Disqus - Latest Comments for GregSanders

Re: #notmetoo

GregSanders — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 08:14:48 -0000

Likewise, he had potential power to assist her career. That's the other part of what makes the power differential problematic. Her working in the Pentagon mitigates this to an extent, as it's worst when the chain of command is most direct. Nonetheless, those sort of might cause her or others to question whether their path to promotion depends on those relationships and not their own achievements.

Re: #notmetoo

GregSanders — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 07:51:16 -0000

Paula Jones didn't keep Clinton from getting elected. The real power for me of confirming that he did lie about that affair is that it means he's less credible in his denial of the other accusations. Much like the way that Judge Kavanaugh's lying lowers his credibility in other areas. Those that have accused Clinton of the worst forms of assault or rape have largely signed affidavits to the contrary ( https://www.vox.com/2016/1/... ) but I believe Cosby got that from at least one of his fairly credible accusers.

If American democracy had a vote within the party leadership spill mechanism, which I do wish it had, I think Dems would have been better off swapping over to President Gore. Now, I think we're better off with Bill Clinton off the stage, though I don't extend that to Hillary Clinton.

Re: Progressive Foreign Policy, Again

GregSanders — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 11:39:41 -0000

This all makes sense to me, though I think next steps might be more meat on the bones for the economic side and the military side seems. I think the financial side is a pretty good starting point and going deeper would probably be counterproductive.

I think campaign in poetry, govern in prose applies here, but I retrospect I definitely think that critics were right when they said that "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" was under-theorized.

Does Neo-Progressivism have a position on regime change? What happens when our second-tier partnership clash with our humanitarian values. Is Responsibility to Protect a good idea or has it failed in practice? Are we agreeing to disagree on withdrawal versus small presence in Afghanistan? I don't think we necessarily need to get down to the level of boundary conditions for the perpetual drone war, but I do think it needs to think about how we transition from present policies to the greater focus on global oligarchy.

Likewise, I think Democratic politicians have long run on roughly that trade platform, and indeed President Obama did add some labor measures to the TPP negotiations. I think we're seeing more intellectual firepower on this, and I don't think the coalition should have a single answer, but some intellectual godmothers and godfathers might go a long way to building confidence there (Heather Hurlburt on trade and security and Dani Rodrik are two peoplel I read on the matter, but I definitely feel deficient in this area.)

Re: Page 114

GregSanders — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 11:00:14 -0000

Agree that it's a key point, although I'd make the distinction that Lincoln came into office opposing the expansion of slavery and being deeply critical of it. But his stated platform was to preserve the Union, even if that meant preserving slavery. Only with the emancipation proclamation did the shift [begin to come] to ending slavery. The Civil War was certainly about slavery, and the course of the war itself made clear that ending slavery was necessary to preserve the Union.

Re: Review: Ticket to Ride AND Rails & Sails

GregSanders — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 14:30:01 -0000

I like ticket to ride, but one of the things for me is that physical components are great, but the theme doesn't really make sense. Like you're notionally various people that are racing around the map, except you're in refrigerator cars? It also sort of feels like you're competing magnates, but then the incredibly circuitous routes don't quite click. I feel like there could be an interesting hobo related premise, but for that you'd probably want a little more sense of your character's place on the board.

Re: Review: Seafall | Shut Up & Sit Down

GregSanders — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:30:53 -0000

That's actually my big question. Do you need a stable play group? I'm leaning yes given that this one has an unfamiliar base system.

Re: Federal Transit Administration Asks Judge to Alter Purple Line Ruling

GregSanders — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 09:53:12 -0000

Here are the ridership numbers, see chapter 3 of the environmental impact statement that's posted publicly on the Purple Line website:
http://www.purplelinemd.com...

Re: Federal Transit Administration Asks Judge to Alter Purple Line Ruling

GregSanders — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 10:29:45 -0000

Thanks for the detailed write-up.

Are the full memo and filings available online? This article provides a great summary, but for the super wonky among us, posting the documents as well would also be a service.

Re: A wedding! And some birds

GregSanders — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 14:47:09 -0000

Congratulations to both of you! I finally picked up Netrunner so I even get that final image, that's super sweet!

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 20:32:55 -0000

Free country. I personally take the Marc to work every day day and greatly enjoy the ability to use my laptop or nap. Fredrick's a good town with a nice downtown that can support smaller food pickups, so maybe when the kids are older they'll consider different approaches. If not, they can at least benefit from those of us who do prefer to commute by rail staying off the roads.

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 20:26:59 -0000

Good news for your staff, once they Purple Line is built, they can take the Marc in to Silver Spring and transfer to College Park via the Purple Line. That'll be cheaper than taking the Metro into the city to Fort Totten and then back out again. There's also going to be four stops in and around College Park, so they'll probably be able to get a lot closer to your workplace.

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 20:24:20 -0000

Here's a more specific one, it means that it will increase over time with inflation.
https://www.washingtonpost....

This is the same approach used for Baltimore's light rail line.

