I’m actually all for these overpasses. I’ve seen them in Canada and they can be quite helpful. However. As stated in the post, this project in particular has become a, to use their own word of choice “boondoggle” with nut jobs adding their hair involved and one giant sucking sound. Keep shining the light.
Trouble is, those pushing these projects do not share your pure motives. You see legitimate benefit to wildlife. They see a funding opportunity they can get their grubby fingers into to peel off a pile of cash for an associated cost they're going to come up with to justify attaching it to the overall project.
Suddenly, taxpayers in California are not only helping California wildlife — whether they want to, or not — they're funding, say, a leftist-run NGO that, supposedly (wink, wink), uses that money to teach third world kids in foreign countries to care about the monarch butterflies.
Never mind the travel logs all show First World trips to Greece, Fiji, Dubai... places where nobody has never even heard of Monarch butterflies, much less has any opportunity to positively impact them as a species.
NOBODY who opposes projects like this does so because the don't care about nature. EVERYONE who opposes projects like this does so because they are WIDE AWAKE to the ways these projects become expensively corrupted; awake to how corrupt political opportunists hideously defraud the goodwill of taxpayers who said yes to the project basis its good intentions, but now are — with no voice in the matter — forced to fund things they'd have never agreed to.
Those politicians cannot be hung on gallows tall enough.
Not 'trouble' at all. Just because a cause or project has been used for grift and corruption does not make it rotten, nor vice versa. The Roman road system built the foundation for civilizational progress, but I'd be really surprised if some of the Senate and generals didn't get stinking rich from grifting it. This is a rare, much needed project. The fact that it's a tool for scumbags to grift does not take that away. Personally, I'd like to see those who can be proven beyond any doubt to have stolen public funds (or participated in patronage schemes) to make personal contributions to the mountain lions....as meat.
"Just because a cause or project has been used for grift and corruption does not make it rotten, nor vice versa."
That raises the question of how much graft and corruption we can tolerate. My uneducated guess is that a well-run government project probably has about 10% fraud, waste and abuse. The average project is more like 25%. Then you get to California and Minnesota levels where legitimate programs can't get funded because essentially all the government funding is being stolen.
I'm all for those wildlife bridges, too, but those projects can be built for 1% of what they're spending. Taxpayers' money given to worthless politicians and other disgusting grifters is the problem...like Stacey Abrams in Georgia. UGH!
sure in Canada.. I have been to Toronto.. but that was while ago.. I am just glad I LIVED.. and I am still alive but am in the front of the church pew now.. over 65 .. and tired of the nonsense, the lies.. the grafts and the grifts.. so will pray for future generations.
California and in particular Gavin Newsome are a classic reason why the American debt is 36 + billion dollars. This. Folly crossing is the classic example of BUREAUCRACY + STUPIDITY coming together to produce the CROSSING TO NOWHERE THAT NEVER ENDS ! There are more “ cost overruns “ here than runners in a Boston Marathon . If California keeps up this lunacy pace of spending $$ on “ butterfly walkways “ in the sky at the taxpayers expense there will be NO MORE TAXPAYERS left in California only butterflies !
One thing about Substack: the "Edit" functionality actually works. If you've come from elsewhere and never had the ability, try it. You'll be very pleased.
What does that have to do with Gavin the Clown and the thievery in California ? HERES a thought for you …. The reason that 8 trillion + exists is because of the $$ fraudulently received by states like Mass -Calif-Minnesota - Maine -N Y - N J - Arizona to name some who are all on the list for RECEIVING FRAUDULENT $$ FOR. LEARING CENTERS + HOSPICE SERVICES THAT DONT EXIST ! Now President Trump is auditing these Democratic controlled states and going after the criminals ( all governors ) who perpetrated this scandal !
Newsom doesn't care about wasting taxpayer money. It's not his so why would he? How much did his trip to Davos cost him? Probably nothing. These people are living fat and happy while regular taxpayers are guilted into giving up more.
