mastodon 4.7.2I'm only here for the hot takes.
https://streetcarsuburbs.news/nature-nearby-columnist-seitz-dies-in-april/
RIP. The world needs more columnists writing about woodchucks IMO.
Also, if you are going to write about plants and animals in #Maryland , you guys should have some more pictures of them next to the column.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-way-we-treat-pigs-is-a-sin
This is one of the better things Smith has written. There's a rider in the farm bill that would prohibit states from making laws on the treatment of livestock like pigs, cows, and so on. People concerned about animal welfare should be alarmed.
https://marylandmatters.org/2026/06/04/a-special-session-is-needed-in-maryland-to-support-democracy/
Efforts to redistrict #Maryland are gaining steam after the US Supreme Court decision legalizing gerrymandering in the deep south.
#Claude is absolutely roasting me for my enthusiasm about #LVT . First time in awhile an #LLM has made me laugh. I'm so used to Chat-GPT 's obsequious-ness that Claude being like "uh, no... you are super wrong, sorry" is kinda surprising. Definitely feels like it has a personality.
On the subject itself, LVT seems tough to push for because it creates a wealthy constituency with a very strong incentive to kill it (ie PGH). Maybe 21st century automated assessment makes it easier?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/04/06/ice-arrests-dc-maryland-virginia-surge/
Difficult reading, but this is what our neighbors in the #DMV and #Maryland are going through.
"Many of the arrests of immigrants...are taking place at scheduled check-ins... 60 percent — had no prior criminal record," contradicting Noem's claim.
"Chief Border Patrol Agent... repeatedly misstated the legal requirements for warrantless arrests in their public comments... many others have been apprehended while on their way to work or school or out shopping"
https://www.natesilver.net/p/social-media-has-become-a-freak-show
"It’s not hard to notice that #Twitter has become extremely right-leaning. But I’d argue there’s an equally important trend: the top accounts are of incredibly low quality. Elon... is at the eye of the storm... “Catturd” literally gets far more engagement than the New York Times"
Twitter suppressing links to external sites kills a lot of what made it appealing in the first place, namely, news aggregation by people you think are interesting. Short-sighted.
Pretty dark for a high schooler, but... I laughed.
Podcast from @baltimore_fishbowl@dmv.community on the cancellation of the Red Line in #Baltimore #Maryland during Hogan's tenure. What's infuriating about his decision is that it came after so. much. money, and professional resources had already been put into #transit #planning and land acquisition.
The Red Line would have served West Baltimore, an under-invested region. The Purple Line, not cancelled, will run in the #DMV . And the Red Line got cancelled for what? Widening I-270?
https://newrepublic.com/article/210803/snap-cuts-young-adults-economy
The $187 Billion #SNAP cut passed last year is beginning to work its way through the system.
"“SNAP is our most successful anti-hunger program; it reduces food insecurity, it reduces health care costs, it lifts millions of people out of #poverty ,” said FitzSimons. “If people lose that, they lose that baseline.”"
Good Cause is a pretty novel idea nationally. In #Maryland a bill has been getting re-introduced in the last few years, and it requires land lords to give tenants a reason for not allowing renewal.
Proponents say it will protect tenants. Opponents say it will reduce #housing production. Personally I think... it might not have a large effect one way or the other? The list of valid reasons includes lease violation & missing rent, so does this really make eviction harder?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/03/12/americans-cut-costs-health-care/
The cuts to #Medicaid in the #OBBBA were a mistake. A $1T cut in health care for lower income Americans is funding a tax cut that benefits the wealthiest.
If people can't pay for gasoline, the number of jobs they can potentially drive to is lower. If they can't pay for health care, the odds that they leave the labor market because of long term disability are higher. If they can't get a mortgage, the odds of having a kid plunge. Some in the poll can't even buy food!
This is so fucking cool. Look at all the people walking on it in the opening week.
"A new bridge in Finland is likely the world's longest car-free bridge, reports Abhimanyu Ghoshal in New Atlas. The Kruunuvuori Bridge, which opened last week, serves pedestrians, cyclists and, starting next year, trams."
I believe Maryland is considering adding multi-modality to both the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the replacement for the Key Bridge, but of course those will have cars.
