1) the USA is bigger than all of EU geographically. Seattle to Miami is about the same distance as London to Tel Aviv Israel.
2) Population Density. The US has huge swaths that are less dense. Between LA and SF, is basically farmland with some cities here and there. The HSR is being built right in that corredor and this is the BEST we have so far ... no trains.
3) Unions. The whole project was largely created as a make work program for Unions at prevailing wage. Which feeds the (D) party coffers exclusively.
4) Democrats. Democrats run the state. They can't blame R for anything. But they do anyways.

We have "high speed rail". They are called Airplanes. For the cost of the HSR project, California could buy every man/woman/child at least 10 Round Trip flights between any two CA airports. This does not include the cost of the train tickets, which are largely expected to exceed plane tickets for the same trip.

Unfortunately, trains have some sort of emotional capture with a group of people who don't care about such things like costs, because they are covered by taxpayers.

I can almost guarantee that the cost of this will spiral out of control and take way longer to complete than they are telling you right now.

CA High Speed Rail, was supposed to be done by now, it doesn't have a single working section, and has already ballooned its expenses. But here we are, throwing good money after bad, instead of cutting it off.

Do you have historical examples of that happening, or is it a hypothesis?

You might enjoy The Clone Wars

The killings have been widely reported.

The fairy tales somehow managed to divide along the dividing lines that already existed (for example, Iranians are mostly Shia, Arabians are mostly Sunni.)

The myth arises to match the power that exists.

You need to turn your brain on.

That's one reason the revolution is happening. There are a lot of reasons to hate the Iranian government, among them the censorship that results in shutting off the internet.

Yeah, but walkers have to stop at stoplights, too.

If people get more efficient using AI, then people will be fired.

What does Santa Fe have to do with it?

Incidentally, that is the secret of the Soviet system: people are not so annoyed by the evil dictator at the top (Stalin), but they are extremely annoyed by their immediate superiors. Communism gave the masses the ability to retaliate against their immediate bosses (even if it was ultimately run by an evil dictator).

The targets were destroyed. That's not a failure.

That part is true.

What effect did it have? (Other than a lot of internet complaints)

If Abbas agrees to a two state solution, that will be a huge step forward and very encouraging.