It's more than that. The purpose of the project was never to create a wildlife crossing. The purpose was to funnel money to the Democratic Party's friends and allies (the groups as they're called.) As such, the project is succeeding magnificently.
CA politics is corrupt at a level that would make (fellow Democrat) Boss Tweed blush. I think this is hard for people outside this state to comprehend.
Right! It's terrible! And all they need to do to shut down any dissent or questions is call "racism" or some other descriptive that will shame anyone bold enough to bring irregularities to light. They had it all figured out but fortunately there's a crack in the armor and tides are turning so there is hope.
Marie Antoinette lives! There’s no boondoggle,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in,” a potential $21 million overage is “not that bad.” Of course it’s not her dough.
The most beautiful state in the union is being ruined by the one party regime. Trains to nowhere, bridges for butterflies, sanctuaries for addicts and the mentally ill, open drug markets, human misery and death in urban slums redefined as dignified living, poop apps as a navigation aid, free everything for anyone waddling across the border, while taxing the sh*t out of working citizens. Why build or fix anything if whole armies of appointed cronies, private and public, can get paid great sums for studying and planning it? Anyone who's pointing the obvious corruption, incompetence and malfeasance out gets the "Well, it's not that bad!" Why? Because the weather is so nice, the nature so beautiful and the surf is up this week!
I'm not defending CA, but those overpasses for critters can be built FAR CHEAPER than the millions they're spending on them. There's one a few miles from my house in Georgia.
No denying our society is rapidly unraveling in many ways. Another big way is due to our war with Iran. Rand Paul says “We can’t rebuild Iran, we have no money!” A major demand by Iran though for them to re-open the straight is for America to pay reparations for the damage done. Trump will never agree to that plus it’d be politically impossible since most Americans were opposed to this war. This means the war can only escalate with no end in sight. This does not bode well for our future or for the future of our world.
“We can’t rebuild Iran, we have no money!” Rand Paul on War in Iran. (11 min)
Seva the Iran conflict has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR DREAMBOAT GOVERNOR ! Obviously you don’t want Gavin + his pals blamed for this butterfly walkway to nowhere . Remember this GAVIN + his merry gang of squanderers started this “ never ending project “ long before there was an Iranian conflict . I suppose also under your theory that the Railway to Nowhere as well as other Newsom calamities is the fault of the POTUS ! The one thing about stupidity is you can’t hide it forever eventually it shows as in the Gavin Projects to Nowhere ! Get this right Trump DIDN’T. HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH GAVIN’S LUNATIC PROJECTS TO BANKRUPT CALIFORNIA ! GAVIN AND YOUR STATE DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS OWN THIS ALL BY THEMSELVES and all of them should be in prison for committing FRAUD ON THE TAXPAYERS !
We couldn’t rebuild Japan, Germany or Europe either. Has Rand ever seen what a successful war of winning is, how it is waged or what happened afterwards? Nope. Can you? All he has is the experiences of the past failures of wars to bring the other side to negotiations, the most recent being Obama and Biden. What would it cost to rebuild any of our big cities after a nuclear device was set off? I like Rand. But sometimes he spends more time denigrating rather than helping find a solution. This is not a war of choice because Obama and Biden made the wrong choice to let Iran go on its merry way to fulfill its promises to make everyone in their radical Islam imagine. And quite frankly, no one, no living Dem leader, has any idea how to wage a war to win. All they know is how to lose them and negotiate worthless treaties that make the world less safe. Trump was forced to make the decision he did because previous presidents would not. No one has any expertise to judge, it’s just ignorant whining of those who have no idea how to keep our country, not to mention the world, safe.
How absurd. You are stuck in Korea, old man. Your assumptions are flawed, as are Rand Paul's. No one has ever said we are going to rebuild Iran, except for Perpetual Naysayer Rand Paul. Why should we? Once things are straightened out they can rebuild themselves with their oil revenues and highly educated population. We would remain observers as long as rebuilding doesn't include nuclear weapons development.
