Dear Representative Jayapal,

I am writing to thank you for your support of the MORE Act. I am glad that it is getting a markup today. While reading about the legislation, I was glad to see your name on the list of cosponsors.

I hope that it will remain a piece of legislation that not only legalizes marijuana, but also brings some justice to the people who have been harmed by the prohibition.

Thanks,

Carl Ballard

Dear Governor Inslee,

I see that you and Governor Brown are meeting to figure out replacing the I-5 bridge across the Columbia River to replace the one there now. I hope that you will give adequate consideration for public transportation. I hope rail can run along it.

Carl Ballard

You guys. Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler wants to investigate the Ukraine phone call in the open, but also it’s a distraction, so she opposes the actual investigation. Imagine! If she has an alternate plan for how the inquiry can be conducted beyond vague generalities, it wasn’t in the article, and I couldn’t find it.

Oh no, closed doors! So I fear things,

It will be fought but won’t clear things

So Republicans say,

‘Til they got their way.

Now how dare you hold open hearings?

It’s tough to detangle how much of Kshama Sawant’s turn around in the late ballots is due to various factors. How much is it that liberal votes tend to pick up later most elections? How much is due to SA organizing? How much is other GOTV efforts? How much is Sawant specifically? And of course, how much is the backlash against Amazon and other companies spending soooooo much money in the race? Still, if the turn around is greater than her first City Council election, I think that it’s safe to say that the Amazon money hurt Amazon more than it helped.

Yesterday was a pretty good election nationally. Virginia and Kentucky had great wins for the Democrats. Statewide, oof. You hate to see the initiatives go the way they have.

And Seattle City Council is a mixed bag. With Mike O’Brien’s retirement and Kshama Sawant maybe losing, the left wing of the Council won’t be as liberal. But the median vote may be farther left. Hopefully we can get a head tax and figure out ways to minimize the impact of cuts that are probably coming to transit. I hope that some of the organizing that went into those races can be transferred to organizing to push those policies.

For goodness sake, get your ballot postmarked or dropped off by tomorrow. If you’re in Seattle, please vote for the hold large corporations accountable slate. Everyone vote against killing transit projects. Vote for affirmative action.

Imagine being too racist for the College Republicans. Imagine being such a shitty organization that they have to explain, “I am NOT with those jerkoffs!” Oh, don’t get it wrong, they’re all assholes. But apparently the National College Republicans have a different threshold, or at least don’t want to have to explain the UW chapter anymore.

I don’t understand how a campaign can be so flush with cash, and mess up the basic requirements (item 2). Seriously, the Orion campaign should be able to get its ducks in a row.

Get your ballot postmarked or dropped off by a week from tomorrow. If you live in Seattle please vote for the person Amazon doesn’t want (I generally say don’t vote out of spite, and fortunately it’s also going to be the better choice). If you haven’t got your ballot in the mail yet, please contact your county elections office.

It’s soup season. The best time of the year. I made myself a nice lentil soup yesterday. My trick is to throw a couple cinnamon sticks in with your other ingredients.

A friend and I were talking about the most important thing, the nonsense tax votes we get to do. You see, there was an initiative once. And now every year people are confused about why we’re voting on this bullshit.

I vote for all of them. The Legislature has already thought about it. The governor has signed it. It’s fine.

There’s a lot of corporate money going to the Seattle City Council races. I get it. Amazon doesn’t want to pay taxes. But they are part of the community. They should pay their share for the problems that their growth in the city has caused.

Did you watch the Democratic debate? Do you have a sense of how Tom Steyer’s Presidency would be?

What I’m saying is we should have only my preferred candidates. And better questions than “what jerks are you friends with?”