@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

BenRossTransit

@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social

Transit advocate. Author of Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism. Chair of Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition. Searchable.

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Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

TIL the Israeli ambassador showed up at Putin's sham election victory celebration two months ago. For shame. No wonder Ukraine and Poland aren't bothering to vote with Israel at the UN.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon This web page has an excellent compilation of Bibi & the Likud's pattern of preference for autocrats over Israel's democratic allies. https://www.conception2023.co.il/concept-3/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

On the one hand, Hamas turns out to have offered to deliver dead bodies to Israel in lieu of living hostages, and that's why Israel is restarting talks but not accepting its offer.

On the other hand, in Barak Ravid's reporting at least, the biggest concerns that Israeli negotiators have are not about the dead hostages but about Hamas's demand for a stage-two withdrawal from Gaza.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon Either Bibi's speeches & leaks have blown up a genuine opportunity for cease-fire & hostage return, or Hamas had no intention of ever agreeing to the cease-fire terms & Bibi's speeches & leaks have helped Hamas shift the blame onto Israel. I really don't know which it is, but either way Bibi once again is a disaster for Israel.

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

I'm half-way through Wes Marshall's Killed by a Traffic Engineer. A terrific book, very readable despite the inherently dry subject matter, and lots of information new to me as someone who has given the topic a lot of attention. (Still, I have to admit it isn't competing well for my attention today against the Stormy Daniels testimony.) https://islandpress.org/books/killed-traffic-engineer#desc

QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

Incredible. Read the text of the ceasefire agreement.

The ceasefire mandated release of ALL Israeli hostages, a permanent & indefinite ceasefire—meaning Hamas could never offensively take up arms against Israel again—and Qatar, Egypt, USA, & the UN serving as Guarantors.

Israel still said no.😐
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/6/text-of-the-ceasefire-proposal-approved-by-hamas

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@QasimRashid This offer retracts terms that Hamas previously agreed to. It allows Hamas to deliver dead bodies rather than live hostages, and gives Israel no voice in the selection of the prisoners given in exchange. After releasing only 15 dead bodies or live hostages selected by Hamas, and getting hundreds of its key operatives in exchange, Hamas can stop the releases on the grounds that Israel has not agreed to its maximum demands. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/tv-report-highlights-key-areas-where-hamas-proposal-differs-from-israeli-backed-offer/

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Light rail access has become a selling point for US universities. As seen from Kansas City, where extension slated to open next year will convert downtown circulator streetcar into a light rail connecting major activity centers. https://www.thepitchkc.com/kansas-city-beginning-to-follow-suit-in-expanding-streetcar-system/

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Are there good histories of the origin of the social democrat/green split? Because these days those parties are extremely similar throughout Europe (and in the Netherlands they just merged), and generally they prefer to govern with each other when possible.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon The Greens did not originate as a split from social democrats. They saw themselves sometimes as to the left of the social democrats, sometimes as transcending left-right divisions. The Green founders came more often from ultra-left sects than from social democrats.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon Your question is really why did the Greens succeed in cutting into the Social Democrats' voting base.
That's part of the bigger question of SDs' loss of working class votes and shift to a base of the educated middle class. The Greens cut into the new base, not the old base, and in many ways their platform fits their constituency better than the SDs'.
You could even argue that the rise of the Greens has benefited SDs by pushing them back toward their labor base (see Australia).

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Transportist @Alon Nimby seems to be a common trait of Green parties world-wide. Australian Greens have both left-sectarian and woodsy-middle-class factions. Canadians & French tend more toward latter (probably because sectarians drawn more to NDP & Insoumise), US Greens more ultra-left.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar

Haaretz reports that Hamas will accept the Egyptian ceasefire deal within hours. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-04/ty-article-live/report-u-s-tells-qatar-to-expel-hamas-leaders-if-they-refuse-cease-fire-deal/0000018f-412e-d17f-adcf-f9eff5aa0000

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon @bdsint They may also have had illusions about what the campus demonstrations were going to accomplish, which have now been exploded.
And who knows what threats or promises have been made by Egypt.

interfluidity, to random
@interfluidity@zirk.us avatar

if you want to make a case that antisemitism plays an unusual role in the US discourse surrounding Israel, your best point of reference is Yemen and US support of Saudi Arabia’s conflict there, which conflict (whomever you blame for it) did lead to mass famine and death, but not to mass protest on US campuses.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon @interfluidity Also the current situation in Sudan, where the US-allied UAE is supporting the RSF (ex-Janjaweed), featuring massacres, starvation, and borders closed to humanitarian aid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/world/africa/el-fasher-darfur-sudan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oU0.3WDk.bDydM_qbHp3I&smid=url-share

JoshuaHolland, to acab
@JoshuaHolland@mastodon.social avatar

Free speech is alive and well on American campuses as students are welcome to protest injustice as long as their slogans are perfectly calibrated to offend noone and can withstand the scrutiny of bad-faith actors and no individual among them is a hothead who's said some offensive shit either during the protest or previously on social media.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@JoshuaHolland @DeanBaker13
Imagine defenders of southern culture camped out on the college green, splitting their time between scholarly rebuttals of the history curriculum's denigration of Robert E. Lee and John C. Calhoun & loudly amplified chants of pro-Confederate slogans. Occasionally participants yell epithets at Black students walking by, some overtly racist & some referring to DEI.
Is that an exercise of free speech that university administrations should tolerate?

