Mouse is kind of like a broken cuckoo clock, he's right twice a day, but still cuckoo...

I am an observer of these things, and don't have an "addiction" to the emotional or irrational sophistry of one ideological fringe, or the other, so I tend to piss off both sides, if and when they deserve it. My major was mathematical economics, so I view economics as an analytical social science, where we test theories against evidence to determine the truth of a proposition.

I am not a "religious" economist, who views economic theories as religious doctrines, which are treated sacrosanct "truth". I've dealt with plenty of libertarians who claim to be "capitalist" but who've never read Adam Smith, and I've dealt with plenty of "socialist" wannabee's who've never read Marx, but profess their "belief" without any regard to, or often in willful and blissful ignorance of, the obvious imperfections and failings of both systems.

I've dealt with loony fringe wannabee's who claim to be "environmentalist's", who couldn't pass a Biology 101 class, and I've dealt with loony fringe global heating deniers, who couldn't pass Algebra 101... And, if we actually listened to any of these fools for very long, and did what some of these "true believers" proposed, we'd all soon be starving to death in the dark...in their brave new "North Korean" or "Somali" nirvana.

I've worked in some capacity, in the railroad industry and in analyzing transportation policy, for fifty years. And, in that second career, I have worked either directly, or indirectly with and for literally hundreds of politicians, left, right, center.... Dems and Reps...

Some of those politicians were very decent, competent, and honest , trying to balance various constituents needs, and do the right thing. And, I've seen some lying, hypocritical, pandering, self dealing, thieving narcissistic a$$holes and fools, who could give a rat's ass about, you, me, or doing anything but what's good for them.

Some politicians, in both of those categories were supposedly "liberal", and some claimed to be "conservative". In the end, it wasn't the "labels" or "branding" that seemed to matter, if they had honor and integrity things seemed to work out better, and more got "done", if not, not so much....

We live in a democracy, so we get the "gubmint" we deserve. Thus, we have the bad transportation system, and rail system, we deserve. I call it as I see it, and let those who want to believe in simplistic "labels", or a political "brand", or ideological "bull$hit" believe whatever they want. My political "philosophy" comes from the "teachings" of that great "philosopher" George Carlin..."if it's bull$hit, it's bad for you..."

So yeah, twice a day, I may "randomly" even agree with Mouse on something, but obviously not for the same reason...