> "People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone."

Says the person calling for a civil war and that there would have been more violence on Jan 6th with armed militias if she led it. Can't make this shit up.

And then she gets butthurt because an ordinary civilian accosts her? Something tells me she's not ready to be armed and go out blazing.

Everybody knows the best part about Mormons is their dedication to playing games. It's no joke. Growing up the Mormon family across my street had every Nintendo game imaginable and walls of board games. And they had a bunker of snacks. So you can chill and play games all day and steal snacks from their 5 month supply of food they buy from Costco. And they had a hoop in their driveway.

They just couldn't listen to any decent music, watch anything good, or leave the sight of their parents and couldn't be outside past dinner. I guess that's what the games are for to make sure they don't stray far.

Yeah, if only Catholic Priests can marry like Mormon Priests, then they could have five wives and 20 children /s

> Our youth need direction, purpose, and hope.

To be fair that is kinda the point of the service year option. A lot of kids tend to burn out and give up as they get older when they come to the realization of their circumstances and start to question their pathway after high school. And a service year option provides direction, mentorship, paid stipends, purpose, and value for the community. That is usually the point of partnerships, where multiple stakeholders are invested in a program, and everybody wins.

And by having a program after you complete high school, it could right the ship before it veers off course for a lot of students. As opposed to them finding alternatives to their situation, coping with the fact all that work was for nothing, and blaming society, which often, of course, is influenced by peer groups that promote bad behavior leading to negative outcomes.

You responded to the only point I capitulated on. That there's a lot of money in our politics and it obviously influences decision making. But it influences in different ways, and I explicitly said labor is an issue that has less difference, because of that reason, however, voting blocks still create a small one.

Otherwise, feel free to explain this. I work in Montgomery County. Sick leave is mandated and minimum wage is $15.65/hr. State minimum wage will rise to $15.00/hr by 2025 Statewide.

A short drive to PA right over the border where democrats don't have a trifecta of control in Goverment and haven't in quite sometime, the minimum wage is $7.25/hr. I'm soooo sure it's just a coincidence. Drive 30 minutes North of Baltimore and cross state lines and the minimum wage drops in half, for one simple reason. The difference in Party.

You can pretend all you want that there's no difference. But it's pretty obvious, especially when you look at who is obstructing what, when things don't get passed. Because it only takes one chamber or an executive to block progress. But when you actually look at proportions of roll call votes and the stark difference on how different areas that have a trifecta of control by either party and where they focus their priorities and it's pretty damn obvious.

But it's not a perfect example. It's very easy to say both parties are the same. Because both parties are captured by the rich. But they are captured by different billionaires in different industries, so it's more nuanced. And have very different priorities and issue capture because they have very different voting blocks. And even though a common denominator is labor rights that they hesitate on, one Party still leans on the side of supporting workers.

So in this particular example when it comes to regulating safety in manufacturing or transporting hazards, there is a clear difference. Because deregulation did occur in rail when Republicans had control.

Or even in the case of labor in rail, look no further than Biden immediately telling congress to pass legislation to adopt a labor agreement with a 24% pay raise and healthcare benefits. After a stern warning, 137 Republicans voted against it, only 8 Democrats. 96% of democrats supported. 37% Republicans. That's a huge difference.

And when democrats pushed for a provision to increase increase sickpay days from one to seven, it passed along party lines, with only 3 Republicans supporting it. That would never pass today now that the house has switched control. How is that not a difference?

I'm all for admitting similarities where they exist, but it drives me crazy when people pretend there is no difference when their are so many.

There's a reason why the right rails against tech billionaires and the left rails against oil billionaires. Because despite the rich supporting both parties, they also fight their own battles along party lines and voting blocks. And the mere nature of having to depend on voters to win elections creates pressure to support certain issues.

So there is a clear difference in regulating manufacturing, transporting hazards, and labor benefits. A quite obvious difference when you consider who benefits and the voting block that supports them.

While I don't disagree with the notion that both parties pander about certain issues and don't live up to the talk, your comment is oversimplifying. The idea that the ultrawealthy behind gated communities with their own bodyguards and private polices forces care about the homicide rate in cities or Baltimore is just laughable.

More than 70% of Baltimore residents don't want to defund the police. Because drum roll, violence and homicides affect the non-wealthy the most. However, a lot of the wealthy do benefit from private prisons. But again, it's mainly pushed by one Party which goes against your idea both parties are the same, not to mention the industry is small (and Maryland has none). The vast amount of the rich make money from rent and us buying products being outside cages. They don't need cages to make money. As if the margins are that great when in instead you can make them work 7/hr in most States and increase their rent while they pay for everything they need and get public subsidy.

