In Monday’s Open Thread, I mentioned that I’d like to keep a Washington State exchange. But the more I think about it, the more I would like Washington State to just set up a public option of our own and sell it across state lines. Maybe we can keep our exchange and sell the public option to Washington State residents at cost, but sell it to the rest of the country at a profit. Of course, we’d probably need a Democratic State Senate to make that happen, but it’s worth the push.

There may be a lot of internally displaced refugees in Trump’s America. If Kansas collapses under its own weight, it may be that nobody can save them. If ICE raids are as bad as we fear, people might move to sanctuary cities. If police aren’t even doing the basics to protect Black people, Latin Americans, or gay people, they might have to move to other parts of the country where they feel safer.

I say this as a warning for Seattle and Washington: We have to get our shit together. We have to solve our homeless problem because more people are coming (and because it was always the right thing to do). We have to make sure people still have health care here because healthy people in Washington are more productive, and more people coming are going to need it (also, because it’s the right thing to do). We have to get serious about police reform so people who come here aren’t afraid of them (also, it’s the right thing to do).

I generally push back against people who say people who don’t like policies in their state should move to a more liberal state. But if we want to be an option for people, we have to work on ourselves.

Soooo, does anyone have the first clue what happens to states like Washington that have our own health care exchanges if Obamacare is repealed? If they replace it with a you-can-buy-plans-across-state-lines, what sort of restrictions can and should we add to it then? Can we do a multi-state, West Coast exchange? It would probably require Congress if it’s a governmental thing.

Darryl already did a Veteran’s Day Open Thread, but since I wrote this yesterday and was going to post it today, here it is, a bit late:

It’s Veteran’s Day, and so it’s Armistice Day. On this day On this day 98 years ago, a madness of war ended. Mechanized slaughter stopped. The War to End All War didn’t, obviously, so we still mint new veterans. But while all war didn’t end, that war did. And today’s conflicts will end. What we replace them with is up to us.

So here’s to a Veteran’s Day in the future where there are no veterans. Where war has been eliminated for so long that the idea becomes impossible to imagine. Here’s to a future where we don’t send people off to mechanized slaughter or whatever the fuck else we can dream up.

Until that day, a thank you to the veterans who read this.

Jesus, guys. I love the American ideal, but damn did we not live up to it last night. I know Darryl has a lot of analysis, but all I have is hope.

The markets seem to know this is bad, but all I have is hope. Hope that we can figure something out at the state level if Obamacare gets repealed. Hope that we can survive it. Hope that we can prevent national stop and frisk. Hope that the bottom isn’t as far as we think it is. It’s scary. And it’s infinitely scarier if you’re not white. If you’re not a man. If you’re not Christian. America is trying to tell a lot of people that it’s not for them, but I still have hope because America still is for all Americans.

I don’t know what the future holds, but even now, when we’ve elected a man who looks like a fascist, and while there are checks and balances, the other branches are also controlled by Republicans, so who the fuck knows? Anyway, I’m much drunker writing this at 11:30 than I usually am just in general (and sorry (?) it’s so late). In conclusion, fuck, but don’t give up hope.

This is the last Open Thread before election day. Please get your ballot postmarked or dropped off by tomorrow. President is important, but so is literally everything else on the ballot. Here once again is how you can find your ballot dropbox location in King County. Get it in by 8:00 there.

I voted straight ticket Dem. I also voted for all the initiatives (as well as ST and the Seattle hotels one). That is surprising to me, as my first instinct on any given ballot measure is to vote no.

Even with the election at 0.3% chance for Trump in Darryl’s latest analysis, the momentum is scary. It can be overwhelming, but you are not a passive observer. This democracy is yours. You can, and please do, vote. You can volunteer with your state or local party or with whatever campaign makes you the most excited (they’re probably working together). Seriously, the election is in your hands!

The election is coming to a close, and it’s kind of depressing. So let’s talk about something nicer:

Syphilis is at a 30 year high in King County. But the good news is you can get tested if you’re in one of the high risk groups. And you can get treated.

