for maintenance and repairs.

We have a years long history of getting some strange looking oil field boats in port for refit. If you look at the bow (left side of the image), you can see the helipad used to get workers on and off.

This rig can drill 35,000 feet deep. Hope the workers speak Chinese.

I’m definitely not a Naval Architect and I can’t fathom (to coin a phrase) how this can remain upright when loaded with the drill heads, pipe and whatever else is hanging on up there while in a 10′-15’+ sea.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 16JUN2026 – An Alternative Iranian Plan

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I would love to hear the details of these plans, but so far everything I see is in the “Trust me its Good” phase. Trump is a skilled negotiator, unfortunately, the Islamic tradition holds that negotiating with those not in Islam (Dar Al Harb, the House or Abode of War, any nation NOT under Islamic rule in most interpretations of Islamic tradition) is forbidden except for brief periods and in those negotiations deception is not just acceptable but the rule. This is a culture far more dangerous than say the Japanese of the WWII era with their bushido code. That group took mass firebombing and direct destruction of 2 cities, and without the direct intervention of their Emperor (and luck having a coup fail) we would have had to fight on.

The terms need to be dictated, not negotiated, and enforced with a ruthlessness we seem no longer able to muster. At a minimum, these must include:
1) All enriched nuclear material must be handed over to the US within 30 days. Any nuclear material found in country after that period is grounds for declaring the treaty null and void potential peremptory destruction of the site.
2) There must be constant presence of US/Israeli (not IAEA the feckless boobs they are) inspection teams and they must be able to perform surprise inspections with 3 hours or less notice. Violation of this clause yields the same actions as in 1)
3) All missiles and drones of range greater the 50 Miles shall be destroyed and construction of them forbidden. The presence of the remaining limited range weapons within 100 miles of the Straits of Hormuz is forbidden. Violation of this clause results in the immediate destruction of the offending item by whatever means seems necessary and immediate termination of the treaty.
4) All tanks, IFV, Ships , and Military aircraft (fixed wing or Rotary) shall be impounded in such a fashion that they can be inspected by US National technical means. The removal of vehicles from said impounds without notification shall be cause for the destruction of the removed vehicles as well as ALL other impounded vehicles at the discretion of US/Israeli forces. Violation of this clause will indicate termination of the treaty.
5) The presence of Hospitals and places of worship shall be marked and provided to the Us/Israeli forces. The presence of any weaponry or military items in violation of the traditional codes of war for perfidy shall make attacks on such perfidious sites free of any taint of the violation of the rules of war and be a reason for termination of this treaty
6)The US/Israel may overfly Iran freely for military or national reconnaissance purposes without intervention by the Iranian government. Any resistance to this may (up to and including illuminating said vehicles with search or fire control radars) be met with destruction of said resistance by whatever means deemed appropriate. This constitutes a reason for the termination of the treaty
7) The government of Iran shall officially sign an instrument of surrender explicitly specifying these conditions within 14 days of agreeing to this treaty

Honestly, as draconian as the terms I specify are, I do not believe they would be sufficient, even if we were willing to follow through. The only safe path I see is an ugly one: reduce Iran’s technological level to the early 19th century and then let Israel target them as needed to keep them there. I really hate that, but a Germany/Japan like occupation is just not in the cards. We have neither the stomach, the experience, nor the troop levels to provide that kind of oversight. Our treaties with Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War have taught us that not responding aggressively to violations is problematic against this particular culture. We need to make sure the nuclear threat to us and our Allies (and it is NOT just Israel, the missiles used to attack Diego Garcia can also reach Paris, Berlin and London) is gone, and let the locals deal with Iran as they see fit.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 09JUN2026 – Tregonsee’s Three Pronouncements About Stuff

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Long ago my wife and daughters found my pronouncements amusing. I codified them in a set of rules (which became referred to as the Rules of Acquisition after the Ferengi rules in ST: Deep Space 9). I have three related to fiction and opinions

16. Opinions are like certain bodily orifices. Critically important but not something decent people expose in public.

17. In fiction (Written, Visual, or Interactive) I desire a story and escape. If I want morals I’ll hear a sermon, if I want to work at something I’ll go to work and get paid for it.

18. This is not to say a writer or other content producer may NOT provide meaning or morals. Just don’t shove it in my face unceasingly (Remember that orifice in rule 16? You wouldn’t shove that in my face either).

And yes Clarke and Asimov are far more of the “Idea” arm of SciFi. Asimov often has to work to make his male characters two dimensional. His female characters rarely rose to that and are almost literally paper cutouts. Clarke uses some stereotypes in his early short stories, but almost all his stories even the Big ones like 2001 , Childhood’s End and Rendevous with Rama depend far more on story (and the first two are reusing parts of several short stories pasted together) than on character. I think it is why Asimov and Clarke excel in the shorter forms (up to about Novella) but struggle more ion the longer forms. This may also stem from the fact that from mid ’40s to mid 60’s the primary form (and most financially viable form) of Scifi was the magizines either as short stories or serialized for longer pieces. These forms make character development harder I would think.

Guest Contributor – Chemist – 02JUN2026 – Adios John Cornyn

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I’m a Texan.
I was unhappy about John Cornyn’s love for amnesty but let it slide because “he was the one who could win in the general”.
Then Cornyn stabbed us in the back on gun control. That was a bridge too far. I swore then that I would vote for a democrat for US senate before I would vote for Cornyn again. My reasoning was that we would have to put up with the dem for 6 years and then we could replace him with a real conservative but that Cornyn was there until he died.
Apparently, I was not alone in this and John picked up on it announcing that this would be his last term in the senate.
Didn’t care. Didn’t trust John to keep his word anyway.
(BTW, John was warned. He was warned by constituents such as myself and by organizations like GOA and NRA that if he supported Biden’s gun control he would face an expensive and grueling primary. He did not care.)
Then along came Ken Paxton. Fresh off 4 years of suing the Biden administration to a standstill, Ken was the guy who could beat John.
I sent Ken money in the primary and in the runoff and I will again for the general.
We are sick to death of RINOs pissing on us and telling us it is raining.
I am very happy to see John Cornyn in the rear view mirror.
Don’t go away mad, John. Just go away.