“No one has ever said we are going to rebuild Iran,”
The Iranians say the war will not end until Israel/America pay reparations for the damage done. I live in Chicago, not Korea. I’m a man but far from old.
The Persians who want nothing more than just their freedom fully intend to rebuild their own country themselves, abs they're not at all blind to the reality that foreign investment in Iran's profitable industries will flow naturally from investors seeing opportunity to profit from funding the reconstruction and expansion of those industries.
Rand Paul is lunatic talking as if every dime of Iranian Reconstruction has to come from the Federal Treasury. Iran is a resource rich country. There is massive opportunity for mutually profitable collaboration that warrants boatloads of private, foreign capital flowing in.
I prefer a different plan to yours: we win; they die. That's a plan that does "bode well for our future" and the Iranians future, and everyone else's in the world too.
I grant you that there's lots of risk. But endlessly kicking the can down the road here ends with an apocalyptic religious cult getting nuclear weapons. That strikes me as a far larger risk than the closure (however long) of the straight of Hormuz.
The IRGC is decentralized and spread out. They have much support within the country and are getting help from Russia with precision targeting intelligence and improved technology for their missiles and drones. It won’t take many of them to keep the straight closed.
IRGC is "spread out" because their ranks have been... uhhhh... "thinned."
Substantially.
They are spread out among a Persian majority that has it in for them.
They are at the point of going into hiding because they no longer have the numbers across the country to threaten the people with violent suppression.
Instead, the people are gaining the upper hand, and the hunters are becoming the hunted.
The claim that IRGC has "much support within the country" could be a story straight outta the mouth of ol' "Baghdad Bob" who gained international buffoon status for claiming the Americans could never reach Baghdad, even as American tanks were rolling across the landscape behind him.
The only "support" IRGC has remaining are their own trembling, knocking knees.
If they surrender and throw themselves groveling upon the mercy of the Persian people, perhaps some will be permitted to live.
"Hire a man to build a bridge and he has employment for a year. Hire a man to manage a government bridge building project and he has employment for eternity."
Also, it only spans a single highway that’s merely 200’ long! Look up the aerial photos (and ask yourself what native plants have to do with an urban highway overpass).
Papa Smurf would be proud! I’m curious how much of that money was recycled back into Democrat political campaigns through donations? They definitely have a knack for that kind of recycling. Seriously, these people would virtue signal themselves off a cliff if given the opportunity.
Wasting money is a feature--not a bug--for those with a globalist agenda.
I'm not kidding.
Exactly. They aren't necessarily ‘wasting’ the money if it's going to political allies or supporters. They use taxpayer money as a slush fund.
I’m actually all for these overpasses. I’ve seen them in Canada and they can be quite helpful. However. As stated in the post, this project in particular has become a, to use their own word of choice “boondoggle” with nut jobs adding their hair involved and one giant sucking sound. Keep shining the light.
Same, I think they're good. But other countries and states are building them for $5 million instead of $100 million.
Trouble is, those pushing these projects do not share your pure motives. You see legitimate benefit to wildlife. They see a funding opportunity they can get their grubby fingers into to peel off a pile of cash for an associated cost they're going to come up with to justify attaching it to the overall project.
Suddenly, taxpayers in California are not only helping California wildlife — whether they want to, or not — they're funding, say, a leftist-run NGO that, supposedly (wink, wink), uses that money to teach third world kids in foreign countries to care about the monarch butterflies.
Never mind the travel logs all show First World trips to Greece, Fiji, Dubai... places where nobody has never even heard of Monarch butterflies, much less has any opportunity to positively impact them as a species.
NOBODY who opposes projects like this does so because the don't care about nature. EVERYONE who opposes projects like this does so because they are WIDE AWAKE to the ways these projects become expensively corrupted; awake to how corrupt political opportunists hideously defraud the goodwill of taxpayers who said yes to the project basis its good intentions, but now are — with no voice in the matter — forced to fund things they'd have never agreed to.
