@Amtrak service stands to lose $757M from its annual grant; elimination of national network.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Under the proposed infrastructure plan from the WH, @Amtrak service stands to lose $757M from its annual grant. This virtually means the elimination of Amtrak's National Network, slashing the railroad’s budget roughly in half. Take action: http://www.railpassengers.org/whitehousebudget …. #Rally4trains

Link to tweet

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Republicans, Racism, Passenger Trains, and Third World Countries

It has often been stated by the Right that Democrats are trying to turn the US into a Third World country. The usual so-called "evidence" for their claims are that (wink-wink) (nudge-nudge) that Third World countries have majority or plurality populations who are darker-skinned than most Americans of European descent, and darker-skinned than those of Northwestern Europe in particular.

As income inequality rises, as the US transportation infrastructure continues to crumble, as government-supported schools and universities cut budgets and cut programs, the US is looking less like a member of the developed world and more like a third-world country. And it ain't just the non-Europeans that are finding themselves struggling yet downwardly mobile, but an awful lot of Caucasians whose ancestors migrated from what are now the prosperous countries of western, central, and even Eastern Europe.

And we notice that the ruling party, the leadership being overwhelmingly Caucasian, is pushing the changes that make things worse than the rest of us.

I have come to believe that it is the Republican Party, the so-called "Conservative Movement" in particular, that is turning the US into a Third World country.

Amtrak and intercity rail service are but one of many visible aspects of this transformation. The Republicans want to turn the US into what most of us recognize as Third World countries like Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina--countries that once had extensive passenger rail service, but were forced to cut their passenger rail network to pieces.