NICK ROSEBORO: Passageway

Great Moments From the Sixth Democratic Debate

1. “Before it was called Obamacare it was called Hillarycare.” -Clinton

 

1. “We are not England. We are not France.” -Clinton on the United States’ employer-based health care system

 

1. “Secretary Clinton, you’re not in the White House yet.” -Sanders

 

1. “This is the first time there have been a majority of women on stage.” -Clinton, referencing the fact that both of the debate moderators were women

 

1. “I think a Sanders victory would be of some historic value as well.” -Sanders

 

1. “I’m not asking people to support me because I’m a woman. I’m asking people to support me because I think I’m the most qualified, experienced and ready person to be the president and the commander in chief.” -Clinton

 

1. “When it comes to a woman having to make a very personal choice … in that case, my Republican colleagues love the government, and want the government to make that choice for every woman in America. If that’s not hypocrisy, I don’t know what is.” -Sanders

 

1. “Both the African-American community and the white community do marijuana at roughly the same rate.” -Sanders

 

1. Moderator Gwen Ifill: “I want to talk to you about white people.”

   Sanders: “White people?!”

 

1. “Hopefully after the 2016 election, some of our Republicans will come to their senses and realize we are not going to deport 11 or 12 million people in this country.” -Clinton

 

1. “Let’s not insult the intelligence of the American people. Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign donations? I guess just for the fun of it! They want to throw money around.” -Sanders

 

1. “I don’t believe that a vote in 2002 is a plan to defeat ISIS in 2016.” -Clinton

 

1. “I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend…. I happen to believe that Henry Kissinger was one of the most destructive secretaries of state.” -Sanders, distancing himself from Clinton, who called Kissinger a “friend” in the last Democratic debate

 

1. “If you’re going to quote me from 2008, Sen. Sanders, quote what I said.” -Clinton, taking issue with Sanders’ characterization of her disagreement with President Obama on Iran

 

1. “It’s easy to talk to your friends. It’s harder to talk to your enemies.” -Sanders

 

1. “The kind of criticism we have heard from Sen. Sanders about our president, I expect from Republicans, I do not expect from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama.” -Clinton

 

1. “Have you ever disagreed with a president? I suspect you may have.” -Sanders

 

1. “One of us ran against Barack Obama. I was not that candidate.” -Sanders

 

1. “I am not a single-issue candidate, and I do not think we live in a single-issue country.” -Clinton

USDOT to create national public transit map

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has launched an initiative to create a “national transit map” that will display stops, routes and schedules for all participating U.S. transit agencies.

The department is asking transit agencies to voluntarily permit the collection of “general transit feed specification data” from their websites on a periodic basis, which will allow the incorporation of routing and schedule data into the transit map, USDOT officials said in a press release.

This kind of data defines a common format for public transportation schedules and associated geographic information, according to Google’s Developer page.

With that information, USDOT, planning agencies and researchers will be able to identify and address gaps in access to public transportation. To participate in the national transit map, transit agencies must register their data with the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and agree to standard terms of use.

The first “collection day” for the transit map will be March 31, when BTS will download and begin processing agencies’ registered datasets.

To develop the method for collecting, storing and publishing the map, BTS  worked with the USDOT’s chief information officer and office of transportation policy, as well the Federal Transit Administration.

This sounds like a fantastic project!

Well, the big “enchilada” for them is pictured at the top of the page.

I’m sure they could handle Baltimore

But they are assembling all sorts of “horses” (even Google) to work on this, so let’s see how they do.

Great comment from Robert R. Bullard  of Tulane University

A dynamic interactive real time map of all local, regional, intra-state, inter-state, national and North American public surface transportation systems may be a web site that is self-supporting with advertising. The data matrix could be routes, fares, transport unit features and limitations, real time schedule up dates, etc, a single source for North America of all public surface transit. Finally, the site could be used to collect data from users as to opportunities for the alterations/ expansion of systems to accomplish such things as adding nodes to connect local, regional or inter-state systems to each other. I certainly believe the for-profit long haul passenger carriers would support a system that would ehance the conveyance of ridership to their transport nodes.

Years ago I had an elderly friend who once a week made a round trip from Richmond, CA to Menlo Park, CA around SF Bay on only local buses involving 11 tranfers each way. I met her at the local stop in Richmond a little after midnite on her return trip to give her a ride home as she fell asleep in the passenger’s seat. Her experience caused me to fantasize about public transportation being so well developed in the US that I could access every community of a population of 1,000 or more in the lower 48 at least once per week by either bus or train.

Subway Stations Will Be In Really Bad Shape For The Rest of Our Lives

By the time the New York subway system is in complete working order, many of today’s commuters will be dead and buried.

A scathing report has found that it will take until the year 2067 to get the entire system out of disrepair because the MTA is focusing too much on expansion and not enough on necessary work.

“The stations won’t be in good repair basically for the foreseeable future,” said Jamison Dague, a research associate at the Citizens Budget Commission, which performed the study.

The group blamed the seemingly eternal dilapidation on the MTA’s failure to spend the money for a complete renovation.