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

Thought-experiment relevant (although of course not perfectly identical) to current campus protests.
Imagine defenders of southern culture camped out on the college green, devoting the vast majority of their time to scholarly rebuttals of the history curriculum's denigration of Robert E. Lee and John C. Calhoun & loud chants of slogans that favorably remember them. Only occasionally do participants yell epithets, some overtly racist & some referring to DEI, at Black students walking by.

interfluidity, to random
@interfluidity@zirk.us avatar

“To even admit you are acting out of a perception of potential liability is thought in some circles to create a risk of liability. But this thinking in some cases creates enormous risk because the people who are articulating risk only think along one line of vulnerability, the one they understand—or because their logic is easily bent towards a pre-determined conclusion by ideologues prepared to manipulate it.” https://timothyburke.substack.com/p/academia-on-the-inside

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@interfluidity This leaves out that a big part of this wave of protests, especially in the earlier phases, is harassing other students. (Whether for their religion, ethnicity, or opinions, it's all bad.) This is altogether different from the 60s when pro-war students were not harassed, and I haven't heard of that as a feature of more recent protests until Oct 7.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@djc @interfluidity Accepting Burke's description (although my impression is that things have gone considerably farther), he doesn't draw the necessary implication.
From a Jewish student's point of view, it's not an acceptable situation that racist invective is forbidden if directed against any group other than Jews, but allowed against Jews.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@interfluidity @djc I was talking about slogans like "Intifada revolution," "burn Tel Aviv to the ground," "Qassam brigades you make us proud" along with the Zionist-free zone and celebration of Oct 7.
And it's harassment, not speech, when they yell these slogans (or even things that are in bounds as subjects of discussion, like genocide) at Jewish students walking to class.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@interfluidity @ikentcpel @Alon @djc It's not "some fool," it's a leader of the group. And he remains as leader after a vague semi-apology.
Imagine a group of defenders of southern culture camped out on the college green, devoting the vast majority of their time to scholarly rebuttals of the curriculum's denigration of Robert E. Lee and John C. Calhoun, and only occasionally yelling racist epithets at Black students walking by.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@interfluidity @Alon @ikentcpel @djc "Antizionist" has a multitude of meanings from the Satmar rebbes to Sinwar & Khameini. The term is often used to intentionally blur distinctions.
I believe the number of American Jews who, like many SJP leaders, supported the Oct 7 massacres and want them to be repeated, is very small.
The number who have deluded themselves about what Hamas & SJP stand for is much larger, and yes Bibi deserves a lot of the blame for that.

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon Did you see this reply? https://mas.to/@failedLyndonLaRouchite/112349421074718756

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon @failedLyndonLaRouchite Strange, because I'm also on mastodon.social and don't have this problem.

BenRossTransit, to random
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

The 1968 protests at Columbia were aimed against the university's plan for a gym in Morningside Park as much as, or more than, the Vietnam War. This was part of a nation-wide SDS campaign against university expansion, from which today's left-nimbyism largely originated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Columbia_University_protests

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon Jane Jacobs specifically endorsed this plan in Death & Life:
"Columbia University is taking a constructive step by planning sports facilities--for both the unniversity and the neighborhood--in Morningside Park."
The plan was initially welcomed by people in Harlem. The park was decrepit & crime-ridden.

Sherifazuhur, to israel
@Sherifazuhur@sfba.social avatar

Israel intensifies strikes on Rafah ahead of threatened invasion (why is there no pushback to the planned « all-out assault on Rafah »? Did the US, EU & Egypt greenlight it?) @israel @palestine

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-intensifies-strikes-gazas-rafah-ahead-threatened-invasion-2024-04-25/

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @israel @palestine Maybe because Hamas refuses to agree to a cease-fire. Obviously, Hamas does not care about Palestinian lives, and in fact believes it benefits from Palestinian deaths.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @palestine @israel "The United States has proposed a deal through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in which Hamas would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages in exchange for a six-week cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A senior administration official who briefed reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity under official ground rules put the blame solely on Hamas for blocking the deal." https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/25/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas/biden-and-17-other-world-leaders-turn-up-heat-on-hamas-to-free-hostages?smid=url-share

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @israel @palestine You have provided no sources at all.
And yes, I consider the State Dept a reliable source. It is certainly not beholden to the current Israeli government.

BenRossTransit,
@BenRossTransit@mastodon.social avatar

@Sherifazuhur @israel @palestine You have provided no sources at all.
And yes, I consider the State Dept a reliable source about the facts. It is certainly not beholden to the current Israeli government & has been extremely critical while being careful about the facts.

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