Those politicians cannot be hung on gallows tall enough.
Not 'trouble' at all. Just because a cause or project has been used for grift and corruption does not make it rotten, nor vice versa. The Roman road system built the foundation for civilizational progress, but I'd be really surprised if some of the Senate and generals didn't get stinking rich from grifting it. This is a rare, much needed project. The fact that it's a tool for scumbags to grift does not take that away. Personally, I'd like to see those who can be proven beyond any doubt to have stolen public funds (or participated in patronage schemes) to make personal contributions to the mountain lions....as meat.
"Just because a cause or project has been used for grift and corruption does not make it rotten, nor vice versa."
That raises the question of how much graft and corruption we can tolerate. My uneducated guess is that a well-run government project probably has about 10% fraud, waste and abuse. The average project is more like 25%. Then you get to California and Minnesota levels where legitimate programs can't get funded because essentially all the government funding is being stolen.
I'm all for those wildlife bridges, too, but those projects can be built for 1% of what they're spending. Taxpayers' money given to worthless politicians and other disgusting grifters is the problem...like Stacey Abrams in Georgia. UGH!
sure in Canada.. I have been to Toronto.. but that was while ago.. I am just glad I LIVED.. and I am still alive but am in the front of the church pew now.. over 65 .. and tired of the nonsense, the lies.. the grafts and the grifts.. so will pray for future generations.
agreed, I’ve seen them driving from Calgary to Banff. simple. effective.
“One reason is that Newsom and WAWC’s philanthropic supporters apparently don’t mind it becoming a patronage program.”
Indeed, that is clearly the intent of many projects at every level of government.
Similar to how USAID was being used, or how Abrams received $2B in “green” grants.
Estimates of one in seven dollars (one trillion annually) of the US budget are entirely believable.
"The worst of man is seen whenever people are shielded from accountability for their actions." - Sarah Cain, The Crusader Gal
Newscum is exhibit A.
When you have to start a news conference with, “there’s no boondoggle", it's almost certainly a boondoggle.
where is Nick Shirley when we need him lol. Actually he is in CA which is great
He should be in Florida. That state has a much higher rate of fraud.
California and in particular Gavin Newsome are a classic reason why the American debt is 36 + billion dollars. This. Folly crossing is the classic example of BUREAUCRACY + STUPIDITY coming together to produce the CROSSING TO NOWHERE THAT NEVER ENDS ! There are more “ cost overruns “ here than runners in a Boston Marathon . If California keeps up this lunacy pace of spending $$ on “ butterfly walkways “ in the sky at the taxpayers expense there will be NO MORE TAXPAYERS left in California only butterflies !
Trillion dollars sorry about the dollar mistake
One thing about Substack: the "Edit" functionality actually works. If you've come from elsewhere and never had the ability, try it. You'll be very pleased.
Thank you
Trump has added more to the national debt than any other president in history. $8.18 trillion in his first term alone!! And still counting!!
What does that have to do with Gavin the Clown and the thievery in California ? HERES a thought for you …. The reason that 8 trillion + exists is because of the $$ fraudulently received by states like Mass -Calif-Minnesota - Maine -N Y - N J - Arizona to name some who are all on the list for RECEIVING FRAUDULENT $$ FOR. LEARING CENTERS + HOSPICE SERVICES THAT DONT EXIST ! Now President Trump is auditing these Democratic controlled states and going after the criminals ( all governors ) who perpetrated this scandal !
Newsom doesn't care about wasting taxpayer money. It's not his so why would he? How much did his trip to Davos cost him? Probably nothing. These people are living fat and happy while regular taxpayers are guilted into giving up more.
It's more than that. The purpose of the project was never to create a wildlife crossing. The purpose was to funnel money to the Democratic Party's friends and allies (the groups as they're called.) As such, the project is succeeding magnificently.
