Sean Davis Reveals Epic Hackery by Philip Bump at the Washington Post
I missed this a couple of days ago, but Sean Davis at The Federalist has systematically dismantled an error-filled piece by Philip Bump, a writer for “The Fix” blog at The Washington Post. Davis’s post is thorough and compelling — the kind of post I would be proud to publish myself. Bump wrote a story claiming that Amtrak faced a constant funding struggle because those damned Republicans don’t ride it and hence don’t want to fund it. Why, Bump claimed, Amtrak had not been funded at all since 2013!
As The Post’s Colby Itkowitz noted, Congress has delayed passing legislation to fund Amtrak since 2013. The last time it did so, in 2008, the vote passed only after a rail disaster. Which, of course, happened again Tuesday night.
The constant struggle of Amtrak to get funding derives largely from the fact that not very many Americans use the rail system. Ridership is heavily centered in the Northeast, in the corridor between Boston and Washington where Tuesday’s accident occurred. But more than that, ridership is unevenly distributed politically.
Davis wrote a post noting that this is utterly false. Davis noted that Bump’s piece, ostensibly about Amtrak funding, had zero information about Amtrak funding. Davis noted that “the $1.1 trillion spending bill signed by President Barack Obama last December included nearly $1.4 billion in funding for Amtrak,” in direct contradiction to Bump’s claim that funding had been withheld since 2013. Observing that Amtrak has received $30 billion since 1970, Davis wryly said: “If that constitutes a struggle, then for the love of all that’s holy, please sign me up for the struggle.”
After Davis published his piece, Bump issued a “clarification,” changing the language above to read: “Congress has delayed passing long-term legislation to fund Amtrak since 2013, instead repeatedly reauthorizing existing funding levels.”
Except that, as Davis noted:
- Congress has not delayed long-term legislation because no such legislation is on the table; Amtrak is funded every year just like other programs.
- Congress has not authorized (actually, appropriated) existing levels, as a review of the data would have revealed — if Bump had bothered to review data about Amtrak funding, in preparation for his post about Amtrak funding.
- The correct word for what Congress did was “appropriate” and not “authorize” — and the distinction has meaning in this context.
Other than that, the correction — I mean, “clarification” — was great. Except that I’m sardonically joking when I say that, because it was actually terrible even placing those jaw-dropping points to one side. You see, the point is that Davis’s piece utterly eviscerated Bump’s entire argument. It’s something that cannot be brushed away with a “clarification” and a wave of the hand.
I’m giving Bump until the end of the day to respond to this substantively. Then, if necessary, I am composing a letter to his editor and taking this up the chain. Making mistakes is one thing, but failing to set the record straight and be honest with the readers when a mistake is caught is much worse.
Thanks to J.D.
As J.D. says: surreal.
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/15/2015 @ 7:40 amTo progressives, Patterico, ALL that matters is narrative. Sadly.
Simon Jester (87cf83) — 5/15/2015 @ 7:44 amHow do you respond to this ‘substantively’ without basically saying let’s-just-pretend-it-never-happened? That being said, please Bump just make it right. Patterico is a dog with a bone…
Georganne (e37667) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:00 am@SimonJester – So true. Over and over again. It’s exhausting.
Georganne (e37667) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:03 amFor some, like Vice President Biden, Amtrak is “a second family.”
so he has his cocaine family plus also he has his speed family
bases? covered.
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:19 amBump out to use this approach:
https://screen.yahoo.com/weekend-emily-litella-violins-tv-000000080.html
But he won’t. He is smarter than everyone else, remember?
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:19 amhappyfeet, that’s the bestest!
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:34 amIt is jaw-dropping in its mendoucheity.
JD (f9f658) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:51 amI hate to say this, but one thing that kept growing in my mind as news about the accident seeped out — every person killed, every rider quoted, and every plea I heard for information about missing people in the confusion after the accident, was a person who was a company director or in a high-level administrative position in education, non-profit, or government sectors.
Douglas2 (247692) — 5/15/2015 @ 9:33 amRich people in the northeast like to ride choo-choo trains, and insist that the rest of the country should subsidize their rich-person transportation choice.
that is a very good point Mr. Douglas
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 9:34 amthe naval academy kid that died, his dad is the step-son of the guy, now deceased, what put the antenna on top of the Empire State Building
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 9:59 amBump doesn’t surprise me, he came to the Post from the Atlantic and a lefty environmental zine, Gristmill,
narciso (ee1f88) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:01 am@Douglas2
The problem is more complex (and perverse) than that. The Statists and Planners love them some rail transport. I’m not sure why, but I have some ideas;
*Rail systems are hard to shift, so the Grand Plans they are a part of are more resistant to change by the Proles who actually have to live with said plans.