The report said that 25 percent of the system’s thousands of structural elements — including stairs, platform edges and columns — are in major disrepair in New York’s 467 subway stations.

In 33 of the stations, more than half of the structural elements are badly broken, the report said.

The report focused on the state of the subway stations and did not make any findings on the condition of elements such as the tracks, signals and trains.

The commission recommended the MTA hold off on expansion projects such as the Second Avenue Subway until it can get existing stations in order.

“We respectfully disagree with their recommendation to reduce spending on expansion projects,” said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.

“At a time when growing ridership is leading to crowding and delays, we must pursue expansion projects that will accommodate more customers as well as provide new connections and opportunities for our customers.”

The report compared the MTA — which consistently pushes back its repair target dates — to the Greek myth of King Sisyphus, who was punished by being forced to forever push a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back when he got to the top.

In 1981, the MTA plan was to have the total renovation project completed by 1991. In 1992, it pushed the date back to 2009, and by the mid-1990s, it was aiming for 2019, a full 38 years after it originally started working on the project.

Last decade, the MTA completely gave up on setting a date for the project’s completion. In that time, it has spent nearly $7.3 billion making the same repairs over and over again.

The MTA has budgeted $26.8 billion for its as-of-yet unfunded 2015-2019 capital plan. Even with those funds, the MTA won’t be on track for a full fix.

The worst stations in the system are the 52nd Street station on the 7 line, the 85th Street/Forest Parkway Station on the J, and the 175th Street station on the A line.

Additional reporting by Amanda Woods

March 13, 1884: When Time Began

Daylight Saving Time (United States) 2016 begins at 2:00 AM on Sunday, March 13

March 13, 1884 “Standard Time” takes effect for the railroads, with four time zones across the United States. Standard time will not be official in the U.S. until 1918.

So how did this all come about by actions of the United States railroads? Would have thought it was a law passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President? Would have thought it was carefully considered by the Executive branch: Departments of Homeland Security and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. But neither of them were around in 1884.

The United States was divided into four time zones on November 18, 1883, and jurisdiction for the zones was given to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). All places keep the same time within each time zone. The zones in the United States were intended to represent the mean times of four different meridians (not including daylight saving time):

1. Eastern Standard Time (EST).
2. Central Standard Time (CST).
3. Mountain Standard Time (MST).
4. Pacific Standard Time (PST).

A congressional act transferred the ICC’s responsibilities on time zone boundaries to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in 1967. Today, the United States and its territories observe standard time within nine time zones. The United States’ time zones are defined in the U.S. Code, Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX – Standard Time. The US law on zones for standard time also states the term Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), referring to it as the time scale maintained through the General Conference of Weights and Measures and interpreted or modified for the United States by the Secretary of Commerce in coordination with the Secretary of the Navy.

DOT is also responsible for the rules governing DST (not all parts of the United States observe daylight saving time). Daylight saving time in many parts of the United States is in line with section 110 of the United States’ Energy Policy Act of 2005, which states that daylight saving time would begin on the second Sunday of March and it would end on first Sunday of November. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 does not alter the rights of the states and territories that choose not to observe daylight saving time.

States and territories in the United States that do not observe daylight saving time include: Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and most of Arizona except the Navajo Nation Community. Some parts of Indiana previously did not observe daylight saving time but the state is now united in observing the schedule despite being split into different time zones.

Miami Democratic Debate Proves Both Campaigns Don’t Think It’s Over

When Hillary Clinton launched another misleading attack on Bernie Sanders, she was signaling that her campaign does not think they have the nomination wrapped up. If the Clinton campaign thought they had the nomination in hand they would not do anything to jeopardize winning over Sanders supporters.

It was by far the most spirited debate of the cycle. It was Bernie Sanders’ best debate, and could add to the momentum generated by his win in Michigan. Some point to his positions on Cuba as a reason Sanders lost the debate. They are wrong, and fail to see the generational divide in the Cuban community. When President Obama eased the sanctions with Cuba and restored diplomatic relations, Cubans under 65 supported the move.

Florida International University has polled Miami-area Cuban Americans since 1991. In its most recent survey, a slight majority of them supported lifting the embargo and a large majority, 68%, favored reopening diplomatic relations.

Older Cuban Americans, many of whom left Cuba in the years immediately after Fidel Castro’s revolution, still supported the embargo, the poll found; those younger than 65 did not. And let’s remember, the hard line anti-Castro Cubans will be choosing between Marco, Ted, and The Donald next Tuesday.

So once again the corporate media, with their lazy analysis, is peddling the outdated narrative that Cuban Americans are anti-Castro and would not support a candidate who wants to normalize relations and lift the embargo. Times have changed, and Bernie Sanders got it right.

On the environment, Sanders called on Clinton to join him in supporting a carbon tax and ending fracking. I have not heard any response from Clinton to his challenge.

Sanders renewed his call for Clinton to release the transcripts to her speeches to Goldman Sachs, saying they must have been great speeches to warrant the hundreds of thousands of dollars she received. Clinton’s response has always been that she will release the transcripts when all of the other presidential candidates release theirs. Bernie threw his arms in the air and said, “Here are the transcripts to my speeches to Wall Street – there are none.”

