It is in the best interest of both Bosco and Mansourian to put off the day of reckoning and agonizing reappraisal for as long as possible. That way the checks keep getting cut. Of course if Mansourian finds a disappointing lack of support for his decisions amongst the directors he might bail before the excrement really hits the ventilator.

To my mind the real question is whether in Marin there is a deep pockets who is angry enough to fund a sales tax repeal initiative. Time will tell.

My best guess is SMART will after a short time go into austerity mode, ditching 2 man operation and falling back to the minimal number of trains with a skeleton staff and hope there is enough money from the sales tax to keep running.

The future - anything goes. I foresee that Jerry and his establishment buddies orchestrate a huge population explosion in California. Like Brazil California the country of the future and always will be. 200 million scraping. It won't be a pretty world for the 99.9%. But the bosses will live like gods.