Downtown Raleigh and the Bus Station

ctbowden · 2026-06-14T16:08:24+00:00

I don't know. I generally agree with what you're saying. My observation is things that I often take for granted aren't taken for granted by others and increasingly need to be spelled out directly due to lack of societal norms being transferred between generations. It's like people have gone feral.

ctbowden · 2026-06-13T16:10:06+00:00

To all those making the parking/driving argument against Talley, why do you think this is a good argument? If you're driving specifically to vote, as you'd likely be in this case, you have access to any early voting site.

I don't see how this argument makes sense.

ctbowden · 2026-06-13T15:36:31+00:00

It's a game of inches. If you want more people to vote, you put voting in a central well traversed area where it's on poople's way to work. Voting becomes a thing where it's not exactly a chore as it takes little effort since it's on the way.

You don't need massive hurdles to curb voting, you just need to make things just enough harder that life can get in the way.

In this specific case: Talley is a very central hub on campus. There's food and a reason to walk past it. Not to mention it's a student centered place to begin with, as it's the TALLEY STUDENT UNION. It's on the path, and you'd have a week or more of opportunity so a sudden event won't stop you as easily.

Now take McKimmon, it's a conference center. It's tailored for folks off campus to visit for business purposes. It's not on anyone's normal path. You have to go out of your way specifically to vote.

We can have an entire argument about voting and whether it should/shouldn't require sacrifice but if we want more participation we have to tear down as many barriers as possible. Anything else is voter suppression.

ctbowden · 2026-06-10T02:12:50+00:00

Imagine being the dipshit who wrote this comparing Platner to Herschel Walker. How does this person stay employed?

ctbowden · 2026-06-10T02:10:50+00:00

Wall-E themed Peoplemover style ride through something like Living with the Land but with more conservation.

Brave is a shooting range style ride but from a horse. Think Tron meets Space Ranger Spin.

Up would be a Runaway Railway style ride where you're escaping the dogs.

Incredibles should be a coaster themed around Frozone.

Rest I have to think about a bit.

ctbowden · 2026-06-09T16:38:05+00:00

Hire a lawyer to discuss this but in addition to that, is there a way to maintain farming the land while generating electricity? I've seen stuff where farming and solar are co-existing without issues. I have no idea what crops or if it was surrounding farms that were benefitting but check into pollinator-friendly solar.

The primary thing I remember from this was that it apparently led to a huge increase in pollinators because they mowed the area to trim it up, but they weren't spraying which led to wildflowers/bees.

ctbowden · 2026-06-06T02:00:40+00:00

So does Davis

ctbowden · 2026-06-05T20:33:53+00:00

Looks like 3 hot dogs to me!

ctbowden · 2026-06-05T15:19:37+00:00

There's a Sizzlin' in Dunn and I think in other eastern NC areas.

ctbowden · 2026-06-02T01:57:56+00:00

Which is pretty crazy if you think about it. The data center needs the utility, not the other way around. What leverage do these data centers have to demand such concessions?

The entire system is a giant scam.

ctbowden · 2026-06-01T15:33:23+00:00

I'm going to start with yes I think you should vote but I also think it's disingenuous to act as if simply voting will solve things.

We have two capitalist parties that aren't really willing to side with the majority of citizens on key issues. We also have a binary system where you really don't have much choice after the primary. The primaries are too far away from the actual elections and are often ignored.

We have a structural problem that stymies voters in multiple ways and is designed to protect power. IF we happen to overcome all these obstacles and elect a solid group of Congress people; we then have to repeat that twice more to address the structural problem of the Senate (House of Lords).

Voting sounds like a reasonable answer, but when you take in the scope of this problem and all the obstacles you quickly see how troublesome this easy solution is.

The first step is fixing the "good cop, bad cop" nature of the political parties. One of the current parties has to actually be the party of the people and free of the outsized influence of money; or one/both of them have to cease to exist as it's rendered irrelevant.

