This is excellent. I'd add that the litigious nature of Anglo-Saxon society, compared to the consensus-seeking society of Sweden and to a lesser extent Germany & Switzerland, has a lot to do with this too.

National Students for Justice in Palestine, InOurLifetime & Rashida Tlaib oppose the Trump Gaza plan. Their aim, it is more clear than ever, is not peace but destruction of the State of Israel. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Much of the anti-strategy energy On Here has been directed, at least implicitly, against having any strategy at all. I'm thinking of the attacks on @davidshor.bsky.social & @adamjentleson.bsky.social. They have a very clear strategy - attack billionaires - that their critics notably fail to address.

To everyone On Here who tells Democrats to give up on appealing to the working class. The great bulk of Trump's loss of support since he took office has been among voters with household incomes under $100,000. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/do-non-vot...

Hamas hasn’t said yes, and even if it does, implantation is going to be fraught. Still, getting Netanyahu to sign off on Trump’s Gaza deal is a real achievement and one I’m not sure anyone else, let alone a democrat could have achieved. Why? Well I’m glad you asked. 1/

Every time I think I’ve heard the worst story about an affluent suburban area blocking something, another one comes along: www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

Economic populism can defeat Trumpism and save our democracy [gift link] www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/o...

A lot of the argument against "popularism" On Here has become an argument against having any theory of social change. A rudderless response to the news cycle, or to the poster's pet issue, against a rudderless response to polls.

NYT pollsters find voters do look at tradeoffs of free bus fares. 53% prefer paid fares if it helps maintain service. 21% would raise taxes for free fares & better service 9% want free fares & less service 8% want free fares & cuts in other city services x.com/nataliemj10/...

Opponents of the University Boulevard Corridor Plan: "This will cause families forced from their homes, renters struggling under soaring rents, neighborhoods burdened with unsafe commuters!" Meanwhile University Boulevard in reality: *dangerous driver forces 10 adults & 3 children from their home*

News reporter Adam Tuss from @nbcwashington.com rides the Purple Line! Video report youtu.be/irprRkI7sfQ?...

Belgian company sells resident groups $234 device that measures traffic volume & speed. Traffic engineers question data validity. But data from conventional traffic studies has problems too. Seems like this is an excuse to fend off traffic calming, www.thebanner.com/community/tr...

Living within 1000 feet of a freeway nearly doubles a child's risk of autism. Tylenol during pregnancy has no measurable effect on risk of autism. The push to fund highways instead of walking & cycling is Trump's real autism policy. samwang.substack.com/p/tylenol-ca...

Can someone keep track of how many Republicans said they were praying for the victims before it was revealed that they were detainees, not ICE, and how many afterwards? www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

The US media hates to tell voters what's at stake in an election #2786. Markey - Moulton primary would be a pure pro-business vs populist contest. But NYT frames it as "generational" & only in 11th paragraph concedes it "could also turn on ideological dimensions." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/u...

Only four households live on Gilmoure Drive. Hundreds of households live on University Blvd. Motor vehicle traffic that currently cuts through the highly residential University Blvd neighborhood at high speed would be moved to a corridor that is much less residential.

More big questions about the Tom Homan $50,000. "The cash payment grew out of a long-running counterintelligence investigation" Someone connected to foreign spies knew Homan took bribes. Did foreign spies know & have blackmail power over him? Did *they* bribe him? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...

The whole party agrees on abortion & gun control, but the Gottheimers & Warners oppose economic change. So the congressional leadership, which has to keep their caucus united, can't talk about economic change. The left compounds this problem by attacking Schumer & leaving Gottheimer & Warner alone.

Republicans clash over development in Maryland's exurban Harford County. Council President, backed by other electeds, challenges far-right County Executive in primary. Exec fires back, attacking Council for development approvals. marylandmatters.org/2025/09/19/i...

This is like how Stalin operated, except the Trump appointee here lasted 8 months and Stalin only purged them after 8 years. Prosecutor who was buddy of Emil Bove & had backing from Bondi & Todd Blanche gets pushed out after running afoul of Pulte. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/u...

No. They act in self-interest. They want to live in a newly trendy neighborhood with high social status among their anti-establishment peers. They thus want normies kept out. What makes them so furious at Yimby is that it tears off the veil of gentrification ideology & exposes their self-interest.

The NYT takes on the question of whether freight railroads are serious about growing their mode share: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/b...

Guy tells Democrats to campaign like Mamdani & attacks @americanprogress.bsky.social. One of his team wants candidates to "call out billiionaire inflluence in an authentic way." NYT headline writer & internet lefties interpret this as moving party to right.[gift link] www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/u...

