My greatest Tom Sawyer moment: Convincing Austin and Bryan that doing all of the tamping work to fix an uneven trail surface in mega humidity on the @mountvernontrail.org is really fun.

If it took 8 days to build a massive concentration camp in Florida then it means they could build and house the homeless at any point but choose not to

Come to a volunteer event and find an Eastern Hercules Beetle!

This thing was awesome!

I think the results showed decent strength for Mamdani in progressive Jewish NY neighborhoods. The points where he was weaker in Jewish neighborhoods than Cuomo were places like Borough Park which are historically very conservative and Cuomo would not have retained that support in a general.

Ok by your definition they are leftists. I consider leftists to fall under the concept of progressive ideology. On the other hand Neoliberalism is a regressive ideology. I prefer to label them what they actually are.

You didn’t ask a direct question. You asked sarcastically in bad faith under the assumption that the state-wide candidates that won are neoliberal center-right candidates which is not aligned with reality.

Jay Jones is a attorney general option who was the anti-utility monopoly candidate (dominion energy donated $800000 to Taylor) and won pretty decisively. It’s a clear sign that voters want more progressive actions to protect against corporate greed.

The same one where “moderate” democrats like yourself capitulated to authoritarianism and voted for the Laken Riley Act. Feel good about helping us get to this point Senator?

a close up of a raccoon in a circle giving a high five ALT: a close up of a raccoon in a circle giving a high five

Can confirm always having a blast!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to our volunteer leader Anna! She is a Fairfax County Public Schools teacher during the week and volunteers on the trail almost every weekend. We don't know how she has this much energy.

Register to volunteer and meet cool people like Anna: buff.ly/3J0YTuy

I have my doubts that immigration will remain a positive issue for very long. Democrats are starting to finally counter message in the last month after years of ceding the space to right wing rhetoric and the approval has shifted already from a +16 issue to for Trump.

When you find out your friend lived 31 years without going to a Taco Bell. It’s Dewarita time.

US Social Security was created alongside a progressive tax policy called the “soak the rich” tax in 1935. The tax also funded the creation of the FHA (public housing) and mass work relief programs that built long term infrastructure (foundations for our parks).

Taxing the rich is exactly how America originally created generous social programs in the aftermath of the Great Depression during the new deal era. It’s also incredibly popular in the US (a Fox News poll had it at 70% approval in 2019).

The idea that we should remove environmental laws and private companies will create the supply is a short-sighted and an ahistorical view of what happens in the aftermath of deregulation in any industry.

Austin and Tokyo are only seeing prices go down due to population losses. Vienna and Singapore are examples of not relying on private partnership since over 50% of people live in public housing that is government owned which is what I am advocating for.

I'm not saying we should abolish private ownership just how we should be more bold on how we pursue public housing at the federal level. The housing shortage is a national security vulnerability and programs should be mobilized to address this problem (including using the military).

What are these examples you are citing for lowering costs? Private sector involvement is always going to make a project more expensive because private sector always has a higher cost of borrowing and they apply transaction costs and operating costs to drive profits for themselves.

The politics of the “Abundance” movement is good but the policy approaches are weak and in many parts regressive from what I have seen. The path to lower cost builds is by using government labor instead of the idea of neoliberal private partnership.

I am familiar with NEPA. I am not in agreement that the laws are a big problem. The narrative that is a problem are astroturfed by far right groups like The Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation since Trump's first presidency. China and many other countries do EIA as well with no issues.

From what I have seen, they are primarily targeting environmental laws as the problem to preventing fast builds in America. We should instead reestablish the Conservation Corps to build things and rely on the ACOE to do the engineering work instead of relying on failed private partnership.

He's not wrong on needing to deliver but the solutions he proposes are almost entirely deregulation. The solution should be to bring rail systems under public ownership to keep as much work within the government as possible and reduce turnover. This would actually lower costs and speed the process.

In American housing, we rely on housing vouchers which only subsidizes the private rental sector and their monopoly. We spend $27 Billion dollars on these vouchers every year and if we funded in 1975 to build social housing to compete instead we would not be in a shortage today.

His statement that it is “wildly unconstitutional” was only in reference to imprisonment without evidence. The broader statement did not present that his speech in opposing US Foreign Policy should be protected.

To give you more context to this situation. Khalil was acting in a role as a nonviolent mediator to try to get the campus to stop investing in a genocide. This is a direct attack on the first amendment pure and simple. Jeffries did not mention the protection of speech at all.

These democrats need to be criticized for their opposition of the substance of what Al Green was saying. Why do these members think Donald Trump has a mandate to cut medicare?

This censure vote manufactured that consent.

Of note Jim Costa also voted to censure Rashida Tlaib for using emancipatory language in 2023. Liberals have primed themselves for this moment for years now.

My advice as an American watching this unfold: Canada should target their own oligarchs who are helping fuel this process and make them feel pain as well. People like Elon Musk and Kevin O’Leary should have to pay for the economic damage being dealt to their fellow Canadians by seizing their assets.

Had a great time starting my #TranspoBINGO sheet yesterday with the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail!

“Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion,” Jeff Bezos says in a statement about how he is going to coerce the newspaper he owns to shut out opposing views