Want to search for posts across your favourite author? Just click on their name to reach their '100 most recent posts' page, and then use the search box located beside their name.
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
No. of Recommendations: 14
BREAKING: Internal Interior Department and National Park Service documents reportedly show bubbles, pinholes, and uneven blue coating emerging during Trump's rushed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation.
The stated purpose of the project was to stop leaks.
But officials reportedly documented defects in the waterproofing layer itself:
• Bubbles and trapped air
• Pinholes and small holes
• Uneven, mottled blue coating
• Sections requiring rework
That's not just an aesthetic issue.
Pinholes and blistering are exactly the kinds of defects that can compromise a waterproofing system and shorten its lifespan.
The administration sold this as a fast, beautiful fix.
The documents reportedly show crews scrambling to correct quality problems while racing to meet a politically driven deadline.
A project intended to stop leaks was reportedly battling defects in the leak-prevention layer before it was even finished.
His fix for everything: charge an arm and a leg, then slap a coat of cheap paint on it. Forget the prep work… a coat of cheap paint covers a multitude of sins.
God help the next president who will be stuck with that “Bigly Beautiful Ballroom.”
My advice to that next president:
The best investment you’ll ever make is a big, beautiful wrecking ball.
No. of Recommendations: 4
All evidence points to NO FUCKING CHANCE.
No. of Recommendations: 1
The best investment you’ll ever make is a big, beautiful wrecking ball.
Make lots of money by having LOTS of wrecking balls and selling them to MAGA at $1+million each. END OF AN ERA (LOL) !!!
No. of Recommendations: 4
Relax.
This wasn't really about improving the reflecting pond, it was about transferring tax dollars to a crony via a no bid contract
Misson accomplished.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Added note: Algae is forming in the Reflecting Pool. Trump officials claim it is “residual”.
No. of Recommendations: 2
But officials reportedly documented defects in the waterproofing layer itself:
Sounds like a paving job in Michigan. Michigan law requires paving contractors to guarantee their work, for some period of time. For years, the story was the city or county would notice a new paving job breaking up, but the city or county could not make the warranty claim. They had to send the complaint to MDOT. The charge, for years, was that MDOT would slow walk the process. Eventually, sending their inspector to inspect the road. Then start the paperwork. By the time the warranty claim finally made it to the contractor, son of a gun, the warranty had run out, and the lousy pavement was the taxpayer's problem. A few years ago, it made the "news", when MDOT actually made the contractor tear up new concrete, and repave a section of freeway. Telegraph road, around 12 Mile and 13 Mile roads, was taken down to dirt, and completely rebuilt, around 2000 or 2001. Within six months, I saw that concrete breaking up.
Here's a bit from the net sifter.
Michigan’s history of inconsistent road warranty enforcement stems from bureaucratic hurdles within the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) rather than an explicit lack of legal requirements. While state law legally mandated pavement warranties in the 1990s, systemic oversight failures historically caused many repairs to slip through the cracks
1997 Legislative Mandate: The Michigan Legislature passed Act 79, directing MDOT to secure full replacement warranties of at least five years on state trunkline projects
2015 Audit Report: State auditors heavily criticized MDOT’s enforcement. The Office of the Auditor General found MDOT inconsistently tracked corrective actions, missed warranty expiration deadlines, and failed to notify contractors of defects in a timely manner.
Bottom line: bend over. The "JCs" want more.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 2
Sounds like a paving job in Michigan.
A couple of times a year, my wife and I drive to Missouri and Oklahoma to visit relatives. The roads there and back have become as familiar as our driveway.
Indiana Interstate 69 from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis is the noisiest. Near as I can figure it, the washboard feature built into the road surface is designed to quickly sluice water off the road. A great feature, but my tires sing to me the entire length of it.
Michigan road surfaces are notorious, but living here, we get used to it…… unless we are returning after being out of state for a couple of weeks.
A little over a week ago, we returned home after a wonderful trip…… on rt 23.
North of Toledo, we hit the state line and the roadway noticeably worsened. Tarred over cracks and covered potholes.
Thump……… thump.thump went the tires.
My wife was dozing in the seat next to me, but she woke briefly to comment:
“Well… we’re back in Michigan.”
No. of Recommendations: 3
North of Toledo, we hit the state line and the roadway noticeably worsened. Tarred over cracks and covered potholes.