New @bannermoco.bsky.social poll shows MoCo is overwhelmingly pro-transit. 1/2 Will the Purple Line be worth the cost when it is finished? [asked in midst of construction disruption after delays & cost overruns due to Gov Hogan's mismanagement] Yes 46% No 23% www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

TIL parking restrictions date back to 700 BCE. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking...

Raised crosswalks solve two problems with one intervention: 1) accessibility for people on sidewalks without curb ramps and 2) traffic calming, resulting in fewer injuries and deaths

❌MD SHA “knowingly charged” ~$360 million in unauthorized expenses to federal fund projects to try to hide a deficit in MD’s Transportation Trust Fund. AND ❌MD SHA manually changed (falsified) traffic model outputs for Beltway/270 widening. www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

Guess what. A State Highway Administration that makes up numbers in its traffic models also makes up numbers in its financial statements. It got away with the traffic model fakery. Will it get away with financial fakery? marylandmatters.org/2025/09/11/s... www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

The NIMBY belief: Multi-unit housing belongs on polluted roads because multi-unit housing is, itself, pollution. bsky.app/profile/actf...

As I recall the 1960s, no one in the center was taken in by the White Citizens' Councils in the least. They did go for the ciivility of William F Buckley, who himself was open to the White Citizens' Councils. But in fairness Buckley did draw lines against the fascist right wing fringe.

As I recall the 1960s, no one in the center was taken in by the White Citizens' Councils in the least. They did go for the ciivility of William F Buckley, who himself was open to the White Citizens' Councils. But in fairness Buckley did draw lines against the fascist right wing fringe.

This has never been true of the neocons & military intellectuals, whose commitment to democracy was deeper than many of us thought. It's why so many of them have been so forthright about Trump as a threat to democracy.

Amtrak reservation system & website are down.

Maryland State Highway Administration hid $360 million in cost overruns between 2020 & 2025. marylandmatters.org/2025/09/11/s...

NYT covers FBI purges as political horserace. Gets to effects on law enforcement in paragraph 6. Gift link, with my corrected headline. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/u...

The @forward.com puts the national media to shame with how it covers the Kirk assassination.

We must stand resolutely against political assassination and political violence of all kinds, and just as resolutely against everyone who exploits acts of violence as the pretext or excuse for political repression of political opponents.

The "commie blocks" are eight single-family houses, each 2500 square feet with a 2-car garage. I shudder to think what Bridget would have thought about duplexes. www.svvoice.com/sunnyvale-ap...

NEPA & Zoning are the 2 issues that most inspire "Abundance" - but they're different. Zoning was invented to stop good things (affordable homes) & does it both directly & indirectly by process delays. NEPA was invented to stop bad things (dams, urban highways) but does it only indirectly. 1/2

Was there last night and it was such a pleasure to see at last. 29 years ago, @actfortransit.bsky.social proposed extending the proposed Bethesda-Silver Spring light rail eastward along Wayne Avenue. 10 years ago, the Silver Spring Library opened, overhanging the future Purple Line station.

Bibi bets on TACO. Israeli media reports that the attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar was hidden from the US until the US detected the planes in the air. Trump ordered that Qatar be told, but the missiles were in the air by the time that was done. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

You always sort of guessed, but now NYT has the goods from upstate NY police records to prove it. If you're a police officer, you can crash your car while dead drunk, avoid criminal prosecution, and get away with a few days suspension from work. [gift link] www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/u...

There are a lot of questions swirling about vaccine access. Governor Moore issued a helpful press release on Friday discussing the lay of the land in Maryland. The key point is excerpted in the picture. But You can read the full release here: tinyurl.com/2pmn8phb

Can only assume the constitutionality of age of consent laws will soon be decided on the shadow docket

Trading with Venezuela? For some, Trump decrees summary execution. But not if you're making lots of money by wiping out an American industry. Importers of Venezuelan crabs get free pass from tariffs after hiring Trump-linked lobbyist. www.thebanner.com/economy/dona...

The "centrist" problem is that the centrist funder's & intellectual's ideology is social liberal/economic conservative but the centrist voters' ideology is social conservative/economic liberal. So the elite has no message.

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

For those that went through the Safe Track era ~ 2016 and before, it's kinda hard to describe just how far metro has come from a service, reliability, and public relations standpoint

WaPo brings us the latest ignorant anti-urbanist, Robert Showah. (Was in WSJ last year.) Says yimby is all about prescriptive federal regulation. Highlights Austin, of all places, as a city where builders lowered house prices without any help from yimbys! www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

How does the Trump admin plan to deal with indicators suggesting the economy is running out of gas? I’m glad you asked!