CA politics is corrupt at a level that would make (fellow Democrat) Boss Tweed blush. I think this is hard for people outside this state to comprehend.
Right! It's terrible! And all they need to do to shut down any dissent or questions is call "racism" or some other descriptive that will shame anyone bold enough to bring irregularities to light. They had it all figured out but fortunately there's a crack in the armor and tides are turning so there is hope.
Marie Antoinette lives! There’s no boondoggle,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in,” a potential $21 million overage is “not that bad.” Of course it’s not her dough.
Marie Antoinette had more sense.
The most beautiful state in the union is being ruined by the one party regime. Trains to nowhere, bridges for butterflies, sanctuaries for addicts and the mentally ill, open drug markets, human misery and death in urban slums redefined as dignified living, poop apps as a navigation aid, free everything for anyone waddling across the border, while taxing the sh*t out of working citizens. Why build or fix anything if whole armies of appointed cronies, private and public, can get paid great sums for studying and planning it? Anyone who's pointing the obvious corruption, incompetence and malfeasance out gets the "Well, it's not that bad!" Why? Because the weather is so nice, the nature so beautiful and the surf is up this week!
You forgot child trafficking
Double the overpass’s utility and funding sources by routing the high-speed rail over it. 😅
lol!!!
Overpasses for critters, while homeless veterans and civilians sleep in LA's streets.
You sure have your priorities straight, Gavin.
I'm not defending CA, but those overpasses for critters can be built FAR CHEAPER than the millions they're spending on them. There's one a few miles from my house in Georgia.
Perhaps we can kill 2 birds with one stone. Couldn't the homeless vets sleep UNDER the critter overpass? (Yes, I'm being facetious.)
Not surprising! "I miss the old Darren." (I know most of you have not idea what I just said) but I miss CA from the '60's and '70's
Oh, wow. Is that a "Bewitched" reference? I've been here since the Johnson Administration and that's the only popular "Darren" I know of.
"SAM ---!"
New Darren was meh, especially compared to REAL (old) Darren.
No denying our society is rapidly unraveling in many ways. Another big way is due to our war with Iran. Rand Paul says “We can’t rebuild Iran, we have no money!” A major demand by Iran though for them to re-open the straight is for America to pay reparations for the damage done. Trump will never agree to that plus it’d be politically impossible since most Americans were opposed to this war. This means the war can only escalate with no end in sight. This does not bode well for our future or for the future of our world.
“We can’t rebuild Iran, we have no money!” Rand Paul on War in Iran. (11 min)
Noosphere. Mar 16, 2026
https://youtu.be/KzqidAe3Tkw?si=lvaNy9vtPUNVkE0P
Seva the Iran conflict has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR DREAMBOAT GOVERNOR ! Obviously you don’t want Gavin + his pals blamed for this butterfly walkway to nowhere . Remember this GAVIN + his merry gang of squanderers started this “ never ending project “ long before there was an Iranian conflict . I suppose also under your theory that the Railway to Nowhere as well as other Newsom calamities is the fault of the POTUS ! The one thing about stupidity is you can’t hide it forever eventually it shows as in the Gavin Projects to Nowhere ! Get this right Trump DIDN’T. HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH GAVIN’S LUNATIC PROJECTS TO BANKRUPT CALIFORNIA ! GAVIN AND YOUR STATE DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS OWN THIS ALL BY THEMSELVES and all of them should be in prison for committing FRAUD ON THE TAXPAYERS !
