by Carl Ballard — ,
– Remembering Trailblazing Abortion Provider Mildred ‘Millie’ Hanson
– Since the state Senate isn’t sure that humans caused global warming, I’m just going to go ahead and blame it on the bears who want to end their hibernation early.
– It’s interesting to think of downtown sub-components and hopefully how to better serve them with transit.
– As a former fetus myself, that guy is a jerk.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I was going to write a straight up post about how the Washington State House passed the Equal Pay Opportunity Act. Modeled on what some other states are doing, it would make it easier for employees to compare wages.
“This pay transparency allows employees the opportunity – the very information they need – to identify and challenge practices that lead to discrimination,” she said.
Washington’s working women make about 77 cents for every dollar men make.
In fact, a recent study released by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce found that the median salary for women in Washington state is $41,300, while the median salary for men is $53,000.
Awesome job House!
That said, I was going to start this post with a similar intro to the minimum wage post. Namely, that it’s a great, and vital, and necessary thing that the Senate is most likely either not going to take up or if it does that it won’t pass, or — best case — water down significantly. And I wonder if we’re getting these sort of things passed in the House (guns excluded) because they have no chance of passing the Senate.
What I mean is, they want to get lefty voters like the writers and many readers of this blog excited. We’re doing everything we can on raising the minimum wage and making sure there’s equal pay for women, and we passed Reproductive Health Act. Yes!
But they can turn around to the business community and let them know well your minimum wage isn’t raised and you don’t have to do anything new for equal pay for women, so don’t worry. They can turn to the insurance industry and let them know they don’t have to pay for abortions or other reproductive care. And I wonder if it would have been tougher to pass these things in the House if Democrats controlled the Senate. I mean women weren’t being paid equally when Democrats controlled both chambers. The Reproductive Parity Act didn’t become law when they had both chambers.
None of this is to say that activists should despair. Contact your legislator. Push your Senator to actually pass these things. Sometimes something will surprise you! Work to elect more and better Democrats. But honestly, I’d like to see some proof that this isn’t just pandering.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– Who says there isn’t bipartisanship in the state Senate? Why just yesterday they passed a usury bill for Moneytree and other payday lenders.
– And speaking of bipartisanship, who knew it wouldn’t work on the national level? Except so many people.
– Look, humans may cause climate change. Or maybe it’s monkeys. Maybe it’s God, did you even think of that??? Maybe those glaciers were just tired of hanging out and are leaving.
– the lie that made me give up
– Immigrant Songs sounds like a great project.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– I’m glad there will be fewer buses in the bus tunnel, but I will still call it the bus tunnel even if there are none.
– Chart of the Day: More large companies are run by men named “John” than by women
– Oregon has a brand-new Secretary of State.
– The Backbone Campaign don’t want oil trains coming through Seattle.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The Yakima example in this Think Progress piece, Cities Are Quietly Reviving A Jim Crow-Era Trick To Suppress Latino Votes is pretty interesting. [h/t]
– Oh man remember when the elephant ban wasted everyone’s time and just mentioning it was a hilarious joke in Seattle for like 3 years? Turns out that and similar pressure around the country has caused Ringling Brothers to phase out its elephant acts.
– I’m more concerned about the emails than Peter Daou, but in general, what he said about Hillary Clinton’s detractors.
by Carl Ballard — ,
On Tuesday, I wrote about the House Democrats passing the minimum wage bill, but it probably is going to get jammed up in the Senate. A couple different people at Drinking Liberally that night suggested that I make fun of Rep. Matt Manweller’s arguments against the bill. I couldn’t find a transcript of the whole thing, but I did find this press release where he highlights what he seems to think is his strongest argument.
I’ve also been told, Mr. Speaker, that if we raise the minimum wage, it will actually have a stimulus effect.
Yes. Because minimum wage earners are more likely to spend it than people in higher income brackets. You can make an argument against it or you can go with some bullshit analogies.
As if somehow, if I take five dollars from the member to my left and I hand it to a member of my right, there is magically more dollars on the House floor.
Well, if the person on your left was going to take the money and put it in their pocket, and the person on the right was going to buy lunch with it in the House cafeteria, then by passing the money along there’s 5 dollars worth of lunch and 5 dollars in the House. So there’s more value in the House. Also, the economy is usually more than 2 people and an intermediary.
[laughter]
I don’t know if he or some member of his staff transcribed this or if it’s from somewhere else. But I’m now thinking of some intern being like, “No, there wasn’t really much laughter… No, I don’t really think it needs it… Fine, I’ll add some laughter to the transcript. Also, please stop asking me to marry you when I turn 18.”
That’s amazing! If you believe that, please go home to someplace that has a pool – dump a bucket of water – dump a bucket in one side of the pool and then empty that bucket in the other side of the pool, and tell me how long you had to do that before you realize there was not more water in the pool.
It’s sort of amazing that an economist doesn’t think it’s possible for economies to grow based on government policy. And taken to its logical extreme, any policy (other than deficit spending or reduction, I guess) would follow the same logic. Why worry about tax increases if it’s all just the same pool? Why worry about solving waste since it’s all just water in the same pool? Is that really the best GOP argument against the minimum wage?