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 20:01:23 -0000

The fare for the Purple Line will be set to be similar to that of a Metro Bus and it's a flat fee, unlike Metro. Construction is expected to take about five years after the current delay is managed. When the line opens the fare is expected to be about $2.

https://www.washingtonpost....

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 19:57:05 -0000

Brian,

A fair request. We were discussing the people that lived near the line, the strong majorities and election after election refer to Montgomery County and Prince George's Counties. The Purple Line is a perennial issue in local elections and the County Executives and Councils of both counties strongly support it.

The last time the Purple Line was extensively polled was in the run-up to Gov. Hogan's decision. ( https://www.washingtonpost.... )
Should Maryland go forward with the Purple Line
Montgomery County: 67% Yes 30% No
Prince George's County: 59% Yes 37% No

The Purple Line does only win a 49% to 43% plurality in the state writ large. According to Goucher ( http://blogs.goucher.edu/in... ) A slim majority of Marylanders are not familiar with the project. Unsurprisingly, those that don't live near the line don't pay much attention. Among those that know at least a little about the line, support was 70%.

Gov. Hogan had indeed expressed skepticism about the Purple Line, though he also ran on a platform of bringing jobs and young families to Maryland. After ordering cuts to the Line, he decided it did just that.

Thus, the Purple Line has strong majority support in Montgomery and Prince George's. Marylanders as a whole do not pay that much attention and offer only plurality support, though those that are familiar with it tend to be strongly supportive.

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 17:18:27 -0000

1) They specifically mentioned the trail going from Bethesda to Silver Spring, you have to go off trail to get to Silver Spring. 2) They talk about a linear park, it's not a park.

It's great that you care about the people of Riverdale Park. Maybe you should listen to them when they say that they want the economic development that the Purple Line brings, they just prefer the original station design. "The State has approved the construction of the Purple Line from New Carrollton to Bethesda. This $5.6 billion project will not only improve transportation for our Riverdale residents but with appropriate design, it can bring economic revitalization to our community and our county. "
http://petitions.moveon.org...

Are there some opponents in the east? Of course, this is a free country and there's a wide range of opinion. But there are strong majorities of supporters in both Montgomery and Prince George's county. The Purple Line has come up in election after election over the decades and the voters have shown their support for it. There will be disruption in construction, but the line will bring closer access to jobs for underserved communities. 90,000 people will for the first time be within a 1/2 mile of a Purple Line station.

This lawsuit and effort like it seeks to add cost to the project to kill it. If it were not for years of stalling tactics from people like Fitzgerald and Bhatt, the line would have [started construction a few years back] with the original Riverdale station, which is what the petitioners are asking to be restored. I personally think that while the Silver Spring station cuts aren't so bad, it is worth adding the money to build a better Riverdale station. This lawsuit does nothing to help those people.

So why are the voters willing to put up with disruption to get better transportation alternatives? Because connections matter. More people able to live closer to job matters. According to a recent study, commute time is one of the biggest factors for those seeking to enter the middle class. http://smartgrowth.org/tran...

Re: Purple Line Plaintiffs Say Government Officials Are To Blame for Federal Court Decision

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 16:33:47 -0000

There are two trail related falsehoods that Fitzgerald and Bhatt put forward during the program that deserve specific refutation.
1) The Georgetown Branch right-of-way was purchased by Montgomery County for $10 million to be a trolley trail. The Purple Line is why there is a trail there now and building the light rail does not sacrifice a park, it fulfills the purpose of the right-of-way.
2) The paved trail does not presently complete its journey between Bethesda and Silver Spring, instead you presently have to go on roads, that's why it's only interim. That will only happen thanks to investments made as part of the Purple Line.

So what does the Purple Line do for the trail? The Washington Area Bicyclist Association has the details:
http://www.waba.org/blog/20...
"The rebuilt trail will be more complete, wider, better paved, and better separated from motor vehicle traffic than the interim gravel trail that exists today. As WABA recommended, the trail will be paved and 12’ wide from the Bethesda tunnel to Silver Spring. The trail will have grade separated crossings of all busy highways, including Connecticut Avenue, Jones Mill Road, 16th Street, Spring Street, and Colesville Road. The trail will be safely separated from the transit tracks by a landscaped buffer and fencing, and it will include direct access to five transit stations, including at the Bethesda and Silver Spring Metro stations."

Re: Will A New Legal Development Derail The Purple Line?

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 14:21:01 -0000

There's no hocus pocus, there's a standard model that's used across the competitive federal process. Because Maryland projects are in competition with ones across the country, everyone has to meet the same standard. The data behind it focuses on population and employment trends because it has a long time horizon, namely 2040. The modifications in the past were driven by major project delays (imagine how much easier safe track would be for Maryland if w had the Purple Line now) or updates to the federal process that applied across all projects.

Re: Will A New Legal Development Derail The Purple Line?