I finally finished my ballot, and dropped it off. While I was filling it out, I was struck by the fact that the only Green Party person asking for my vote was for President (2 if you count VP). Now, I didn’t vote for her, and frankly anyone not running as a Democrat is one strike against them.

But there are some positions where if the Greens are serious about running, I’d give them a look. I live in the 36th District and none of my legislators had someone running against them. Now I think I’d have voted for either of the House members over some long-shot from a different party. I could see the Greens doing some good trying to push Gael Tarleton to the left with a campaign, but I wouldn’t be on board.

But Reuven Carlyle? I mean he’s been pushing charters for years. He’s now on team I-hate-the-homeless, and opposed to rail to Ballard. I’d rather see a challenge from a Democrat, but it seems like if the Greens insist on running candidates, those sorts of offices will do a lot more good than running for President.

I’ve never really understood why our increasingly Democratic state still has a Republican Sec of State. And has had one for ever. But at least with most of the previous ones, they never seemed to have their hand on the scale. Sure, sometimes they’d propose bad ideas like only counting ballots received by election day.

Now though, it seems every day there’s some new fuckery from Wyman’s office.

I’m pretty much under the assumption that the NBA wants to punish Seattle for not caving to all of some random OKC millionaire’s demands. So I’m not sure Chris Hansen’s proposal to pay for all of a new stadium (video auto-loads) will do much to bring back the Sonics. And I this all still requires vacating Occidental, that was the sticking point for the City Council last time. Still, the city not being on the hook for any of the stadium sounds pretty good to me.

You probably should have your ballot by now if you’re living in Washington. Here are the locations to drop them off in King County. Otherwise, have them postmarked by the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Damn, there’s a lot on my ballot. I hesitate to even call it downballot, since there are so many initiatives, charter amendments, and whatnot before President. And there are far too many non-partisan positions or people from the same party on my ballot. If it’s all too confusing, The Stranger, Seattlish, and Washington NARAL help sort through the confusion with their endorsements, voter guides, etc.

I’ve been trying to articulate this, because it’s really not how debates are supposed to work. And in normal times, maybe a bar this low wouldn’t apply. But in all 3 of the debates, I’ve been very impressed with Hillary Clinton saying things I disagree with:

After the first debate, a lot of liberals complained about her position on NAFTA. Fair, enough, I thought she was wrong on the policy. But I also appreciated her defense of trade more generally and of what future trade policies should look like. You can, and should, argue the policy but she clearly knew what she was talking about, and I hope we can hold her to that in future trade negotiations.

In the second and third debates, Syria policy came up. In the second debate, there was discussion of arming the rebels. Those rebels are probably better people than the current regime, but honestly it’s not our place to arm them. There’s also considerable possibility of blowback and of those weapons ending up in the wrong hands (and that could include the hands we gave them to, 20 years on). That said, Trump was complaining about the policy and he said “She doesn’t even know who the rebels are” and after a lot of Trump nonsense, including a back and forth with one of the moderators, Clinton casually explained who she would arm and why, when I think most people would have just let it go.

In the third debate they discussed a no fly zone. From my perspective, this is a bad use of American military. It’s an act of war, and I think it makes things worse. But I also appreciated her discussion of what the goals of an no fly zone would be and the diplomacy would look like to put it in place.

This is running pretty long for an open thread, so I’ll stop it here: I don’t think I’ll ever have a candidate who I agree with on all the issues, but when I watch Hillary Clinton speak, I’m at least glad that it’s her, smart, competent, prepared, even when I disagree.

It’s not the biggest thing in the world, but yes, paving projects should also complete streets. It’s a time to do it, and holy catfish, Roosevelt looks nice.

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Did anyone else catch the Senate debate? The format was not particularly healthy. It didn’t allow for much of a back and forth. It didn’t even have them answering the same question.

I learned that Chris Vance wants to lower our national debt by lowering tax rates (and closing loopholes). I’m pretty sure that won’t work. Also, he’d raise the retirement age for Social Security. Patty Murray wants to raise the cap so wealthy people pay more into the Social Security Trust Fund and won’t support increasing the retirement age.