Just water that had moved around.
Someone is really happy with his crappy analogy. It would be kind of adorable, except for all the people whose lives will be harmed if he gets his way.
Also, not for nothing, but if your go-to metaphor is about your swimming pool, what are you even doing talking about a minimum wage?
None of these arguments make intellectual sense.
Maybe actually engage the arguments instead of spending all that time making up those rad pool metaphors.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The Latest Anti-Choice Strategy: Less Planned Parenthood Bashing, More Insurance Bans
– I don’t want legislators talking about how colored people are committing the crimes because they’re poor to overwhelm the discussion of the actual bill to make racial impact statements.
– I know that since he’s probably recruiting someone to run against the mayor, Wyble isn’t the most unbiased source for talking about his policies. But yeah, maybe don’t do a victory lap on how great policing has become.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I realize passing the state House is the easiest part of the minimum wage bill’s journey. But hurray :
The Washington state House has voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour.
Representatives voted 51-46 Tuesday afternoon to raise what was already the nation’s highest state hourly minimum wage at $9.47.
The legislation, House Bill 1355, would raise the minimum wage over a four-year period in a series of 50-cent hikes. It goes next to the state Senate for consideration.
Relief for working families all over the state trying to raise a family on or near the minimum wage is a possibility. Nobody is getting rich working the minimum wage, but it’s still better for working families. Of course, now it’s on to the Senate to be watered down or killed outright.
The Bill is currently in the Labor & Commerce committee, chaired by Michael Baumgartner, if you want to contact him, the info is at the link. If you want to contact other members of the committee, you can find them here. If you want to find your legislators, you can find them here. As always, my recommendation is to be polite but firm.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The 2/3 rule in the Senate is stupid and undemocratic, but at least it’s probably going to be stupid and undemocratic against a bad idea.
– Fare increases at Metro are still ridiculous. But at least LIFT means it won’t be as bad for lower income people.
– The Reproductive Parity Act probably isn’t going to pass this session, but it’s still worth pushing for it.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– Maybe a better lesson to draw from Mars Hill’s implosion than be more media savvy, would be to do better at the outset.
– The Funny Thing About Privilege
– Don’t poison trees. So gross.
– Conversion Therapy: Dangerous and in Need of Banning—Take It From Someone Who Learned the Hard Way
– I would like to invest in Speedy Heavy Falling Rocks, Inc.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I really love that only 31% of people who work in downtown Seattle drive alone to work. Transit is still the largest category, and of course, there are plenty of jobs outside the urban core. None the less, the environmental impact of fewer cars, the health impact of fewer cars on the road, the congestion impact of fewer cars, the pedestrian safety impact of fewer cars is really great.
Still, there’s a lot more work to do. Public transit needs to better serve downtown, and the rest of the city and the region. There’s plenty of improvements to make walking and biking easier — even if you ignore my obviously correct idea of flattening some of the hills like they did in Belltown.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The new South Park connection to the Duwamish Trail looks pretty great. I can’t wait to try it out.
– Ed Murray, true to form, takes partial credit for Jean Godden’s work
– Patricia Arquette, Criticism and Progressives
– For most of its run Parks and Rec was my favorite show. I kind of fell off last season, but maybe I should go watch the last season.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The Kinds of Things You Might Learn in an Oklahoma AP History Course
– The port dispute has been resolved. Although I still see a few boats in Elliott Bay.
– Poor Put-Upon Conservatives Get Saddled With Racism
– Olympia Zine Fest looks like it’ll be a lot of fun.
– I quite like the little free libraries.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The Falsest of False Equivalencies
– The bill to abolish the death penalty in Washington and replace it with live without parole xdied in committee
– Yes, Seattle has a parking problem. There’s way too much of it.
– We should keep voting on class sizes until we change our mind.
– If President Obama said he loved this country any more, we’d tell him he was smothering us.
by Carl Ballard — ,
In January a trans woman was assaulted in Spokane. It’s pretty horrible stuff, and you can read the details here. It’s pretty unsettling, but the relevant bit for the police is:
Scamahorn said responding officers treated her with disrespect and referred to her as a man throughout their investigation.
One officer said Scamahorn appeared to be intoxicated, but witnesses disagreed, and she said fluid buildup in her throat after the beating made it difficult for her to talk and breathe.
She also said police would not allow the bartender to help her as she lay on the floor in her own blood and vomit.
Now the police have investigated how the police acted and found the police did nothing wrong, and now a Spokane city council member wants the Human Rights Commission to apologize.* For the fact that a trans woman spoke out about her treatment. It’s pretty gross.
But leaving that to one side. Also leave aside the fact that cops claiming an assault victim was drunk seems pretty damn unprofessional on its face. Even if “the police officers on the scene were not acting inappropriately” as Spokane City Council Member Mike Fagan says, the officers certainly left the impression with her that they called her a man and didn’t allow the bartender to help her. It seems like officers should be able to not leave that impression if they’re doing everything right. Of course, I’m more inclined to believe her than the cops, but I haven’t read the report.
And to be clear, they caught the people who did this. That’s probably progress from a few decades ago. But there’s still further to go.
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