Oh For Fuck's Sake!

Here’s our freight rail network. A lot more tracks, yeah? It’s actually the largest in the world and moves about our 40% of our goods. And it’s incredibly profitable. Passenger transport isn’t profitable and like it or not the US economy is largely driven by public (taxes) investment in private (publicly traded, shareholder) profit over social services like transportation.

Given America’s size, lack of density, and the efficiency of air at moving people over packages, it’s no wonder our rail networks are built to move goods, and not passengers.

I’m not saying we don’t need high speed rail, because we definitely do, but it will have to look different in the US. We’ll likely see it built up as corridors - connecting cities along our more densely populated coasts with few-to-none transcontinental routes.

Additionally trans-continental is hard in the US compared to Europe - we’ve got two big north/south mountain ranges in the way that cut the west off from the east and the west coast off from the rest of the western part of the country.

Here’s an NPR blurb about it: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/12/nx-s1-5641119/why-the-u-s-struggles-with-passenger-service-despite-having-the-most-rail-lines?renderPlatform=nprone_ios&unified=true

And a council on foreign relations report published in 2023 that goes into more detail: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/how-us-rail-system-works

Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.

“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”

Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.

“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”

You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?

One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.

The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.

And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.

In the 1980s only 30% of my state’s residents lived in clean air areas that met national standards for air pollution. Now all areas of the state meet those standards.

Each of the lyrics comes from an old-time hickory song for fiddles, and is a lyric from that corresponding song.

"Fire on the Mountain" --> "Fire on the Mountain, run boys run"

Fire On The Mountain - Fiddle Player POV

"The House of the Rising Sun" --> "The Devil's in the house of the rising sun"

House of the Rising Sun

"Ida Red" --> "Chicken in the bread pan peckin' out dough"

Ida Red - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

"Granny Will Your Dog Bite" --> "Granny does your dog bite? 'No child, no'."

FTC #149 Granny Will Your Dog Bite

And for your furthered education, The Mountain Whipporwill.

in a time before things like radios and record players, every time you heard music was because there was somebody in the room with you playing an instrument. and many, many, many social events involved dancing, which requires music. so, if you're planning any kind of gathering in the american south or appalachia, you need to find a fiddler. and the fiddler's job is to play music that everybody knows and likes and can dance to.

the mistake The Devil makes in his bet with Johnny is that he misinterprets the contest as being about technical ability, so he has this big flashy song. he plays fast and impressively with a band of demons playing unfamiliar instruments in unfamiliar rhythms. he's definitely more skilled at playing than Johnny, and thinks he has it in the bag.

Keep a few of these on the shelf, they’re under $3 each and have a 1.5 year shelf life.

Then, you need some mozzarella. I recommend string cheese, because of how it’s packaged it has a very long shelf life (as long as that shelf is in the fridge). String cheese is very much emergency cheese in my house. But if you have it in any other form, that’s fine. You’re gonna put it on top. Then eaten together everything will taste like pizza.

If you have pepperoni or any other pizza toppings, that’s great. These will be your toppings. Ham and pineapple is totally fine. Whatever you need today because this is supposed to be cheaper and easier than even ordering takeout.

If you want to be fancy, put the beans in an oven safe ramekin/dish and put it in the oven/toaster oven/air fryer. The cheese gets a little toasty that way. If you don’t care, put it in the microwave. Put the toppings on them before you put them in whatever you want to heat them in. Heat it until the cheese is melted.

Pizza beans. Tastes like pizza, feels less self-flagellating because its beans, is nearly effortless. They’re nutritionally complete like this so good job on eating something.

Did your mother ever tell you to go outside and play?