“Some men improve the world only by leaving it.” - Oscar Wilde
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Dan Wentzel 🏳️🌈
@danwentzel@urbanists.social
mastodon 4.7.3Actor, Writer, Transit Advocate, Gay and Proud, Disco/House/EDM, animal lover, Practitioner of the Science of Mind and Spirit, Angel in disguise
@danwentzel1@www.threads.net
3202 Followers
2956 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 08, 2022
Elon Musk is going to try to buy another election for Trump.
Anyone still using 'X' or driving a Tesla is part of the problem.
If Musk has that much money to spend buying politicians, he isn't paying nearly enough in taxes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/elon-musk-midterms-republicans.html
Boosted by @trending@homestead.social
It appears the Republican 2026 campaign message is, "You need to give up the ability to buy food and gas and your access to health care and Social Security in order to hate trans people who have no effect on your life."
If you are helping people and animals in need, you are my hero.
If you are creating art, whether as a beginner or a master, you are my hero.
If you are restarting school or changing careers or resurrecting a buried dream, you are my hero.
If you are showing kindness or courage in this world, you are my hero.
If you choose peace, you are my hero.
It is obvious that ICE is not going after “criminals”. They are going after “Latinos” in general.
“He looked like the suspect.” (meaning he has the same skin color)
Abolish ICE.
Paying for universal health care instead of unnecessary tax cuts for billionaires and corporations isn’t “communism”, it is common sense, and a fulfillment of FDR’s New Deal.
Boosted by @hypebot@goingdark.social
“We cannot afford Medicare. We have wars to pay for.” - Donald Trump
Burn the Republican Party down to the ground.
Flush it down the toilet of history.
What Republicans call “waste, fraud, and abuse” is keeping you and your loved ones alive.
The same con artist who managed to bankrupt a casino where "the house always wins" just bankrupted the United States of America.
Everything Trump Touches Dies (ETTD) including empires, economies, and countries.
https://fortune.com/2026/03/23/us-government-insolvent-fiscal-crisis-fix/
Reverse the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy to pay for this failed Iran War and to fund health care.
The superwealthy who supported Trump's return to the White House and his failed policies don't deserve their giant tax cuts.
They should be the ones to pay for this failed war and his failed policies, not you and me, who have been paying high prices at the store and gas pump.
Tax the superwealthy who benefited from Trump. Make them pay for this.
Trump denies fire aid to Oregon just like he denied fire relief aid to California, just like he denied flood relief aid to Washington State, even though we pay far more in taxes than we get back from a federal government that doesn’t give a damn about us.
You know, Pacifica can do more than simply hope for the best in the midterms. We can take active action to create something better for ourselves.
It is a codependency issue at this point that we don’t.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/its-time-for-soft-secession/
It's the amazing Linda Ronstadt's 80th birthday. An amazing singer who transcended genres. The perfect way to celebrate her birthday is to listen to her music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPzKzCV0ZU
Colombia is electing a President today through a direct popular vote in a free and fair election. As no one received over 50% in the first round, the top two candidates went on a second round in today’s runoff.
It is time to abolish the slavery-era Electoral College and move to a national popular vote with a runoff. If we had ranked choice voting we could do it on one Election Day.
I agree with Steve Schmidt in this discussion with Jim Acosta.
Not "if", but WHEN Trump refuses to recognize the midterm election results and tries to disrupt the handover of power in Congress, please have a game plan other than acting surprised and wringing their hands over the lack of "norms" and "bipartisanship", because the fascists will just laugh at that.
It's not the 90's and pre-2015 norms no longer apply.
https://youtu.be/05MkJe-Vqfg
Here is an excellent video about the emerging Indianapolis Bus Rapid Transit network.
It looks like they are doing it right, despite attempts by Indiana Republicans to thwart the project.
Shout out to all the transit advocates in red states who sometimes face extra political hurdles.
In sane countries, both sides of the political spectrum want quality public transit.
https://youtu.be/3T2bL1YPEVY#transit #indianapolis
How Indy is Beating the Odds to Build a Great Transit Network
If you are a gay man and found love after 50, please share your story below so that we may all celebrate your good fortune.
Do not operate heavy machinery when under the influence of the first day back from an amazing vacation.
"I tried to stop" - last words of Joan Sebastian Guerrero before being shot dead in front of his 3 year old daughter by ICE, Trump's Gestapo. for the suspected crime of being Latino.
Trump inflation is so bad and getting so much worse that my supermarket was playing Woody Guthrie in the background as we were shopping.
https://youtu.be/wxiMrvDbq3s?is=qCfnj8MKyZ2laNH1#trumpflation
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." - Samuel Johnson
Trump hides behind fake and insincere displays of "patriotism" because his economic and foreign policies have completely failed America and his corruption is flouted openly.
TRUMP: “Communists are taking over America”
PSYCHIATRIST: “Are these ‘communists’ in the room with us now?”
If it offers any hope, this isn't even the worst Supreme Court we have had in history.
In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Dred Scott v. Sandford that enslaved and free Black people descended from enslaved Africans were not U.S. citizens.
In 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson upheld racial segregation.
In 1986, Bowers v. Hardwick allowed states to criminalize gays.
All these rulings were eventually overturned.
We can and will overturn Citizens United and get our democratic republic back.
We are one. One Love
When I first learned why the U.S. does not and never will I have a king.