Rep. Jamie Raskin recently wrote an Op-Ed in The Guardian asking for RCV to be used for the 2028 Democratic primaries. I think it would be great if he helped push RCV and Approval right here in the state of Maryland, because for about a decade now, Palakovich-Carr and Kaufman's wonderful bill has been dying in committee.
I contacted the congressman about this and I hope it gets his attention.
#maryland #approvalVoting #rankedChoiceVoting #elections #USA #politics #jamieraskin #MGA #voting
A blog post I wrote on how #FPTP isn't playing nice with the trend towards nationalization of #politics in the #USA in races at the state and local level, specifically in #MontgomeryCounty #Maryland . Why? Well, primaries have more than two candidates, and as the number of viable candidates goes up, the likelihood of randomness and deliberate vote splitting goes up. If general elections don't matter because voters don't cross parties, this is a bigger deal.
https://afro.com/snap-access-barriers-maryland/
"SNAP is a reliable and dignified lifeline for families navigating economic hardship. But it only helps when families are able to access the program. Ensuring equitable access is not only sound policy—it is a moral and economic imperative."
We should automatically enroll people in #SNAP unless they choose to opt out of it, if they are eligible. The woman in this story is disabled and worrying about different bills already, #Maryland shouldn't make her life harder.
https://directlinenews.substack.com/p/charter-schools-in-montgomery-county
Author here does not address one of the main critiques of charters: if it's easier for charter #schools to expel or suspend students, then they can kick out the students who are doing worst (regardless of whether disciplinary issues are real), and use the leftover students to truthfully make the claim that their average students have high test scores etc., even though their performance doesn't have much to do with how well they're taught.
https://directlinenews.substack.com/p/marylands-middle-class-exodus-that
" #Baltimore becomes unlivable for a working professional. That is not a personal failure. That is a policy failure of spectacular proportions." 99% sure it was written by A.I., but it still speaks to my liberal heart. Nice to see blue state Republicans talking about #zoning reform instead of the importance of personal responsibility and how if you can't afford #Maryland you should move, blah blah blah.
https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/stop-calling-housing-regulations
This piece is cathartic.
I've got a friend who left #Maryland and moved to Tampa not long after having a second kid. She hates DeSantis, his ideas about reproductive rights, the #Florida education system being privatized and that the schools have to fight censorship... but it was more affordable for them.
And then, at home, I see otherwise liberal commenters in WaPo complaining about newcomers bringing traffic and crime. The #housing status quo is so depressing.
I saw the #backrooms #movie and it scared the shit outta me. Clark just *had* to find out what was at the bottom of that square room-ramp... SMH.
I'd recommend it, but also there were entire scenes that I didn't really see because I was holding my hands in front of my eyes.
Today, learned about two #MontgomeryCounty focused #blogs from the IHatePolitics podcast run by Sunil Dasgupta
Nora Gordon, focused on #education and MCPS: https://noraegordon.substack.com/profile/posts
Jerry Kickenson, focused on #immigration enforcement: https://jkickenson.substack.com/
Both important topics... I think these blogs are worth reading! #Maryland #USA
https://directlinenews.substack.com/p/should-prison-inmates-get-the-vote
"Yet under this proposal, the political power of those prisoners could influence local elections in a county where they do not permanently live and will likely not reside after their release."
I agree that it's inappropriate for the permanent addresses of prisoners to be reassigned to rural prisons for purposes of political representation. I think the most obvious solution is to let prisoners vote based on the address they had before incarceration.
A rare bill in the #USA #Congress related to housing. For a description of some of the stuff in it:
"streamlines #NEPA reviews for certain infill housing projects to accelerate construction timelines and increase #housing supply" including LIHTC.
Lowkey I am also wondering if some of the stuff in here is undoing important regulations on banks that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis? Eh, I'm sure everything will be fine.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/06/01/opinion-social-worker-job-cut/
#MCPS is getting tens of millions less than they asked for, so they're cutting social workers.
"These are not supplemental services. They are the only licensed clinical mental health interventions embedded in schools and available in real time when students are in crisis."
Attn: #Maryland 'ers looking to change the 2-party system...
The Center for Election Science is asking people to e-mail the chair of GLE, in the House of Delegates to bring a study bill on Ranked-Choice and Approval to a vote.
