Awhile ago I started a slack channel called #nottheonion. The point was, when I saw a story that was real, but thought it should be in the Onion, I post it.
Yesterday, for the first time I say an Onion post and it didn’t register who posted it and I thought, that’s got to be real.
America is cooked.

I’ve taken several long trips to the Netherlands and the feeling of having to go back to the U.S. starts to hit about a week before. It’s so nice knowing I’ll be returning to my home here in a few weeks. Thought car infrastructure is probably going to be an intense amount of reverse culture shock.

If you are confused about what the word “enshittification” means, this image explains it pretty well.

If I made a circle chart of what’s wrong with America, it would be 85% poor land use (and a large subsection of that would be too much parking).

This is the problem. But Capitalism is the reason.

The capitalist dream… why make real money when you can make fake, speculative money on something that literally gives you the wrong answer 45% of the time. #ia #itsnotabubble

Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with 'suspicious' travel patterns The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.

That whole "cars are freedom" bullshit is really coming apart at the seams, huh?

Sadly this will never happen because politicians will not tell them the truth. You can have a nice community or you can have car infrastructure and bad land use. You can’t have both.

Just saw a video from a local US city council member do a street interview. The people wanted local grocery stores and shops and a rec center and safe streets (in other words, Europe).

But then I googled the neighborhood. Full of single family homes with setbacks and cudasacs and wide roads.

I tried oliebollen for the first time… I want more of that!

I have not seen a shitty strip mall or Kroger parking lot since I moved out of the U.S. and it’s great.

A hand holds two paperback books—“Building the Cycling City” and “Curbing Traffic”—in front of a busy cycling path in Utrecht.

Want to learn more about the Dutch blueprint for urban vitality and the human case for fewer cars in our lives?

Beginning today, our first two books—and hundreds of other titles—are half price (just $15 each!) via the Island Press website. Promo ends midnight Sunday.

Order yours at islandpress.org

I built a filter that finds the word unsubscribe and automatically puts it in a different folder. You could add the words Democrat/Republican to it. You may even be able to just auto delete based on the filter. There are YouTube videos that show you how to do this if you don’t know how.

Primaries for senators

Streets are for people

I vote:

Deal to end government shutdown in reach At least 10 Senate Democrats are expected to support a key procedural motion.

Chuck Schumer doing what he does best: folding to Trump’s authoritarian regime and failing the American people. You’d think after last week, he’d understand the moment we’re in and the leverage he has. He must be replaced as leader immediately, and the out-of-touch corporate old guard needs to go.

Chuck Schumer needs to resign. Like right now!

Hot take: I don’t give a shit about Trump’s ballroom. It’s fine. Is it to my taste? I don’t know. Would I rather them build a dope-ass library, yeah. But the media seems fixated on this stupid nonsense instead of, ya know, billionaires robbing everyone and those Epstein files.

It’s so nice living on a fietspad and not on a street. Quite literally, my address is not a street. Only bikes and the rare delivery truck are allowed to use it.

So peaceful and quiet and efficient. I love it!!

Tired of Peter Thiel trying to destroy democracy by forcing his dystopian vision of the world on us?

You can join @purgepalantir.bsky.social, a movement that is protesting the billionaire and his companies.

And @solidaritydept.bsky.social has a full report exposing Thiel that you can share widely:

Traffic is a completely solvable problem. Just remove the road for cars. This is the only way. Don’t let a politician or media pundit tell you otherwise.

I like to tell people I moved to the Netherlands, endure the long process of getting a visa, housing, banking, etc just so I could get an ov-fiets abonnement and discounted train rides… And my dream has finally come true. 😂

Well said!

New signs, lights, and paint at the #Delft bike parking station!

Study title page

IMPORTANT STUDY: “On average, the implementation of 30 km/h speed limits in European cities demonstrated a 23%, 37% & 38% reduction in road crashes, fatalities & injuries respectively. Lower speed limits also yielded environmental benefits.” www.nrso.ntua.gr/review-of-ci...

Hot take: the Netherlands should remove more car infrastructure, especially these redundant highways and build far more housing. The housing crisis here is beyond insane and not a single euro should go to highway infrastructure until everyone can easily find a place to live.

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked footage of radical anti-car cyclists at a training camp.

The fight for freedom is the fight to remove as many cars as possible (and replace them with amazing public transportation).

I’m pretty much within a 10 minute bike ride of a bar, a grocery store, a forest, a body of water, and an animal farm (with sheep, goats, cows, or horses) at all times. And few if any stoplights in my way. This is how it should be everywhere. And yet, it would be better with even less cars!

All highways, even the ones in the Netherlands, are horrific. While it’s nice that you can navigate under them here, they are still loud, dirty, and always ruin the vibe of the community. We should tear out as many of them as humanly possible and expand trains.
#A13