We couldn’t rebuild Japan, Germany or Europe either. Has Rand ever seen what a successful war of winning is, how it is waged or what happened afterwards? Nope. Can you? All he has is the experiences of the past failures of wars to bring the other side to negotiations, the most recent being Obama and Biden. What would it cost to rebuild any of our big cities after a nuclear device was set off? I like Rand. But sometimes he spends more time denigrating rather than helping find a solution. This is not a war of choice because Obama and Biden made the wrong choice to let Iran go on its merry way to fulfill its promises to make everyone in their radical Islam imagine. And quite frankly, no one, no living Dem leader, has any idea how to wage a war to win. All they know is how to lose them and negotiate worthless treaties that make the world less safe. Trump was forced to make the decision he did because previous presidents would not. No one has any expertise to judge, it’s just ignorant whining of those who have no idea how to keep our country, not to mention the world, safe.
Great points about obama @ biden , two of the worst politicians in history.
How absurd. You are stuck in Korea, old man. Your assumptions are flawed, as are Rand Paul's. No one has ever said we are going to rebuild Iran, except for Perpetual Naysayer Rand Paul. Why should we? Once things are straightened out they can rebuild themselves with their oil revenues and highly educated population. We would remain observers as long as rebuilding doesn't include nuclear weapons development.
“No one has ever said we are going to rebuild Iran,”
The Iranians say the war will not end until Israel/America pay reparations for the damage done. I live in Chicago, not Korea. I’m a man but far from old.
Which "Iranians" are saying these weird things?
The Persians who want nothing more than just their freedom fully intend to rebuild their own country themselves, abs they're not at all blind to the reality that foreign investment in Iran's profitable industries will flow naturally from investors seeing opportunity to profit from funding the reconstruction and expansion of those industries.
Rand Paul is lunatic talking as if every dime of Iranian Reconstruction has to come from the Federal Treasury. Iran is a resource rich country. There is massive opportunity for mutually profitable collaboration that warrants boatloads of private, foreign capital flowing in.
Then Israel will respond with the bill for the damage done to Israel by Iran and Hezbollah since 1980es. They will end up in black, I guarantee.
I prefer a different plan to yours: we win; they die. That's a plan that does "bode well for our future" and the Iranians future, and everyone else's in the world too.
I grant you that there's lots of risk. But endlessly kicking the can down the road here ends with an apocalyptic religious cult getting nuclear weapons. That strikes me as a far larger risk than the closure (however long) of the straight of Hormuz.
Trump said the nuclear material was obliterated last year when we attacked them during negotiations.
"most Americans were opposed to this War" This is not true. Every Parent I know wants the ideology of Iran Leaders gone.
The war will end when Iran runs out of rockets. It is coming soon.
The IRGC is decentralized and spread out. They have much support within the country and are getting help from Russia with precision targeting intelligence and improved technology for their missiles and drones. It won’t take many of them to keep the straight closed.
IRGC is "spread out" because their ranks have been... uhhhh... "thinned."
Substantially.
They are spread out among a Persian majority that has it in for them.
They are at the point of going into hiding because they no longer have the numbers across the country to threaten the people with violent suppression.
Instead, the people are gaining the upper hand, and the hunters are becoming the hunted.
The claim that IRGC has "much support within the country" could be a story straight outta the mouth of ol' "Baghdad Bob" who gained international buffoon status for claiming the Americans could never reach Baghdad, even as American tanks were rolling across the landscape behind him.
The only "support" IRGC has remaining are their own trembling, knocking knees.
If they surrender and throw themselves groveling upon the mercy of the Persian people, perhaps some will be permitted to live.
The rest...? Not so much.
Ah yes, the old proverb.
"Hire a man to build a bridge and he has employment for a year. Hire a man to manage a government bridge building project and he has employment for eternity."
Could this be the bridge to that LA to SF high speed train?? Similar boondoggle
Except that is is supposed to span the 101. Different route.
Also, it only spans a single highway that’s merely 200’ long! Look up the aerial photos (and ask yourself what native plants have to do with an urban highway overpass).
I know but with idiot newsom, who knows
Papa Smurf would be proud! I’m curious how much of that money was recycled back into Democrat political campaigns through donations? They definitely have a knack for that kind of recycling. Seriously, these people would virtue signal themselves off a cliff if given the opportunity.