Have a delegate on the committee? (https://www.mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Members/District) Please e-mail them too.
I was at a #Baltimore #DSA recruitment... the organizer got a hostile question about why DSA works in the Democratic party... I wanted to yell, "don't hate the player, hate the game!"
https://www.actfortransit.org/
Action Committee for Transit has published its candidate guides. Here is the guide for At-Large council.
I need to start filling out my ballot...
Listened to a podcast yesterday with Derek Thompson talking to this former Pentagon #AI guy who was in the Trump administration... they talked about how OpenAI and Anthropic are probably about to make government mass surveillance of the US population much, much cheaper.
Good interview, my only complaint is that they didn't play this song in the outro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8JyKXFsHAM
#Bondi "never did deliver on one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises: justice for the people caught in the crosshairs of the left’s political lawfare campaign."
Reading the Federalist scares the shit out of me. Her "biggest problem... was her inability to run a tenacious prosecution operation that would send a clear message to the leftist lawfare crowd." I'm worried DoJ is going to be used to punish peaceful protestors for speech. Loyalty to only Trump.
https://montgomeryperspective.com/2026/06/02/fani-gonzalez-endorses-glass-for-executive/
Fani-Gonzalez endorsing Glass is a pretty spicy development. We're sure as hell gonna get a split vote now! I don't see the winner getting over 50%, after that poll from Friedson combined with this.
I actually have someone in my friend group who told me that their long term #housing strategy is to just wait to inherit their parents' house... and it is a nice house, so makes sense!
Empty nester homes have more bedrooms than the occupants need, and millenials' homes (more likely to have young kids) have fewer than they need. The short article also mentions that boomers don't have options for downsizing, because of lack of #zoning for small townhouses
[PAYWALLED] https://www.vox.com/politics/482361/iran-war-white-house-video-game-propaganda
I'm doing my best to not pay attention to the war in #Iran because what the U.S. military is carelessly doing to civilians is so, so horrible, and I have no control over it... but I did read this.
The targets for these memes trivializing the deaths of children aren't swing voters. "Built not to persuade a neutral audience, but rather to appeal to those already-bought in, their primary service is thought-deadening"
There's no end in sight, no long term plan.
https://marylandmatters.org/2026/03/17/energy-bill-passes-house/
#Republicans made some good points during the #Maryland #energy debate.
D's blocked "Other Republican amendments aimed to encourage natural gas and small modular #nuclear reactors"...
"One Republican... proposed an amendment that would have eliminated EmPOWER ...argued that only a small fraction of Marylanders actually use the program, and wealthier individuals who own their homes are more likely to take advantage of the appliance rebates."
The first journal I filled took about 6 years, from 2016 to 2022. The second one went from 2022 to 2024. The third one, that I started in 2024, I finished today.
It's a bit melancholy. When I look back on my life, am I going to read these? Sometimes I flip to a random page from an entry I wrote years ago, and it can be jarring to be called back to whatever mental state I was in at that moment. I guess it's beneficial because it gives you perspective, but it also makes you aware of time passing.
I want to learn #QGIS but I don't have the timeeee
;_;
choropleths are so pretty. The #Baltimore Sun had an article w/ a comment on how blue counties are getting more blue and red counties are getting more red. I want to make a choropleth where the color axis is % council seats Dem. I picture that counties would be colored, with the color range going from ruby red to deep blue. I want to make 2 #Maryland maps, juxtaposing 2026 w/, maybe... the year 2000? To visualize increased one-party rule.
I'm confused about this article... is it saying that individual drivers' compensations didn't change from before-to-after the #minimumWage law took affect, or is it saying that the combined compensation of all delivery drivers in aggregate didn't change? If combined compensation of all drivers rose, even as individual driver's compensation didn't, because the law increased the # of drivers, then from an equity standpoint the law is still worth passing, no?
Even though the MoCo Republicans drive me nuts, I actually do appreciate that they have this outlet that covers local politics, even if it's very often in a way I disagree with (e.g. charters schools, literally everything they say about ICE...). At least it makes me aware of issues in Rockville and Annapolis that I didn't know about before.
I just wish they didn't use A.I. to make the header images for all their articles... it makes me kinda nauseous...