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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 6h

"The signal is simple"?!?!

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 15h

The OTHER Hamilton is the one who invented vector calculus. Not waiting for a musical.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 18h

The second and third stages sound like vaporware to me. In which case it would be a straight deal of end the war for the hostage release, with Hamas still armed. Which Bibi probably could have gotten a long time ago.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 19h

Special bonus in this great article: The once-in-a-lifetime media sighting of an "avid cyclist" who doesn't seem to have anything against bike lanes or other cyclists.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 23h

Make sure you read the report about how Stephen Miller deported Waco's favorite Mexican restaurant owner.

www.texastribune.org/2025/10/07/t...

A picture of Sergio Garcia and George W and Laura Bush. It is signed, To Sergio Garcia with best wishes.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 19h

Really very good. 2 suggestions:
The Kanawha and northern Monongahela valleys should be entirely in the midwest (west Appalachia).
The DC area is not like Philadelphia & Baltimore. It should either be a region by itself, or part of Chesapeake (the pre-WW2 culture of the DC suburbs).

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

They need a lot more donuts before they match the Texas National Guard in girth.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

Depending on how you count, I think this is somewhere between a 40-lane and a 42-lane intersection. Did I count correctly?

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

In taxonomical terms, you're a lumper & I'm a splitter.

Don't get me started on who's a **real** neocon.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

The people I think best fit the reactionary label now are the Kochs, Uihleins, Yasses, etc and the Wall Street magnates who want to return to 1880s & 1920s rule of the rich.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

I see a resemblance in the current "How dare Democrats talk about Trump screwing the working class while he's destroying democracy" talk. A lot of both came/comes from people coded as leftists.
The never-Trump Republican political consultants know better; their intellectual confreres not so much.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

You hit on a great diagnostic with the team-Hillary identitarian attack on Bernie.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

We're definitely arguing definitions.
People you're thinking of want to return the rule of the Ivy League generalist-meritocrats. A group that didn't exist until after WW2, started to enter govt under JFK, and came into real power under Clinton.
My reactionary wants the wealth/birth elite back.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think that's right. A reactionary is someone who wants to turn the social clock backwards to a once-stable past, not just return to a recent past. Partisans of Napoleon III were not reactionaries, only those who wanted the ancien regime back.
Reactionary now is repealing the New Deal.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

Bethesda existing entrance was built with 1 pair of escalators plus slot for adding a third escalator. Years later they built stairs in the escalator slot. Also, WMATA a few years ago removed 1984-era escalators between the station's bus bays & Wisconsin Ave street level & replaced them with stairs.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

Stations with new deep entrances that are all-elevator surface to mezzanine: Medical Center, Rosslyn, Bethesda. First 2 go to existing mezzanines. Bethesda is under construction to new mezzanine; I'm not sure whether stairs or escalators will connect mezzanine to platform.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

WMATA has abandoned escalators on new deep station entrances & minimized them on shallow ones. Long term, deep ones are extremely hard to maintain.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

On the contrary, natural gas is the usual feedstock for synthetic organic chemicals. Petroleum distillates are soups of different compounds.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

I agree with this, with a caveat. Antitrust should not force businesses to compete on price rather than quality. Competition on quality is usually more socially beneficial.
Example: ban on manufacturers setting retail price. Forces retailers who offer good service out of business.

Reposted by Ben Ross

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

If only the German Social Democrats had given up the fight against austerity after the 1929 crash in order to keep Hitler out of power...
Oops, that's what they did. And were blamed for it by later generations of historians.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

If only the German Social Democrats had given up the fight against austerity after the 1929 crash in order to keep Hitler out of power...
Oops, that's what they did. And were blamed for it by later generations of historians.

Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

"Drain" is erroneous. The water goes back into the lake, warmer than before. There are serious issues about these data centers, but water is a minor concern outside of very water-short areas.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 1d

As I read this article, the motivation is fear of the people who might sit on the bench. Traffic safety is just the excuse.
Traffic is a common excuse for keeping people, occupants of proposed housing, out of a neighborhood. "I prefer cars to people," said explicitly, is still a minority opinion.

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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 2d

None of these are the true money to burn places of Bethesda. I especially suggest Delhi Spice for relatively reasonable prices & really excellent food.