'No More Kings' - Schoolhouse Rock
https://youtu.be/3R1tZ6l876Q
#NoKingsDay
Popular button from the Cold War era
“One Nuclear Bomb Can Ruin Your Whole Day.”
End the war.
As true today as it was in the 80s and 90s. Silence (still) equals death
Wishing everyone a Happy Easter and a Blessed Passover.
May you be resurrected from whatever crucifies you.
May you be freed from whatever enslaves you in bondage.
May you experience life and love anew.
I guess it is too much to hope for that Mango Mussolini is speaking on live television to the country tonight to give his resignation in disgrace.
I'm so swamped that I made coffee this morning and forgot. Now I am turning it into iced coffee. Waste not, want not.
I am smiling because the SanVicente-Fairfax alignment of the K-Line Northern Extension is about to pass at Metro Los Angeles. #transit #LosAngeles #WeHo
Congress can place a TSA funding bill on the President's desk TODAY.
If he vetoes it, they can override it with a 2/3 vote in each house.
It's time to make Republicans in the Senate and House more afraid of the wrath of their constituents then they are of a Trump tweet.
This is what I think the Trump-Republican plan is. Trump’s comment about cutting Medicare to pay for warfare is his “Romney 47%” moment.
He didn’t misspeak. He said out loud what Republicans are scheming in private:
Cut Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA, then block grant torest to the states, and have then fund them by raising state taxes (if they choose).
This is all in Project 2025.
Be careful what they attempt on Social Security too. They know it is their last chance.
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/30/gop-health-care-pay-iran-war
This Bulwark podcast with Heather Cox Richardson and Sarah Longwell is sanity inducing about America’s history and where we are at.
The best way to commemorate America at 250 is to get it involved to create the future country we want.
https://youtu.be/xBE68EKHq2c?is=JYBj9eAQKm24n28x
The wealthy elites demanding that everyone work until 70 (or longer), so that they don’t have to pay FICA tax on all of their income like the rest of us, are the same wealthy elites who have no intention of hiring anyone over 50.
#SocialSecurity
The Supreme Court just said it is legal to torture gay teens.
Fluorescent lighting is homophobic.
Make data centers pay for the increasing costs they are causing to all of our electricity bills.
This can be done by state law
and regulation.
We stopped by the Bortero Museum. Fernando Botero Is a legendary Colombian painter. If you are going to paint a fruit bowl, then paint the best one ever.
What urbanists and transit advocates have been to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico?
Long-term Planning ideas for future K-Line extensions.
To the North, extend the K-Lime further to the Burbank Airport and/or high-speed rail station.
To the South, extend the K-Line further to San Pedro and Long Beach Airport.
Hoy fui entrevistado por las noticias locales de Telemundo sobre la aprobación de la Extensión Norte de la Línea K por parte de Metro Los Ángeles. Estoy seguro de que no soné tan fluido como me hubiera gustado, pero fue agradable que me lo pidieran.
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Today I was interviewed by Telemundo local news about Metro Los Angeles’ approval of the K-Line Northern Extension. I am sure I didn’t sound as fluent as I liked, but it was nice to be asked.
Another reason to impeach and remove Trump:
It would improve all our health, because stress promotes visceral fat.
Walking is good medicine. As we saw from the Buddhist monks, it is also good for the soul.
A few more pics from my walking tour of Colombia. We ean into someone my guide knew, a and the shop owner’s eyes lit up when I said I was from California. For him, California is the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beach Boys, so we sang “Californication” and “California Girls”
Since we don't teach civics in school anymore, I recommend Crash Course's video series on Government & Politics for anyone who wants a refresher.
The best chance for the USA staying together and functioning after this authoritarian era is mercifully over is a reset of #federalism
One important hindrance that has prevented Trump from being the total dictator he wanted to be has been the Constitutional powers still reserved by the states and their governors.
Republicans are floating cuts in Medicare and even further cuts to the ACA and Medicaid to pay for Trump's unplanned, unnecessary war in Iran and his Gestapo ICE. Yes, Medicare too.
Grab your torch and pitchfork if you happen to see any Republican members of Congress while they are on yet another vacation.
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/30/gop-health-care-pay-iran-war
Metro Los Angeles vota a favor de extender la Línea K hacia el norte, hasta Mid-City, Beverly Grove, West Hollywood y Hollywood. El transporte público nos une.
Two years before the Stonewall uprising were The Black Cat protests. We don’t have to maintain the fight for all our civil and legal rights. Only the ones we want to keep. Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈
Not one more dime for Trump's unnecessary war in Iran until we have universal health care. Not one more dime.
The K-Line Northern Extension brings the whole @metrolosangeles system together. It connects four major rail lines and many major bus lines. It hits the major destination points in Mid-City and West Hollywood. It connects Hollywood and LAX. It will be one of the most popular rail lines in the country.
It needs your support. Attend the Metro Board Meeting life or online tomorrow, Thursday, at 10:00 a.m. and/or send your support to "boardclerk @ metro . net" today by 5:00 p.m.
See you there!
A few people have asked about how to connect the Norwalk C-Line station and the Norwalk Metrolink/Amtrak/eventual-High-speed-rail station?
This connection is part of Metro's Long-Term plan for the 2040's.
Norwalk has a "Heart of Norwalk" proposal of how it would like the line to connect with a station at Firestone & San Antonio Drive.
The City of West Hollywood has shown a way for Norwalk to speed up the line and serve its "Heart".