While all that is true, at least in Portland it will be partially off-set by the need for added security.

We ALREADY see it as is with the paid system, it would just get worse in a free system:

https://www.kptv.com/2026/02/11/man-charged-with-bias-crime-after-attacking-transgender-woman-portland-max-stop-court-records-say/

https://www.mcso.us/news-information/transit-police-investigation-results-grand-jury-indictments-three-suspects-charged

https://www.kgw.com/trimetattack

https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/court-docs-suspect-covered-in-blood-after-attacking-man-with-boxcutter-on-max-train-trimet-portland-oregon-82nd-avenue-jonesmore

Locally, our transit system gets most of it’s funding from a payroll tax on all the businesses in the Tri-County area (why it’s called “Tri-Met”, Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties.)

https://trimet.org/budget/pdf/2025-adopted-budget.pdf

$62.4 million from passenger revenue.
$540.4 million from payroll tax.

The payroll tax is 0.8237%.

https://trimet.org/taxinfo/

So…

0.8237/$540,400,000
x/$602,800,000

Solve for x…

0.8237 x 602,800,000 = 496,526,360
496,526,360 / 540,400,000 = 0.9188126573

So if we increased the payroll tax 0.0951126573, an amount absolutely nobody would notice, we could make our mass transit system here free.

That’s just the way elections work. There’s no process for changing things midstream and the Democrats are not in power.

Once the election flips the House and possibly the Senate, then we can move forward.

The #1 thing people need to do before November is organize. Get people registered, get people to vote. Make it clear that the Republican party is intellectually, fiscally, and morally bankrupt.

Hey, I survived Spinal Stenosis, Charcot Foot, 2 heart attacks, open heart surgery, congestive heart failure, a stent, 3rd degree full thickness burns and skin grafts, nothing scares me any more… but I am just so very, very, tired. 🙁

So the plan is to completely remove the sigmoid colon and then attach the end of the descending colon to the rectum. They also have to pull all the lymph nodes around the colon because if it gets into them, that’s stage 3 and chemo. We won’t know until we get the results from the surgery.

Fortunately we all have more than enough colon to go around.

March is colon cancer awareness month, wear blue and get checked! If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone!

I mean in the actual article, you would have thought one of the professionals would have dropped it. 😉

Nobody is going to drop the quote from Orwell’s 1984? (sigh) I guess it’s true, people HAVE stopped reading. 😞

“‘War is Peace’, ‘Freedom is Slavery’ and ‘Ignorance is Strength’”

Thanks! I appreciate it!

I had to call THREE hospitals to get a CT scan in a reasonable amount of time. First one said “April” and I was like “No.”

2nd one said 2/18 which is better, but still 29 days out and I don’t want to sit and ruminate on the diagnosis that long.

3rd one? 1 week. 1/27! I think that’s about as good as I can get.

Tales From the Loop got adapted for Amazon Prime and Electric State was adapted for Netflix. I enjoyed Electric State, but other than the name, look, and feel, it didn’t really adapt the book.

Haven’t seen Tales From the Loop yet.

Sunset at Zero Point likely couldn’t get made in the current political environment due to it being a sweet gay romance book. Think sci-fi version of “Moonlight.”

Speaking of Sweden… I just blew through all the Simon Stålenhag books. Good reads with gorgeous art!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Stålenhag

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tales-From-the-Loop/Simon-Stalenhag/9781982150693

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Things-From-the-Flood/Simon-Stalenhag/9781982150716

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Electric-State/Simon-Stalenhag/9781501181412

https://www.simonstalenhag.se/labyrinth.html

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sunset-at-Zero-Point/Simon-Stalenhag/9781668096413

(published outside the US as “Swedish Machines”)

https://www.simonstalenhag.se/

I already beat a 50% 5 year rate on the heart stuff so I got that going for me! 😉

Oh, they KNOW! 😉

I’ll take it! 😉

Well, it wasn’t entirely out of the blue, there were biopsies 6 months ago and they sent me photos, which made me go “Hey, that’s fucking cancer!” but the people with actual degrees in this were saying “No, no, it’s pre-cancer.”

So on the one hand I get to tell the doctors “SEE! SEE!” 😉

When they pull something out of you that looks like Tetsuo from the end of Akira… yeah…

Oh yeah, I have a good team of doctors!

That’s the plan!

Amen! And I aint even religious!

Working on it!

I see it as yet another opportunity to invite RFK Jr. to eat my entire ass! LOL. Thanks for the kind words!