Yup. My aunt used to live in a 'burb of Columbus. I would go down 23, loop around Toledo to 75, and onward.
At that time, MDOT had recently been working on 23. Still noisy to drive on. The moment I crossed to Ohio, it was like driving on a billiard table.
The difference, of course, was that Ohio was willing to spend a bit on things that benefited the general population, rather than only the "JCs". Ohio supplemented fuel taxes and registration fees with money from General Revenue. Michigan used to put some General Revenue money into road maintenance. Then Lansing raised fuel taxes and registration fees, so they could withdraw the General Revenue money, to help cover more tax cuts for the "JCs".
For you folks that think Bill and I are exaggerating: the net sifter on per capita road maintenance spending in the Great Lakes region, in 2012:
In 2012, Michigan spent the least on a per capita basis for highways and road maintenance of any state in the U.S. At $126 per resident, its per capita investment was dramatically lower than all other Great Lakes states, where per capita spending doubled or nearly tripled that of Michigan
How Great Lakes States Compared in 2012
Michigan: $126 per person
Indiana: $339 per person
Illinois: $325 per person
Wisconsin: $295 per person
Ohio: $258 per person
Minnesota: $241 per person
In 2018, Whitmer ran for Gov, on the issue of road maintenance. Of course, the legislature wouldn't give her any money, until We The People decreed redistricting be handed over to an independent board, breaking the GOP's 40 year lock on the legislature.
from the net sifter:
In 2024, Michigan’s total state and federal road funding exceeded $6.6 billion (representing over $5.4 billion in state funds alone). On a per capita basis, Michigan spent about $660 per resident, ranking in the middle tier nationally (around 30th to 39th). Compared to other Great Lakes states, Michigan's per capita road funding is higher than Ohio and Indiana, but lags behind Illinois and Wisconsin when adjusted for total lane miles.
Middle of the pack isn't bad, considering the state had been dead last in the country, a dozen years earlier. Are we driving on billiard table smooth roads? No. Because middle of the pack funding, for a few years, can't make up for decades of neglect.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 2
Middle of the pack isn't bad, considering the state had been dead last in the country, a dozen years earlier. Are we driving on billiard table smooth roads? No. Because middle of the pack funding, for a few years, can't make up for decades of neglect.
Something funny, though- the roads are great up north in areas that have been controlled by Republicans. Methinks the expenditure of state highway funds were directed for years by a Republican legislature to Republican areas of the state. Up near our cabin in Alcona county, the well paved roads even have 4 feet wide strips across the pavement every few miles, with signs saying “Snowmobile crossing”.
Nothing like driving down a well built, fairly well maintained road with little traffic on it in Northern Michigan.
At least- compared with the worn, heavy industrial corridors of Wayne and Washtenau counties.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Reminds me of living in Chicago during the 1970’s reign of King Richard J. Daley.
If you lived in an area of the city with an alderman who was a yes man for King Richard, your streets got plowed first, your garbage got picked up on a regular schedule, potholes got fixed, and the police responded in a timely manner.
If you weren’t lucky enough to live in such an area…
No. of Recommendations: 2
Something funny, though- the roads are great up north in areas that have been controlled by Republicans. Methinks the expenditure of state highway funds were directed for years by a Republican legislature to Republican areas of the state.
Canton Township, where I live, started to levy a property tax, for road maintenance, even though the township is not responsible for any of the roads in the township, because the state and county, who *are* responsible for the roads, were not getting the job done.
I went to a public meeting about the road maintenance tax, and learned an interesting nugget from the township engineer: Lansing allocates road funding to counties, based on the number of lane-miles of road in the county, regardless how much traffic uses the roads. When my former GOP State Senator, ran for Gov, shortly after I had that conversation with the township engineer, I drove over to the GOP HQ in Livonia for a meet and greet with him. I asked him about the road funding apportionment. He agreed, the Canton engineer had it just about right. He then added that the rural outstate counties that benefit from the current system, hold the majority of the GOP seats in Lansing, and, at that time, the GOP held the majority of both houses, so the system was not going to change.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 1
He then added that the rural outstate counties that benefit from the current system, hold the majority of the GOP seats in Lansing, and, at that time, the GOP held the majority of both houses, so the system was not going to change.
Whelp- there it is.
