Iwanted to believe.

When California announced plans to build a high-speed rail connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco, I had dreams of sipping coffee in Union Station and arriving in the Bay Area before I finished my podcast. Finally—something sleek, green, and fast. Like the Jetsons, but real. Instead, we got a bloated, half-built mess somewhere near Fresno. It’s been 17 years since voters approved the project, and the only thing moving quickly is the budget—racing past $100 billion with no finish line in sight.

We were promised a bullet train. What we got is a blank check on wheels.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t some groundbreaking new technology. Japan rolled out its first bullet train in 1964. That’s the same year Gilligan’s Island premiered and the Beatles came to America. Why

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