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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 14h

But how good is the food? :-)

Reposted by First Class Duck

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 3d

However much you, a politically engaged person, think the average American knows about what's going on, I can promise you: it's way less than that. No matter how low your estimation. It's lower than that.

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Reposted by First Class Duck

Jeremy Wilcox @jeremywilcox.bsky.social · 3d

The immediate liberal take on the 2024 election was that swing voters are kind of dumb, and just vote based on vibes.

Reality has not disproved that yet.

www.americansurveycenter.org/quiz/

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Reposted by First Class Duck

Ben @vtben.bsky.social · 4d

Ben @vtben.bsky.social · Nov 5

I've always said the Berenstain Bears were like if Ned Flanders tried to write a Simpsons episode.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 4d

3000V DC electrification?

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Reposted by First Class Duck

Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 4d

We do this discourse over and over. Lot of Americans love the idea of a Scandinavian safety net but don't love the idea of paying for it. So we tell stories about how we can tax just "the rich" to get there. And that is not how math works.

Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 4d

No, his point is not that we shouldn't tax the rich into oblivion. We obviously should. It is that we can't only tax the rich into oblivion. We will also have to raise taxes more generally to produce a strong safety net. Taxing the rich is necessary but not sufficient.

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Reposted by First Class Duck

Daniel Gilmore @gilmored85.bsky.social · 4d

Everytime I see a "just tax billionaires for it" reply, as if thats an unlimited amount of revenue, all I hear is "how dare you ask me, a smol bean, to also contribute to the public goods that I want to use"

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 4d

I guess Berlin wants a Peripherique too.

There's a fun "wow, I wonder if this could have paid for the U8 extension to Märkisches Viertel" question that's begging to be asked...

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 4d

Tunneled freeway? :-/

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 4d

I hope you enjoy this stay in NYC. :-)

Reposted by First Class Duck

Walter S. Obchakeit @deathmetalpedals.bsky.social · 5d

Absolutely. Trump is a reflection of who we’ve become. Breaking the mirror doesn’t change anything about the person looking into it.

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Reposted by First Class Duck

🇺🇦Schadenfreude's Cat🇺🇦 @acciostickthing.bsky.social · 5d

Hey remember when he tried to kill Mike Pence during a coup attempt and we just shrugged it off and re-elected him anyway?

At this point, the voters are the problem. Until we demand better, we are getting what we deserve.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

Another friend of the family was a N2 rider, but as the headways on that route collapsed and the direct service to Jamaica was terminated, she started driving to work.

IIRC, her worksite would require bus - LIRR - bus which isn't enticing.

First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

FWIW, REM-Valley Stream would have been interesting given that my grandmother and aunt were NICE bus users for years, but they were N1 or N4 riders to Queens for the subway.

Eventually, the service quality degraded, and I became one of the de facto chauffeurs for my grandmother.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

Anecdotally, I'm not seeing this demand, but I've always viewed the people who admit to rarely going to Manhattan as people who just don't like (or fear) NYC in general versus being a better transit ride away from visiting.

IIRC, I think we're the only household with a NYC commute on my block.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

The real difference is the willingness of local governments to run more bus service makes it easier to live a car free/light style which begets more ridership. And it helps that Canadian wages are lower than their US counterparts, so bus drivers work for *cheap* compared to the US.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

Poorer doesn't quite imply poverty. :-)

FWIW, the bad loan market from what family have hinted to me just doesn't exist the same way up here, and car insurance in Ontario is $$$ compared to even NYS.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

A better LI bus makes it easier for carless locals, and Queens residents to access things in Nassau and Suffolk, but I don't see my neighbours walking the quarter to half mile to wait for the bus that would take them to the train or anywhere else for work.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

The problem is that you're fighting against two and three car households with relatively solid HHI numbers. Since everybody has a car, you have to be better than the car to push the needle with locals.

Mind you, you're talking to somebody that drove to the subway bypassing the SE Queens buses.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

"Canadians are poorer and a bit more willing to ride the bus" has been my general explanation.

My cousins noted that nobody walks in my corner of Zone 7 LIRRland, and they were shocked at the lack of usable bus service.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

FWIW, the semi-detached is very Quebecois suburban, but otherwise, it doesn't feel *that* different to me. I suspect the closest equivalent would be some of the co-ops near Lynbrook but the rest of the single housing spec doesn't seem that foreign to me.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

*transit and bike/bus mode share in Nassau would pick up a lot if the LIRR ran every 5 mins at peak/15 mins off-peak, no?*

If you're still beating the walk to the bus stop + bus to the train station, driving still wins. With that said, I don't think you'd ever see NICE/ST run at those headways...

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

I remember seeing it in 2012, and trying it out. I'm a cager, so I'm biased, but it just seemed so silly to me. A clunky bike seemed so pointless in a city with a solid transit system.

"Just use wait patiently for the bus and walk, duh".

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

It's coincidentally why the Canadians are unlikely to replicate frictionless border crossings in North America.

You generally don't have to worry as much about being shot in your average low income Canadian neighbourhood.

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First Class Duck @firstclassduck.bsky.social · 5d

I actually started pushing for my parents to move to Canada as a kid because it seemed so much better. Even low income housing in Ottawa didn't seem that bad.

Meanwhile, my cousins had *two* SNES games and I never picked up on the whole "$125 CAD+GST for a cartridge" thing playing a role in that...

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