Sic Transit PHL

a woman is holding a man 's face in a video that says go biirfras Alt: a drunk kid is shouting "gooooo biiiiiirds" at a Vikings fan during the infamous Vikings Week of 2018.

This, only writ large and therefore even funnier.

Some Asian people posted a photo of themselves having dinner. It reads: "Went to a fancy dinner in SF and everybody went to Harvard (or Stanford)" The next day, the followed up with a tweet that reads: "Almost all of us are Americans. FWIW, More of us are Americans than Asian."

Two quote tweets. The first has a racist drawing of Asian people and it says "I rent to fancy dinnah and everybody rent 2 Havah (or Stanfah)." The other shows Yale's Skulls and Bones society in the 1940s, where a bunch of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men in suits are composed for a group photo. An Italian man writes: "This is what Ivy Leaguers are supposed to look like."

Two quote tweets. The first reads: "Foreigners post stuff like this and then act surprised that GenZ males are so far right they'd make Rush Limbaugh blush. I hope they realize Trump is their last chance for a moderate solution." The other reads: "I’m so glad that 17 Americans didn’t get to go to Harvard or Standford because these peoples parents spent $10,000 on SAT prep"

Two quote tweets. The first reads: "Living exclusively around these people for over 15 years is what turned me into a nazi. They're like this all the time." The other reads: "Not going to lie, very depressing to see our hallowed western university system turn into a network of Striver Universities for intellectually incurious exam maxxing Kumon monsters"

Interesting how much resentment this photo created from white conservatives who assumed that the dismantling of DEI meant elite schools would return to the 1940s.

The renewable energy boom has been going strong since the early days of the Obama Administration. So like any other 15-16 year old, Donald Trump wants to fuck it.

hard to think of a better justification for permitting reform than “we need to build clean energy fast before republicans can stop us”

It's August 1.

The Pennsylvania State Budget is a month late.

Without funding, transit across the Commonwealth is on fire.

The PA Senate Republican caucus needs to figure out in a hurry if it is at all interested in governing.

And the rest of us need to figure out what happens if they aren't.

it's important to realize higher youth unemployment represents a key pillar in the Pedocon economic agenda. If you want to rape your intern or au pair you've gotta make sure they can't walk across the street and get a different job.

They got Trump elected and now he's implementing the agenda

Rep. Lisa Borowski has been so informative in the fight to fund SEPTA.

School drop off lines that stretch for miles are one of the most visible policy failures out there

Similarly, Edinburgh Trams?

If you ever need to slip me a trivial bribe, I will always take payment in LockMart Pride Socks.

My shoe size is US M 10.5, whatever that works out to in sock size.

Even aside from the politicisation... top generals *are* supposed to be bureaucrats rather than "war fighters". They're guys in their 50s and 60s in charge of big strategic and logistical stuff, of course they spend most of their time looking at screens and documents rather than physically fighting.

Guest Commentary: SEPTA, a View from the Inside A staffer in SEPTA’s Transformation Office offers a peek into how the transit agency’s employees have innovated solutions that have saved millions

Check out this inside take on how #SEPTA employees have innovated unseen solutions that have saved the authority millions: thephiladelphiacitizen.org/guest-commen....

density is just the secret sauce for everything

PA budget impasse delays $2.5B in school, county funding Pennsylvania lawmakers missed the June 30 budget deadline, forcing delayed funding for schools, counties, libraries, and shelters until they strike a deal.

News: Pennsylvania's budget secretary warned in letters Tuesday that at least $2.5 billion in funding for school districts, child welfare offices, ambulance services and homeless shelters among others is at risk due to the state's almost month late budget.
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/07...

CURSED

Puking in my mouth a little bit thinking about "Union Pacific's Horseshoe Curve"

right it's not like epstein operated a competing hotel, he was ostensibly a hedge fund manager. what line of work did trump think he was in?

the one thing i genuinely did not anticipate from this administration was its vicious, know nothing hostility to any and everything that might even be adjacent to science and scientific research. they genuinely one to destroy the entirety of the nation’s research capacity. and for what, exactly?

This is a bugbear of mine, too, made vastly worse here by the Uniformity Clause of the PA Constitution, a/k/a the place where good tax policy goes to die.

(My best idea for circumvention is to make the tax refundable at the end of the year, by submitting paperwork, a la European VAT.

I'm VERY skeptical of anyone who loves the US rail industry exactly the way it is, opposes nationalization for dumb foamer and shit economist reasons, and thinks electrification isn't ever worthwhile and acts like it's some insane fantasy that's physically impossible

Fuel taxes are guaranteed to hit local traffic, but are not guaranteed to hit through-traffic between Illinois and Ohio, much less Michigan. This isn't just inefficient, it's political suicide when the local drivers vote and the out-of-state drivers don't.

Indiana Will Ask FHWA to Be First State to Toll Interstates - TT Indiana lawmakers voted to seek federal authority to become the first state that charges tolls on interstate highways, a move taken over the objections of state truckers.

Unsurprisingly, Indiana wants to lead the way on generating more revenue by tolling Interstates--they've been playing with various concepts for a long time: www.ttnews.com/articles/ind...

This is genuinely the biggest update to Reimagining Regional Rail that we've seen in a few years:
-Station rehabs
-Freight separations
-Rebuilding RR through the airport
-Double tracking up Wawa, Doylestown and Warminster
-New yards
-Extensions to WC, Upper Bucks, and Atglen

USDOT in 1990: Free parking is bad
USDOT in 2025: Now with free parking at our HQ!*

* If you somehow score a spot through our lottery, b/c there's nowhere near enough parking for everyone

🤦‍♂️

How I wish America’s congestion-obsessed transportation engineers understood Paul Krugman’s point here

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-limits...

This vehicle previously ran a red light in the Bronx and received an automated camera ticket Location Bronx River Parkway Offramp and Br (Bronx). Violation Failure to Stop at Red Light Plate New Jersey R25JBL (PAS) Vehicle Unknown Color 2017 Acura Utility Vehicle Issuer NYC Department of Transportation Fines Initial: Paid: $50.00 - $50.00 Outstanding: $0.00

If only there had been some way to predict that the operator of this vehicle would be likely to do something like this in the future, damn it, I guess we’ll never know

At an absolute bare minimum someone who runs full speed over a mother and her three small children crossing a street in the crosswalk with the light should never drive again, simply as a commonsense default skills issue.

There’s an excellent chance this driver won’t face any penalty at all

Child killed, mother and 2 kids hurt after struck by SUV at NJ intersection A mother and her three children were leaving a doctor’s office when they were struck by an SUV at a New Jersey intersection, according to police and witnesses, killing one of the children and injuring...

A 4-year-old is dead and a family is destroyed, and it’s just going to be chalked up as the cost of doing business in a world built to exonerate people driving hugely oversized vehicles with big-screen entertainment systems whose time is more valuable than yours

www.nbcnewyork.com/new-jersey/c...

Opinion: Canada’s outdated elevator rules are adding to the housing crisis The high cost of elevators is a barrier to the development of affordable, accessible homes

@englishrail.bsky.social and I have a piece in the Globe & Mail about how Canada can make housing more affordable and accessible, and disentangle itself from its unreliable and hostile southern neighbor: give its elevator industry the option to use the European/global standard, not just the U.S. one