Also, in this political climate the last decade or so it's equally laughable to say there is no difference in the parties. You can sit here all day and talk about RoevWade, an insurrection, infrastructure spending, regulation, education spending and healthcare, and the score of other issues that show drastic difference in their agenda and priorities. But yes, historically speaking the past few decades, there has been little movement on labor rights as the rich pour money into campaigns.

And the example you gave about no difference in immigration? You might not see a difference, but it's definitely an issue the right sees as they constantly attack him on it and drag the Republican Party further right. As if anybody was under the illusion that Biden, who performed a record amount of deportations under Obama was going to open the borders or something? Not to mention as soon as he got into office he signed a flurry of executive orders about it as if he did 'nothing'.

I'm not even a fan of Biden, but it's just silly. Because the Republican party is literally blocking any legislation on immigration reform as democrats constantly try to bring it to the floor. The President doesn't have unlimited power. And that goes for a lot of legislation and issues, because if you look at the actual bills, you'll see what the priorities are and how they drastically differ.

Calls to defund the police were mainly popular among activists, not society at large or political rhetoric in campaigns. Even looking at polling it doesn't get majority support, not even in Baltimore. Politicians dropped being captured by that issue pretty early on when it wasn't really getting support at least Statewide and in general.

The goal seems to be to have an adequately funded police force that reflects the community they serve. Banning no knock raids, implementing police cameras, encouraging police to report others when they abuse, and changing the culture in general among other reforms. While also increasing funds in education and programs.

Wes Moore has announced a First in the Nation service year option and historic spending in Education. And he just announced the first black Maryland State Police superintendent. At least Statewide, it has been exactly what I expected. Right now the area is struggling to even retain police when you look at recruitment and officers leaving. And this is at the backdrop of Baltimore having the second highest homicide rate in the nation. They aren't going to start experimenting with alt safety programs and putting more pressure on police leaving positions in that dynamic. And so far Moore hasn't drifted from his rhetoric in that respect. He got endorsed by the largest police union for a reason.

Because at the end of the day they are already struggling finding cops, crime and murders are somewhat high, and it doesn't have public support. Their focus is going to be retentention to not shake the beehive. And reassuring safety.

Psychological projection. When people have internal conflicts they tend to think everybody is experiencing it or doing it. So they perceive it as a large problem and obsess about it. Because they can't fathom that other people and society at large don't have those urges.

Very often people who cheat become very controlling and jealous because they project their infidelity onto their partner and can't fathom that their partner is simply uninterested in doing the same. Or super religious fundamentalists can't fathom how you can be a good person if you don't have Jesus in your heart. They can't imagine a world where other people don't have the same skeletons in their closet.

And then they start falling into attribution bias. The reason "I" have those feelings is because children are sexualized because the liberal agenda. The reason why "they" have those feelings is because they don't believe in God. And they create a framework that works for them and reconciles their dissonance. So then anybody who is a liberal and doesn't pray everyday is a pedophile.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage

In a lot of areas a taxi license is called a hack license. Look up the etymology of hackney to get the first origin.

> The New York City colloquial terms "hack" (taxi or taxi-driver), hackstand (taxi stand), and hack license (taxi licence) are probably derived from hackney carriage. Such cabs are now regulated by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.

And that will bring you to:

> The origins of the word hackney in connection with horses and carriages are uncertain. The origin is often attributed to the London borough of Hackney, whose name likely originated in Old English meaning 'Haka's Island'.

Also, as far as dayhikes, it's really not a difficult or a long drive to reach the Apalachian trail if you want to build a habit of hiking.

You just hop on 70 and drive to Myersville, MD. Or take 795 and keep going straight as it turns into 140 to 16 and hit Waynesboro, PA. In both cases it's really easy to pack the night before and not give much thought about directions because you just keep going straight and cruise, so you can just hop in the car in the morning and sleep drive to the trailhead.

That and Baltimore has three awesome Reservoirs nearby that have endless trail systems.

You need to reread their financials if you think they turn a profit.

> Net Profits:

> BuzzFeed Inc’s net profit fell -609.35% since last year same period to $-26.86Mn in the Q3 2022.

TIL that BuzzFeed is a publicly traded company. I consider them a step up from a random blog or comparable to a random account on substack. Who would invest in that garbage.