* It’s possible to build large Socialist Realism/Stalin’s Wedding Cake buildings to facilitate automotive transport, but it’s a stretch. Train stations, OTOH are made to order for such.
* If people have their own cars, they will go where they want to instead of where their “betters” think they should.
*It’s a hell of a lot easier to control the distribution of goods through a rail system (with its limited transfer points) than it is with a road system.
* While it is possible to extract graft from the construction of a arming garage, the scope of graft from, say, a light rail system is much bigger.
* I think that, somewhere in the back of their minds, the would-be Ruling Class has thoughts of personal railway carriages. SO much classier than a Limo.
* The chattering classes are still fighting a rearguard action against the democratization of Air Travel. Maybe they think if they build enough railways, the Airlines will go back to serving the wealthy.
* A ribbon-cutting ceremony on a rail station is SO much bigger and classier an event than one on a new highway or bus shelter. Arriving in ceremony off a train is bigger than getting out of a cab from the airport.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:20 amThat particular line makes a profit, Douglas2… It’s the lines in lower density areas that suck up the subsidy.
What irks me is that the fabulous electronic control that had not been installed yet, waxing would have prevented the accident …was actually installed and not held up,by money at all. It was apparently offline because they couldn’t get the communications signals worked out, not for lack of dough.
And if the piling up similarities between operators of the train and the german wings crash in the Alps are not just meaningless blips of coincidence, it’s even possible that the engineer sped up *on purpose* to risk his train and the passengers. If that worst case of operator fault (deliberate, intentional, destructive act by the engineer) should be supported by the investigation, he would have, if determined to destroy, have found a workaround.
What would cause a train to speed up as it approaches a tight curve? I mean other than operator error or accident (sleep, distraction, mistake), or operator conscious choice?
SarahW (6f3980) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:27 amso it would seem Sarah, but the concerted effort to even consider such an option is remarkable, specially in light of the 2013 Madrid crash,
narciso (ee1f88) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:33 amSarah W, I do find the whole engineer thing here weirdly weird.
http://nypost.com/2015/05/14/amtrak-engineer-had-ranted-online-for-more-safeguards/
elissa (8c26a7) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:37 amthe engineer railed against lax safety standards
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:46 amMaybe, had Amtrak been a private entity, an engineer who ran his trains excessively speedily wouldn’t have had a job yesterday.
The Northeast Corridor trains service is, supposedly, the only one which turns a profit; why, then, does it require subsidies, and if it can support itself, why would anything about congressional funding have anything to do with the accident?
The economist Dana (f6a568) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:14 amhere’s one of the engineer’s original posts (he’s bwb6df)
doesn’t really come across as super weird in this one
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:15 amAmtrak subsidies at least subsidize people with jobs
that’s kind of refreshing
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:16 amYep, EPIC.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:28 am#18… True dat, Dana. Only a federal government employee could get away with this crap.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:30 amThis is the best paragraph in Davis’s take-down of Bump:
Hits it right out of the park there.
JVW (8278a3) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:34 amHas anybody read whether the train was behind schedule or on schedule?
DRJ (e80d46) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:35 ama union boy, he is, our engineer friend
union through and through
playing coy, he is, our engineer friend
and his silence benefits who?
filthy democrat trash what want to continue exploiting the dead train passengers like so many newtown babbies
that’s who
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:45 amit does seem like enemy action,
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=356753
narciso (ee1f88) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:56 amPeople with jobs neither need nor deserve subsidies. And in this case people without jobs don’t need trains that cost the rest of us billions.
This is the exact reason why subsidies and government involvement is morally wrong. It takes money from the pockets of people who earn and need it to provide for themselves and their families and pays it out to political hacks who use it to pay train fare for their rich friends. Then they meet at Spago for a $200 taxpayer funded expensed lunch to pat themselves on their collective backs for helping the “infrastructure” and providing jobs for those poor engineers and conductors who without their largess would be forced to work for an evil private corporation.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:01 pm“The Northeast Corridor trains service is, supposedly, the only one which turns a profit; why, then, does it require subsidies, and if it can support itself, why would anything about congressional funding have anything to do with the accident?”
The profitability, or lack of same, of passenger rail is one of those arguments that historians and economists can go on about for hours… days… years. At their heyday, passenger service was profitable on the main trunks, lost money on the feeder lines, and whether that washed out overall as profitable or not kind depends on who you listen to. Even the most hung ho manifest destiny and triumph of capitalism types tend to admit that the Railroad fortunes were mostly made on land speculation and freight. The Progressives and City Planner types hate the land speculation because herding people into developments so you can make a profit is BAD while doing so so they font into your vision of Utopia is GOOD. Or something.
