Between the election and Veterans Day, I haven’t posted one of these in a while and frankly, I have too many tabs open.

– The attacks on transgender people are not just a metaphor.

– Downtown Spokane is doing better than the naysayers suggest.

– I somehow got into my head that the new station on the 1 Line was already called 130th, but apparently there are 4 finalists.

– More and more people are taking the G Line.

– Welcome to the high minimum wage club, Everett.

– Seattle looking into using a King County facility in ways the county isn’t going to do?

– Also, Washington has shut down the vaccine locator. You should still get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible, but it’s no longer a struggle to figure out where to find a vaccine. So do I need a new closing?

Dear Bob Ferguson,

Congratulations on your victory this week. I am writing to ask you to stand up to Donald Trump in his second term. I appreciate the way you did that as Attorney General, but I fear the pressure will be different as governor. There will be pressure and potentially a lot of money from the Federal government. And those resources could be used to build a better Washington. I am also worried that you didn’t do much to deal with the sort of problems that made Donald Trump more attractive when you were on the King County Council. I don’t know where this is going, except to say don’t give in and don’t make the not giving in the only thing you do.

XOXO

Carl Ballard

(I sent this to the AG’s contact page, not sure if there’s a transition office or something like that)

Weeeeeeeeeell fuck.

Good things in Washington for sure. A Democrat in every statewide office. I think the legislature will be able to keep making progress. Shaun Scott and Alexis Mercedes Rinck are going to help define who the Democrats are for the good, compared to their opponents.

Fuck man, fuck.

The initiatives are going to fail, so we can use that momentum. And maybe we don’t get a new Tim Eyman. Go waste your money somewhere else.

Jesus Christ on the Cross, man. Fuck. Fuck.

There will be a lot of opportunities going forward in the state to lobby to protest to write your legislators and city council members. There is also opportunity to push back against some of the horrors coming from the Federal government.

Fuck.

Did you vote yet? You have until tomorrow to get your ballot postmarked or dropped off. Probably a good idea to get it dropped off today. Just get it done. If you’ve in King County, find your dropbox location here. Let’s get Democrats into all of the statewide offices and run up the vote total for Harris. Dropboxes close at 8:00 on Tuesday and postmarks whenever your Post Office closes.

Go vote if you haven’t yet. Shit’s important even if you don’t like Kamala Harris (I do). Shit’s important even if you don’t like Bob Ferguson (Complicated). Shit’s important even if you don’t give much thought to downticket. Get your ballot postmarked or dropped off by Tuesday. Fill it out on your commute or over the weekend. But get it in. And yeah, I encourage people everyone to vote straight ticket Democrats.

– Hey Vancouver voters, if you dropped off your ballot at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center, make sure it wasn’t burned in the arson attack. There’s still time to make sure that your vote is counted.

– I wish there were more details about the Diaz suspension.

– Sorry this is both late and undercooked. Weird day at work.

Good news, everyone! My ballot has been counted. It’s very nice to just be able to go to the website (or get it texted to you, if that’s your thing) and confirm it for yourself.

If you’re in King County, you can confirm your ballot has been counted here. If you’re somewhere else in the state, type your country and ballot tracker into your favorite search engine, maybe turn off AI so it doesn’t tell you that the tracks of the horned ballot of Walla Walla County leaves tracks in the snow or whatever. Anyway, pretty easy.

And hey, get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.

– Boeing employees have rejected another contract. The company should probably not give its executives who fucked things up such great benefits if they weren’t willing to have a traditional pension for normal employees.

– Ted Cruz trying to bully trans kids in Oregon. Stay out of the Pacific Northwest, you creep.

– The 12th District legislative race is very interesting.

– The Storm endorsing Kamala Harris probably doesn’t move the needle, but gosh, what a delight.

– Anyway, please wash your hands right now and get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.

Filled out my ballot last night. We have too many judges, but it’s nice to have voter guides to help with those. We’re going to elect Kamala Harris. We’re going to elect Bob Ferguson. We’re going to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. We’re going to defeat those gross initiatives. Seattle is going to pass a levy that’s more car centered than my ideal, but is still fine. We’re going to pick up seats in the legislature and back progressive candidates in local elections. Let’s go.

So, Boeing is offering a 35% raise and more money for their 401k. Not the 40% and a defined benefit for retirement. Better than the earlier offer that was rejected, but still not everything they asked for. It’s tough not to compare it to the gold parachute the bosses who actually harmed the company got.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now and get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.

Your ballot should have been mailed out recently. If you haven’t received it yet, you should soon. Have them postmarked or dropped off by November 5. But how are you going to vote? Here are some guides.

– Fuse has really stepped up in recent years with an explicitly progressive voter guide for the whole state.

– If you’ve in Seattle, The Stranger has been the gold standard for decades.

– The Labor Council has links to various local endorsements.

– The Sierra Club has endorsements if you want to look from an environmental perspective.

– Planned Parenthood and Pro Choice Washington have the endorsements to best protect reproductive freedom.

– As for me, I say vote for the Democrat if it’s them versus a Republican, and no on the statewide initiatives. There are a few races where both candidates are Democrats, but the more progressive candidates is pretty obvious.

The bus route for my commute goes by a high school a few stops ahead of mine. Depending on what after school events are going on, it can be pretty crowded. Because I’m in my 40″s, I generally don’t interact with them much. Anyway, it was standing room for me, and one of the kids offered me their seat.

At first, I thought it was a signpost of aging that I hadn’t prepared for. But the more I think about it, the cooler I think it was. When I was that age, I don’t think I would have given up a seat for someone my age unless they obviously needed it.

And the bus is a reflection of the larger society. So it is neat to see teens going out of their way to be polite, beyond what was the norm 20+ years ago. This has been, Carl overextrapolated from one interaction on public transportation.

Happy Indigenous People’s Day. I usually don’t post on holidays, but I want to note that KEXP is doing Indigenous People’s Day programming all day and it has been really great so far.

– J Line J Line J Line. I was fairly skeptical about Rapid Ride when it was first proposed, and now I get super excited about every announcement.

– We’re going to keep raiding Jumpstart.

– But don’t worry, there’s always money for cops.

– Anyway, please wash your hands right now and get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.

I have linked to other people talking about the new G Line. But like a fool, I had not taken it yet. Now that I have, I think it’s neat. It’s tough to do east-west connections within Seattle. And man does it. I took it at rush hour and it seems like it could add more people comfortably.

Also, I have never rode some of the Rapid Ride lines outside of the city, so forgive me if this is old hat there, but I can’t recall a bus with doors on either side depending on the stop. Obviously that’s how light rail and the streetcar work, but just adding it to a bus feels innovative.

Anyway, please wash your hands right now and get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.