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 12:56:07 -0000

The Purple Line is a transportation alternatives to being stuck on roads. Buses are an important part of our system and feed in, but East-West bus lines are stuck in the same traffic as everyone else.

[Clarified my post, per your question.]

Re: Will A New Legal Development Derail The Purple Line?

GregSanders — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 12:06:15 -0000

The study would no doubt find the same facts as all the past work vindicating the project, but the Washington Post gets this right, this [judicial] decision is a waste of resources and delays desperately needed transportation alternatives [namely, the Purple Line]. http://wpo.st/HnCr1

"It’s hard to see how Metro’s problems, now the focus of mounting federal intervention, would pose a major long-term threat to the Purple Line, which had been expected to begin operations in 2022. Even if Metro ridership falls short of projections by 10 percent for the next five or 10 years — a big if — that means Purple Line ridership might slip by slightly more than 2.5 percent. Not exactly a lethal blow."

Re: RPG Review: The Burning Wheel

GregSanders — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 09:23:57 -0000

If you are interested in a briefer encounter with Burning Wheel, there's a self-contained one-shot called "the Gift" about a group of elves arriving at a dwarf king's wedding, only to realize they left something important behind with the players being both dwarves and elves. I haven't played it myself, but I've read a fair number of RPGers I respect write it up as a good time ( http://www.seannittner.com/... ). The nice thing about the scenario is that the wedding means it's naturally self-contained while still allowing for a lot of drama and conflict.

I intend to try running that someday, but frankly the system intimidates the heck out of me, despite owning that beautiful book. If I encountered it a decade or two earlier, I'd probably feel differently.

Re: Interview: Volko Ruhnke’s Modern Wargames

GregSanders — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 12:21:45 -0000

I've been long pondering picking up one of these games and playing one at my foreign policy think tank. That said, I think we need to get a community going that does shorter lunch games first before people are up for that commitment.

Re: Rascovar: Maryland is still not quite ‘open for business’

GregSanders — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 11:05:38 -0000

Interesting article, good job getting the actual specific numbers rather than citing a few anecdotes. The CEO of Marriott has said that transit accessibility is a key concern for picking their next headquarters, and was echoed by 19 other local executives for Maryland employers calling for the Purple Line. Similarly, the Governor just had a meeting with Donald Fry of the Greater Baltimore Chamber of Congress on the Red Line and the benefits that will bring to Baltimore.

Corporate giveaways for Veep and the like may sometimes be necessary, but it's far better when you can attract and keep corporation by spending money to upgrade infrastructure instead. That's a public good that appeals to particular companies but also raises the quality of life throughout the region. When I was growing up, as a Marylander I always took pride in thinking that whatever our problems, we were at least generally ahead of Virginia on that score. With the revolutionary redevelopment of Tyson's prompted by the Silver Line (that, not Dulles, is where the real money is), that may no longer be true.

Re: Spent: The Story of a Poker Tournament

GregSanders — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 09:22:25 -0000

Around a decade ago, I'd gone to a casino and found myself quite bored by a few several at slot machines. I think that was one area where video games had been a clear benefit to me, they were clearly superior games and left me somewhat protected against the appeal of shiny lights and sounds. There is apparently a larger generational trend there as well.

I do hope that for table games, the board game renaissance might have similar salutary effects. Gambling is a hugely complex phenomenon with a wide range of drivers, but I do think we should considering taking people literally when they want to bet on games to "make things interesting." I've enjoyed games of poker before, but I also do see what they mean to an extent. But there's lots of other ways to raise the interest in games and I hope that the slot machine example might presage a future where more people can get the competitive fun of games without being slowly bled.

Re: Montgomery County Leader Not Optimistic About Purple Line's Chances

GregSanders — Tue, 12 May 2015 10:20:18 -0000

Governors have much more latitude than members of Congress. Elsewhere in the country Republican Governors have expanded light rail. Virginia has been able to come together across party lines to build new transit.

Gov. Hogan campaigned on upholding Maryland's middle temperament. He might yet show that he cares more about positive sum economics than zero sum politics. But if the pessimistic assessment is right, he'll have repudiated the Maryland ideals he praised and shown that he intends to govern through scorched earth politics setting regions of the state against one another.

Re: Purple Line Boosters Protest In Front Of Chevy Chase Golf Course

GregSanders — Tue, 05 May 2015 16:13:47 -0000

I included the link so you could read the details for yourself. Maryland isn't Rhode Island, 1/3 of the population lives in Montgomery and Prince George's, so those that won't be direct regular users aren't as familiar, no different than with a road or bridge.

So why should they care? Well, let's ask Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin who chairs the Maryland Economic Development & Business Climate Commission

"In fact, our state now ranks last (worst) among states in average commute time, and that loss of productivity is largely concentrated in the Baltimore/Washington area. The Purple Line would be a significant step forward in relieving that impediment to business, particularly with regard to recruiting.”

The economic growth enabled by the Purple Line benefits the state economy and its coffers. That's great for even those Marylanders that don't use it.

http://www.bethesdamagazine...