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. 🙁

I would also accept Wilford Brimley.

I was at a shop like that, kitty rolled over and showed his belly so I gave him all the belly rubs and picked him up when he started purring. He rubbed my face.

The owners were like “He… he doesn’t DO that!”

Yeah, well, he does for me!

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!

They really wanted to sit on my chest and had zero concept of surgery incisions. 😞

It’s going to be tough here in a couple of weeks when I go in for cancer surgery.

Can confirm. Following open heart surgery, it was a competition to see if Rocket or Keanu could get closer to me.

Weird how, on the cat, you have ⚫ ⚫ and then 3 tiers of stripes, but on the tattoo, they only do the top 2 tiers, leaving out the one on the bottom…

https://youtu.be/2P5qbcRAXVk

I had a cat oddly addicted to the flyers printed by Lincoln Automobiles.

Went to a car show, got a bunch of pamphlets, he’d pull out the Lincoln one and roll on it.

Coincidence? I’d stack them all up, square off the stack, he’d DIG through the pile until he found Lincoln and walk off with it. LOL.

Expensive tastes!

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!

Only her hairdresser knows for sure!

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! 😉