More Walmarts will bring jobs.

Will a Wal-Mart bring more prosperity per dollar of incentives than a non-Walmart retailer?

Your $60k house that you paid $415k for...

Who pays $415k for a $60k house? People pay $60k for a house they value at $60k, and $415k for a house they value at $415k.

Don't. Every state already has the power to equalize internet and local sales taxes, by abolishing its local sales tax.

The sales tax is regressive and discourages commerce. Because this goes contrary to the welfare and commerce clauses of the U.S. Constitution, the federal government should be actively discouraging the use of a sales tax, not encouraging it.

Further, the sales tax encourages cities to offer incentives to big-box stores and give them a competitive advantage over small businesses. On the other hand, a property tax encourages cities to make land-use decisions that increase property values. I would rather have higher property values in my city than more Wal-Marts, wouldn't you?

Pedestrians always have right of way. Always.

That's a common myth, unsupported by actual laws. But it's true that drivers violate the right-of-way of pedestrians more than the other way around.

I'm sure that all pedestrians, including kids, will follow those rules.

At least it can guarantee a safe crossing. That guarantee doesn't exist today.

And no one, including kids, will loiter in the "pedestrian refuge area", thus screwing up the whole system.

The police just need to enforce the law against obstructing traffic.

What does "safe to do so" mean, and what if some idiot jumps out into the road and it's not safe to stop?

"Safe to do so" means the same as what it means at yellow lights.

In particular, sudden braking of the car ahead is reacted to faster than humans can do it.

This doesn't make an automated car safer than someone who doesn't tailgate. It only reduces the safe following distance and increases the capacity of the road.

Compare that to trying to figure out if some guy who's not watching is going to step off the curb and into your way...

This requires a law that gives the pedestrian the right-of-way even before he/she enters the crosswalk. Either a hand signal or standing in a pedestrian refuge area would indicate that traffic must stop if it is safe to do so, and wait for the pedestrian to cross.

Google's cars actually speed. The engineers quickly found (or knew beforehand) that obeying the traffic laws as written was a good way to either cause an accident...

Only because speeding and tailgating laws are inconsistently enforced. If you got a ticket every single time you exceeded the speed limit or drove too closely to the car in front, then the roads would be much safer. This is where automated enforcement is useful.

When you stated that the construction cost was "eaten" by the Japanese government, you lumped in the cost of regular passenger rail, which as I said is frequently subsidized by high speed rail. JNR is both conventional and high speed rail. Follow your own link if you don't believe me.

You read the first sentence I wrote. Good! Now read the second.

Will we ever see Babylon 5 remastered in high definition (or even 4K) similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation? How much would you need to raise on KickStarter to make this possible?

Name one bullet train line anywhere in the world that's at least a few years old but still doesn't make a profit. Frequently, profit from the HSR line(s) help subsidize a country's passenger train lines as in Japan.

One of the issues with the high speed rail I've seen them try to implement is too many stops...

That's why the good Lord invented limited-stop express service, so that not every train needs to stop at every station, and electric trains that accelerate after a stop much more quickly than diesel trains.

Then there's also the fact that a lot of "high speed" trains in the US are in the 40-60mph range...

Top speed or average speed? See above.

This is yet another reason to build high speed rail wherever it makes sense, between city pairs at least 100 miles apart where it starts to become too far to drive, and up to 500 miles apart where flying starts to become faster (curb to curb) and more cost-effective.