Why Ryan would wash a clean pot

Just at a surface level, the idea of Paul Ryan stopping by a soup kitchen is strange, if not ridiculous. The right-wing congressman, a proud admirer of Ayn Rand's philosophy, no doubt sees soup kitchens as outlets that create dependency. This is, after all, the "don't simply feed fish" guy.

Indeed, his extremist ideology drove Ryan to write the radical House Republican budget plan, which would be deliberately brutal towards the very people who rely on charity and public benefits to get by.

But given this background, it took real chutzpah for Ryan to show up at an Ohio soup kitchen, smile for the cameras, and pretend to do real work. The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmezreported that Ryan and his team "ramrodded their way" into a kitchen over the weekend so he could manufacture a photo-op.

Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University.

"We're a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations," Antal said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. "It's strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors."

He added: "The photo-op they did wasn't even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall."

By the time Ryan showed up for his impromptu, 15-minute visit, he was too late — according to the Post's report, the hall had already been cleaned after the food had been served and the patrons had left. But Ryan wanted to look good for the cameras, and walking around an empty soup kitchen wouldn't make much of an impact.

So Ryan put on an apron and volunteered to wash some dishes, though he ended up "washing pots and pans that did not appear to be dirty." Antal added that he was discouraged about letting Ryan "wash clean pans, and then take a picture."

Like most Romney/Ryan attempts to appear compassionate towards the less fortunate — folks Mitt Romney himself condemned in his infamous "47 percent" video — the photo-op was just for show.

Paul Ryan: Contraception Mandate 'Will Be Gone' On 'Day 1'

And the Republican Laser Focus on JOB creation continues! 

I'll try an offer up an explanation.  Please forgive some broadbrush stuff in advance.  My view is as a western American from California.

There are several things in play here.  There is a certain fascination about trains in our governments over here.  There are many who are jealous of the train system in Europe and are trying to find ways to create something equal here.  The difference here is that the primary purpose of trains are for moving freight not people, at least in the far flung and very spread out west.  The problems with trains are they only serve so many people and are extremely expensive to build by the mile.  Once upon a time, California had an excellent inter urban passenger train system.  As a kid, I could walk 10 blocks from my house and catch the F Train in Berkeley and take it all the way across the Bay to Downtown San Francisco for 10¢.  Adults paid 20¢.   The tracks crossed the Bay on the bottom level of the Bay Bridge from Oakland to SF and fed into the heart of SF's most excellent bus and streetcar system.  There was no place you couldn't get to in SF by public trans.  Los Angeles had a tremendous streetcar system as well that went everywhere also.  I also remember seeing the LA system as a kid.

Then came General Motors, cheap fuel and busses in the 50's.  Remembering that there were only 3 metropolitan areas in Calif at the time, SF, LA and the state capital Sacramento and to a very small extent at the time, San Diego on the border with Mexico.  Everything was efficiently connected by train.  Another important thing to remember is that these intraurban trains were electric.  I had a fascination with Catenary as a kid and the Catenary power supply system was so amazing to see how every move was anticipated in order to have proper and continuous power to a vehicle with or without rails.  But I digress ...

With busses came the mantra that what was good for GM was good for the country.  General Motors was lagging with big ticket products and idle tank assembly plants from WW II.  Busses were the answer to turn swords into plowshares.  The birth of the modern incarnation of the Military Industrial Complex.  So we built all these busses to put people back to work.  These busses could go anywhere was the pitch.  Couple this with the creation of the Interstate Freeway system.  So in the end, busses won out due to political expediency and all the train companies went out of business and the tracks were removed, forever.  Remembering that train lines take a great deal of time and planning to construct, busses were quick and easy.  Planning is the nemesis of politicians.

Currently, trains are again in vogue because they are green.  So we have the party that supports green ideas trying to build something big and shiny to point to as a government monument to this green ideal.  Problem is that for it to be built properly, this one we are discussing costs $65 Billion for openers.  No one is going to bite for the whole thing at once.  So the best way to get this thing started is to build it where the costs are lowest.  The route picked is from Merced to Fresno, along old US 99 on a very flat run of only about 60 miles.  Merced has a population of around 80k, Fresno has a pop of about 500k.  There is existing Amtrak service between the two places already.  So why build a $6 Billion train to nowhere to replace a train that already goes to the same places ?  Its the foot in the door that the politicians hope the public will accept because they are not paying close attention.  When people wise up after its too late to stop, the politicians always say we will fix it and make it better, we promise, just reelectic me so I can fix it because I just showed you that I know there is a problem.

Next step is to come up with the solution.  Why how about this people ?  If we built it all the way to LA and San Francisco it would make more sense because, Oh Look !  It just happens to be right in the natural path where this train should go !  Why didn't we think of this first ?  D’oh !,  we made a big mistake, but as your elected official, I promise I will never let this happen again !  Keep voting for me, cuz I know !

In the end you end with a train that costs $100 Billion to build, at least, and lord only knows what the annual cost per year to maintain the stupid thing, which oh by the way, the states now pay that burden because the only federal contribution is to building it.  You end up with something that duplicates existing free market solutions and serves few and may even be obsolete before it is finished.  And it also requires a taxpayer subsidy forever if it will continue to operate.  It will be impossible to make it turn a profit, ever.  And private companies have difficulty in competing with government subsidized operations and will fail and go out of business.  They will only go out of business because the government tilted the playing field.

California's population is young with many people who don't know the history of the place and won't remember anything that is less than 10 years ago.  So the little first step and big picture will be forgotten.  Most will only see a train to nowhere that needs to be fixed, not a bad idea that shouldn't have been undertaken in the first place.

That's how you get a big shiny Bullet Train built in California.  The other proposed one from LA to Las Vegas is a similar story, but it would only serve the evil profiteers in Las Vegas so it is currently politically untouchable.

Hope this helps.