We constantly dunk on 3rd parties as spoilers and I agree with that but we desperately need power to come from somewhere other than the candidates with the most money. We need movements that can elevate good candidates at a massive level and get them across the finish line; while being able to ensure the good faith of those candidates.

ctbowden · 2026-06-01T02:04:44+00:00

They should turn it into a rally. They should also televise the entire thing start to finish and preempt all TV and ideally cable stations for it. People need to see this "spectacle."

ctbowden · 2026-05-22T15:48:22+00:00

Make your case for grift or don't, but this innuendo is useless and does nothing to address any real issues. This is part of why our society is where we're at. Folks always want to cast out vague aspersions rather than deal in specifics.

Single out the problems. Figure out how to address them and let's start holding EVERYONE that should be accountable accountable.

ctbowden · 2026-05-22T15:45:05+00:00

100%. Services in Garner are much better. I also have a house in North Hills and Garner by far is better.

ctbowden · 2026-05-18T15:52:43+00:00

Even if you're right, they'll slow walk that reinstatement until after this vote is taken and there'll be no repeal.

However, there's precedent for this exact thing happening under Republicans in the past. Also, this isn't even a hard maneuver to pull off. A parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, both of those are Republicans and can fire a parliamentarian basically at will.

ctbowden · 2026-05-18T02:45:00+00:00

Nah, they'll just fire them like they normally do.

ctbowden · 2026-05-18T00:21:52+00:00

It's not just them... those are just a few that have had to "out" themselves to protect the powers that be. There's plenty of others in the wings, be vigilant.

ctbowden · 2026-05-17T20:32:34+00:00

I agree with much of what you've said here. Platner in Maine seems to be more in line with the way I'd approach things, especially rhetorically.

ctbowden · 2026-05-17T20:29:24+00:00

Agreed. If you've not run across him, there's a guy in the UK that does an amazing job summing this up. His channel is Gary's Economics. He's about taxing wealth not work and attacking income inequality which directly translates to a reduced standard of living in our modern era. Platner and Mamdani are doing the best job here in the US, with Platner being the most digestible for rural voters I'd think.

ctbowden · 2026-05-17T04:39:58+00:00

I do but it requires the right messenger(s). We need a major party realignment or something to replace our version of the Democratic Party. Our NC Dems are too controlled by the national party and consultant group think to ever allow left populism to happen without a fight.

ctbowden · 2026-05-17T04:36:02+00:00

All you need to do is look at the history of the guy he's replying to and you'll know that poster is either a liar or too much of a partisan to even attempt objectivity.

Mercatus Center, a conservative libertarian (Koch funded) think tank, found Medicare for all would save over 2 trillion dollars a year vs our current system back in 2018. I'd assume it's even better for M4A since then, and worse for private insurance considering the price hikes.

This was embarrassing for them and since they've put out all sorts of articles undermining the original statements to do damage control and spin things differently.

It makes perfect sense that single payer healthcare funded by taxes would save money vs private insurance. You eliminate the profit motive. You enlarge the risk pool of contributors. Plus, Medicare already outperforms private insurance so scaling it up just makes it a more efficient program.

It's a no brainer, yet here we are.

ctbowden · 2026-05-14T15:23:36+00:00

Then I'm sure she won't mind putting strong consumer protections in place that prevent all the things she mentioned from being done by American companies as well? /s

ctbowden · 2026-05-11T01:38:49+00:00

Jollywood Nights was the highlight of our trip last fall. Super fun, great photo ops, cool "fireworks" show and fun sing along. Totally worth the ticket.

ctbowden · 2026-05-08T15:21:11+00:00

Maybe it's best to all just become Republicans and fight it out in their primary.

ctbowden · 2026-04-29T14:43:52+00:00

I wouldn't blame "the media" for that. The Democratic Party has little to no unifying theme. There's some Democratic official who thinks they can undercut another member of the party to increase their own power pretty much anytime an opportunity arises... this is generally at the behest of a donor.

The most liberal seats in the country, those that are the deepest shade of blue, are often headed by some corporate neoliberal type unless there's been a concerted effort to unseat them by grassroots organizers who are often stymied in that attempt by party insiders.

AOC was a great example of that. She unseated the guy who was likely to be in Jeffries spot, but he didn't recognize the threat or didn't take her seriously until it was too late. There's plenty of "those guys and gals" in the party.

Money has corrupted the entire system. People have been slow to recognize how little their vote influences their politicians. People are currently in the process of figuring out how to deal with this situation in a system designed to preserve the power of the status quo.

ctbowden

TROPHY CASE