The blown billions tied to Governor Newsom's California...

Editor's note: ...highlight a deeper problem that goes beyond simple theft: corruption becomes a survival system inside institutions. As one observer of post-Soviet culture argues, corruption thrives when official rules feel like window dressing and real outcomes depend on informal networks, selective enforcement, and personal leverage. In California's mirky circumstances, accountability fragments, responsibility diffuses, and loyalty can outweigh competence, making it difficult to trace where money goes or who is responsible. Applied to California, the controversy suggests not just mismanagement but a culture in which opaque processes and negotiable consequences have eroded public trust and has blurred the line between governance and self-protection. It is time to replace many state of California officials including Newsom and demand accountability.
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Taking a Ride on Newsom's "Train to Nowhere": Californians Burn Billions for Political Boondoogle

February 6, 2026 | By Jonathan Turley

In the dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell wrote, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." The true meaning of that line was never more clear than watching the truly bizarre photo op of California governor Gavin Newsom heralding the success of the greatest boondoggle in history: his high-speed train to nowhere. Without laying a single yard of track after burning $12 billion, Newsom showed a diesel freight train on a conventional track to create the appearance of a working railroad.

I have been writing about this boondoggle for years. Newsom promised years ago that the project would be transformative. It was, but not as he promised.

Voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue in 2008 after absurdly low estimates of the projected cost. Influential figures and companies stood to make a fortune, and the key was to secure a “buy-in” worth billions, so that it would become increasingly difficult to abandon the project as overruns and delays sent costs soaring.

Now the official estimate of future ridership has dropped by 25%, and it demands billions more to complete a project delayed by decades. Remember that this entire project was meant to create a rail line of only 171 miles. It is projected to exceed $128 billion and could ultimately cost a billion dollars per mile. There are still uncompleted environmental assessments and challenging rail lines through the mountains.

There is still no train and not a yard of track almost 20 years later.

The inspector general, Benjamin Belnap, issued a scathing report on the first phase of the still uncompleted project. That is only the stretch from Merced to Bakersfield which was supposed to be completed by 2033. Belnap wrote:

"With a smaller remaining schedule envelope and the potential for significant uncertainty and risk during subsequent phases of the project, staying within the 2033 schedule envelope is unlikely. In fact, uncertainty about some parts of the project has increased as the authority has recently made decisions that deviated from the procurement and funding strategies that were part of its plans for staying on schedule."

Rather than deliver on the promise of high-speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the Merced-Bakersfield line would now cost $35.3 billion, exceeding the 2008 projection for a complete system.

Please go to Jonathan Turley's website to continue reading.
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