REASON ran an article once in which the author made the argument that the U.S. rail system, as it stands, is sound for moving freight, that changing it enough to make it work for passengers would make it not work as well for freight. He argued that the most important thing about the decades long fight over Amtrack was to make sure that the fans of passenger rail didn’t wreck the freight rail system that worked and was needed, in favor of a passenger system for which there was no demonstrable demand and which therefore would NOT work. He said that if keeping the money-losing system of Amtrack going as it was was the price of doing that, it would be worth it. And he suggested that if Amtrack was shut down, and was no longer in front of people’s faces as an example of economic failure, the Rail fans might find it easier to persuade Congress to meddle with the freight rails.
Not sure he was right, but it bears thinking on.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:02 pmRidin’ that train… high on propane. Did they even get a blood sample?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:06 pm#24, elissa, the train left Philadelphia at the scheduled departure time.
ropelight (d16736) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:21 pmWe should give Amtrak to Google. If they can make an automated car, an automated train should be child’s play.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:27 pmThere is a delayed redirect going on that I’m pretty sure is originating from the Patterico site. This was mentioned on another thread. I’ve experienced it both yesterday and today while accessing the site via one network and computer– and then again just now from a completely different computer over a different network and zipcode. Somebody’s playing games I think.
elissa (9a9efc) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:37 pmTherefore, Mr Schofied , if I’m reading you correctly, the only sound economic reason for the existence of the 19th century technology of trains is to move freight cheaply and profitably. I think I agree. So lets cut all subsidies and funding for current passenger service and let it sink or swim on it’s own. If Bump loves the train let him pay $80 each way. Why should we subsidize his perverse pleasure? Just as if he likes a Tesla let him pay $120,000 for one. Why are we always stuck paying for the left’s fantasies and desires?
BTW, other than questions of morality, the “sound economic reason” is the only worthy reason to do something. Tis the reason I took economics in school and not African studies.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:37 pmHas elissa detected an attempt to hack?
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/15/2015 @ 12:38 pmElissa I have had the same screen a few times in the last few days. Also, got it at The Other McCain this morning.
Gazzer (c1d25a) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:02 pmAnd it just happened here again.
Gazzer (c1d25a) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:15 pmHoagie wrote:
If Amtrak makes a profit or even just breaks even in the Northeast Corridor, then the federal subsidies wind up going to the lines which don’t make money . . . which are all of the rest. But, that destroys the liberals’ lines that budget cuts contributed to the accident, doesn’t it?
The economist Dana (f6a568) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:24 pmThe only thing that actually makes sense is to simply privatize Amtrak completely, and then let consumer demand, in the form of tickets sold, determine whether the public want the service to continue.
The public can vote with their wallets . . . which is exactly what they were doing when private passenger service went out of business a few decades ago.
The free market Dana (f6a568) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:27 pmhere’s one of the engineer’s original posts (he’s bwb6df)
doesn’t really come across as super weird in this one
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:15 am
“Raising Awareness”
SarahW (6f3980) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:27 pmit’s the Ultron way, save people by killing them,
http://www.ijreview.com/2015/05/319601-gop-underfund-amtrak-lets-look-companys-books/?source=TWshare
as with State’s allocations of electric cars, rather than consular security,
narciso (ee1f88) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:48 pmi’m not sure what to do with the span of time between his comments and his irresponsible train driving behavior
this is like the second creepy train thing in the last few months btw
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 1:57 pmI heard on the radio that blood samples were taken of the engineer, and that at one point he was refusing to talk.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:16 pmI don’t know if he is still refusing to talk or not, and I have heard no blood results.
It is kind of embarrassing that we don’t have decent train service here, at least in the NE Corridor, where it makes sense financially.
carlitos (c24ed5) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:17 pmI also heard that they have his phone.
wasn’t there a commuter train accident out west with a phone distraction?
The link at Ace mentions the train had accelerated from 70+ to 100+ just before the curve, and that the e-brake was put on mid-way through the turn,
in other words, ideal for derailing cars behind the engine.
We’ll have to wait and see.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:28 pmre: elissa and gazzer:
If you’re referring to the way the tab for any page on either Pat or Stacy’s site gets silently forwarded to “gogardenclub.com” after you let that tab fall into the background, then I’m totally seeing it here, too.
PCachu (5376c0) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:42 pmMe too. That was weird.
carlitos (c24ed5) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:45 pmI have had that but mostly I get a 503 error code, whatever that means.
