So wait is the answer "build high speed rail?" Is the answer "strike down regulation?" Is the answer "build more housing?" 'cuz it sure looks like Ezra Klein is arguing for State Capitalism:

In the time California has spent failing to complete its 500-mile high-speed rail system, China has built more than 23,000 miles of high-speed rail.

'cuz there's a flip side to that. In fact, I wonder what 2006 Ezra Klein would say to 2025 Ezra Klein about giant government projects of limited utility.

Arguing that California ought to imitate Texas building codes is certainly... a take. California's building codes used to be a lot more lax; how'd that work out?

The problem with high speed rail in California isn't trying to make the air breathable for brown people, it's the fact that California is a wretched den of graft and corruption. California has higher sales taxes, higher property taxes and income taxes where Washington doesn't, yet the roads are shit, the government is strapped and nobody answers your call because California is breathtakingly corrupt. This is actually more common in highly-concentrated regions which tend to lean Democratic. Nobody ever talks about the Texas mafia. New York? Chicago? Los Angeles? Organized crime tends to be where the people are. Those people, of course, are now moving to where the people aren't because - as Ezra Klein says - it's too fucking expensive to live there anymore. Most nations deal with this problem through government-subsidized housing but of course that requires, you know, socialism. Gonna be interesting watching all the red states square individual determinism with shrinking coastlines, dropping water tables and rising temperatures via Texas-style building codes but maybe Ezra can ask Gavin Newsom's opinion on that later. I mean, not only did he stick his dick in Kim Guilfoyle multiple times he put a ring on it which makes him a centrist, I guess.

The liberal answer to right wing populism was left wing populism. Its name was Bernie Sanders and the Democrats successfully defeated it. As a consequence, the Democratic Party survived. The Republicans failed to defeat right wing populism and the result was the effective death of the Republican Party. Now - it's not hard to argue that the Democratic Party needs to die, too. They sure AF need to learn where their fucking votes come from, rather than just their donation dollars. They don't come from "tear down building codes." You wanna see how fucked up the regard for infrastructure is?

- Congestion pricing is disapproved nearly 2:1 in NYC (47% disapprove, 27% approve)

- But congestion pricing is believed to have lowered commutes and congestion nearly 2:1 (47% agree, 27% disagree)

- Congestion pricing should be kept by a nearly 10% margin (59% keep)

You wanna see how to win votes? It's not rocket science. It's "kindness and handouts." If you wanna get wonky, it's "kindness and handouts that I don't have to pay for." "Make America more like Texas and/or China" is nowhere on that agenda, no matter how far up his own ass Ezra Klein crawls.