Time after time, Sanders put Clinton on the defensive. On the few occasions when Bernie was attacked, he easily deflected the attacks. Clinton returned to her auto bailout claim that has already been debunked by the media and fact checkers. Doubling down, she tried to tie Bernie to the Koch brothers. Anyone who knows Bernie knows that nobody has fought the Kochs harder than he has.

On immigration, they both scored points, and then both agreed to not deport children or illegal immigrants with no criminal record. I thought Bernie was more direct and believable when making the pledge. Hillary’s claim about Bernie voting for indefinite detention and support for the minutemen was similar to her auto bailout claim. On the minutemen, it was an amendment to a bigger bill that was deemed meaningless. It was designed to kill the bill, but was just ignored by Democrats because it was nothing more than a resolution and had no authority.

Hillary Clinton’s best moments were when she was defending herself from questions by the moderators on Benghazi and her emails. I didn’t see her lay out a vision for where she will take the country.

Overall, Bernie showed the country why he is doing so well in blue states. He forcefully laid out a true progressive agenda and forced Hillary to try to tell Democrats why the policies they believe in are not achievable. The crowd rose to its feet at the end, when Senator Sanders laid out his agenda and said, “That is why I am running for President!”

There is only one candidate that will motivate the blue team to turn out in November.

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

Note to Establishment Media: Bernie Can Win

Sanders Campaign Reacts to Michigan Win

 

keep hearing the talking heads on the corporate news saying “nobody” expected Bernie Sanders to win Michigan. It’s a good thing that many Americans have stopped listening to the pundits. Most Americans are not sitting around waiting for CNN to tell them what will happen.

Gone are the days of reporters waiting for a story to develop. Instead they try to shape the story themselves. There is a place for opinion-based journalism. I for example don’t hide my support for Bernie Sanders. The problem is when reporters are selling themselves as nonpartisan but are participating in the selling of one candidate.

RSN readers know we are a progressive site that has endorsed Bernie Sanders. CNN, MSNBC, and other news networks claim to be nonpartisan. We see them constantly creating their own reality.

Without a doubt, Bernie Sanders still has an uphill battle to overcome the lead that Hillary Clinton has built up in the South. The delegates are out there though, so they should stop saying that Bernie can’t win.

Jeff Weaver, Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, has started to float the notion that Hillary Clinton is a regional candidate. She won Massachusetts and Nevada, but the majority of her victories have come in the South. Her only wins out of the South have been very close races. There is no doubt that the Sanders campaign failed at connecting with African Americans in the South. They still have work to do but made progress with African Americans in Michigan. Hillary Clinton got 65% of the African American vote in Michigan as compared to 31% for Sanders. It was a different story in Mississippi. Clinton won the black vote 85% to 11% over Sanders. Sanders’ gains in Michigan were fueled by young black voters where one exit poll had Sanders only losing by 1 point with black voters under 35.

The Mississippi win helped Clinton to increase her lead in pledged delegates. The problem for the Clinton campaign is that there are no more southern states left.

North Carolina and Florida do not have the same demographics as the southern states that she dominated.

Sanders must now win about 56% of the remaining delegates to win the nomination. It won’t be easy, but his campaign team stresses that the path ahead includes more states that play to his strengths.

The spin continues, we watch reporters on CNN and other networks making excuses for the Clinton campaign. It’s almost as if CNN is the Clinton News Network. Bernie’s win should change the narrative, but don’t be surprised if the pro-Clinton spin continues.

The lesson the media should take from tonight’s results is to let the people’s vote determine the winner. On to Ohio, Illinois, Florida, and North Carolina.

Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

Comets (1) UPENDED By Rochester Amerks (3)

After winning three straight games, the Utica Comets were cooled off to the tune of 3-1 by the Rochester Americans Friday night at the Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester. It was the just the second time this season, and the first since the American Hockey League’s opening night, that the Amerks defeated the Comets.

Chris Higgins (1-0-1) and Andrey Pedan (0-1-1) accounted for all the Comets points, while Richard Bachman made 27 saves in the loss.

The Amerks new guys once again wasted no time making a mark on the game. After scoring twice in his Amerks debut last week, Eric O’Dell staked his new team to a 1-0 lead when he flipped a rebound over the glove of Bachman, from his knees, 7:55 into the game. Cole Schneider, also acquired in the same Senators-Sabres trade, picked up an assist on the goal after grabbing three assists in his Amerks debut.

The Amerks struck again and doubled their lead just 55 seconds into the second period when Justin Bailey converted on a perfect back door feed from William Carrier.

The Comets clawed to within one in the third period when Chris Higgins redirected an Andrey Pedan shot past Ullmark at the 5:03 mark of the third period.

The Amerks added an empty-net goal with 30 seconds left to account for the final tally.

With the win, the Comets record dropped to 30-20-5-3.

The Comets three-in-three weekend continues in Albany tomorrow night at 5pm. The Albany Devils are just eight points up on the Comets for second place in the North Division.