Gazzer (c1d25a) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:46 pmBugger me! As soon as I left that comment I got re-directed to the garden club thingy.
Gazzer (c1d25a) — 5/15/2015 @ 2:48 pmi get redirected on my phone not on the laptop
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:02 pmI just sent Mr. Frey an email. It’s happening on my work windows PC.
carlitos (c24ed5) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:06 pmSean Davis is a beast.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/05/never-trust-liberal-fact-checkers.php
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:23 pmi asked the googles and the general consensus is this is a sitemeter problem
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:24 pmi’m seeing that gardenco. thing too
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:25 pmgogardenclub.com? I get that one a lot. Also some guy’s page on MySpace.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:25 pmI can’t imagine getting on a filthy, crowded and probably diseased filled caboose.
mg (31009b) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:42 pmA new way for city slickers to travel….
mg (31009b) — 5/15/2015 @ 3:55 pmhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11030271/Salmon-fired-over-dams-using-fish-cannon.html
I can, mg. I’ve been worse places.
http://goatlocker.org/resources/nav/simulate.htm
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 4:04 pm@Hoagie;
IF, I repeat IF, society was run on rational lines, I would agree with you. And maybe it will be, one day. But I won’t be holding my breath. So, as attractive as the idea of cutting Amtrack totally loose might be, I fear we must keep in mind that the Chattering Classes (and the Political Class too, damn them) are infatuated with rail. Light rail. High Speed Rail. Commuter Rail. So many, MANY expensive possibilities.
If we have Amtrack limping along, we can point to it and say, “We’ll talk about a bullet train when you can get that running reasonably well.”
If we don’t, they get to insist on their current fascination.
It isn’t a perfect solution, I grant you. But, truth be told, I would much rather see to defunding, say, PBS, or the National Endowment for the (Let’s Insult the people in flyover country with their own tax money) Arts. Mess with Amtract and the Planners are sure to come back, and the likelihood is that they will want to mess with the Freight Rail system. They’ll promise that they won’t interfere with its important commerce, but we both know what their promises are worth.
Show me an edition of SIM City that doesn’t posit unrealistic benefits to a light rail system, and I will agree that the winds have changed. Until then I am more concerned with keeping their meddling paws off the freight rails than I am with getting rid of their (expensive) toy train set.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 5/15/2015 @ 4:07 pmSam Smith is the British singer with a site on MySpace that I keep getting.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 4:09 pmYou need to rickrack that SOB
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/15/2015 @ 4:45 pmRaise the threshold and lower the top sills on your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through.
At 6′ 4” this would upset me.
mg (31009b) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:28 pm+1 for intuition
In other crazy guy news:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman/os-matthew-apperson-arrested-george-zimmerman-20150515-story.html
SarahW (6f3980) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:31 pmI don’t want to do anything with him, Coronello. I keep getting redirected to his site.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:46 pmOne of the advantages of being 5’6″ was being able to run to my GQ station and not knock myself out diving through the hatches.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 6:01 pmOn a good day I’m 5’7.”
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 6:04 pmI just took the SiteMeter code off. Admin Guy is running some patches. Those two things should fix the redirect.
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/15/2015 @ 6:11 pmI have had a “vindicosuite” redirect on the blog for weeks now that I know is related to SiteMeter. Seems like it just got worse. It’s a shame because SiteMeter has the only historical data for the blog — I am coming up on 40 million page views and hoped to commemorate the occasion. But it really has gotten crappy and is essentially malware and they don’t respond to questions, ever.
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/15/2015 @ 6:15 pmUm, why cannot Amtrak raise prices or go out of business like any other good business in this country? Why do I need to subsidize railroads used by a very small minority in this country. Note that the politicians’ precious North East Corridor would continue operating. Unlike ALL other Amtrak operations that one makes money. So I see no reason at all to continue supporting Amtrak and subsidizing self-loading-freight tickets to the tune of hundreds of dollars in some cases.
{^_^}
JDow (770dee) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:58 pmJdow, it is because you “own” non-voting shares.
felipe (56556d) — 5/15/2015 @ 11:40 pmBump “revealed” his hackery all on his own. Davis showcased/fisked it.
MTGlass (a2e964) — 5/16/2015 @ 12:02 pmNote that the politicians’ precious North East Corridor would continue operating. Unlike ALL other Amtrak operations that one makes money.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/16/2015 @ 12:39 pmwell there’s a problem, if baghdad falls, the Kurds are cut off, where will they be resupplied from, Turkey, Syria, Iran?
narciso (ee1f88) — 5/16/2015 @ 12:42 pm