OP of this thread says you should be allowed to be up to 15 minutes late. They clearly don't know what goes into Paratransit service. The average Paratransit trip is something like $80/trip in a lot of areas, no matter how far you go. Because there is a lot of curb to curb, door to door, hand to hand, sensitivity training and a lot that goes into the service. When people think retail customer service is a horrible experience for a job, try transportation.

And you're correct, there are only a few ways to improve on-time performance, the main focus, and that's:

• Get more drivers and vehicles, very costly - it already costs $80 dollars a trip. If paratransit riders take 4 trips a day, they are already costing something like $320/day. Shortage of resources is only a problem if they are rejecting trips and already meeting capacity. Anyways, they aren't forgotten, a lot goes into it. Maybe there's a driver shortage? No idea. Or maybe like the article says, it was snowy. They literally used shit weather to use as an anecdote that the service is bad. Sloppy journalism. Of course it's difficult to predict a schedule when it's booked in advance and a snow storm all of a sudden impacts it. Because most trips are standing order/subscription. A lot of Paratransit operations just cancel all reservations, which is probably what they should have done before stranding them, but then again, I don't know the exact context.

• Completely enforce the no-show policy, which means your vehicle will leave after five minutes with no exceptions. But OP says they should be able to be up to 15 minutes late after the vehicle arrives. Makes no sense. Or,

• The most realistic option. Use an algorithm that uses realistic traffic time and route the trips efficiently. A lot of operations have negotiated times or can be a lot more accurate about pickup times to reduce lateness from the driver or from the rider. Some systems use as the crow flows/haversine to schedule times. Additionally, they can get a lot of notifications about their schedule in real-time, so you're not late or miss your exact time. But you still need to be ready during the window because traffic and rider behavior is unpredictable when doing door to door.

That would improve on-time performance and wait times.

Most Paratransit and I believe even MetroAcess is also 5 minutes from Vehicle arrival. The 15 minutes is a window before and after the requested time. So if your time is 9:00, you have to be ready from 8:45 to 9:15. If the vehicle arrives at anytime, you have 5 minutes or it's a no-show. I'd be shocked if any Paratransit vehicle that is ridesharing can wait 15 minutes for every passenger because the whole route would break apart. But I often find people get confused about windows. I work in Software and Transportation.

Edit: Yep, just looked it up. Pretty standard.

Pick Windows > Pick-Up Windows When trips are scheduled, MetroAccess assigns a pick- up window, which is a time period during which the customer is scheduled to be picked up for their trip. These windows are 30-minutes long, and allow for traffic and other delays.

> Customers should be ready at the beginning of the pick-up window. For example, if a customer schedules a trip for 8:00 a.m., the pick-up window is from 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. The customer should be ready for pick-up at 7:45 a.m. Customers typically receive a courtesy phone call upon vehicle arrival and should be prepared to display a valid MetroAccess ID card and pay the exact fare before boarding the vehicle (if the fare has not been prepaid via EZ-Pay).

Customer No-Show and Late > Cancellation Policy No-Shows Upon arrival within the pick-up window, drivers are required to wait five minutes for customers. Within that five minutes, customers must present themselves for boarding. A “no-show” occurs when a customer does not present themselves for boarding within five minutes of the vehicle’s arrival (within the 30-minute pick-up window).

Customer Guide to MetroAccess - WMATA (Page 12) https://www.wmata.com/service/accessibility/metro-access/upload/MetroAccess-Customer-Guide-2021.pdf

Although they may wait longer if they BOTH have contact with the rider and if they are still on-site and it doesn't make them late to their next stop. If they had to wait 15 minutes it would ruin ontime performance and wait times, which is the metric they focus on and the article says is lacking. They also might have been lenient during the Pandemic, which is what would happen if you have a surplus of drivers and scarce amount of trips.

Castle doctrine is pretty standard in common law. You don't have to retreat in your own home. > The castle doctrine in Maryland states that when a person is inside their home, they do not have to retreat. A homeowner is allowed to stand their ground and attempt to defend themselves against an intruder, as long as the use of force is reasonable.

lol..went to the show last week...show was awesome, great cast. Way better than the lame band. Whatever happened to class.

> If you’re not super at anal...

Okay, I had my immature chuckle for the day.

There are three reservoirs in the Baltimore area. The scenery looking across the water is always the best and it's not that far. Otherwise it's going to the many cliffs on the Apalachian trail.

Just keep in mind there are different processes for ballot questions. I know Statewide, it's veto referendum only. It's extremely limited, unlike Western States that can draft their own language and vote on it. Otherwise weed would have been legal awhile ago. But it had to pass the legislature in order to be put on the ballot.

Exclusive!! Breaking news!! lol