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.

Who thinks running against the minimum wage is a good idea? I mean lots and lots of Republicans, obviously. Janice Huxford is running for the 44th legislative district against raising the minimum wage. The last minimum wage increase passed pretty much everywhere. Seattle hasn’t had a hit despite the warnings. I don’t understand. It’s bad policy and surely bad politics.

This is a post for a certain subset of men who are surprised by the allegations against Trump. Because I’m sure most of the women reading this already know already know it. But there are a lot more Trumps, and Aileses, and Cosbys out there. They’re almost certainly in your life. They’re at your job. They’re probably in your family. They might be your friends. And again, the women in your life probably already know it.

If they haven’t told you, it’s probably because you’ve made yourself untrustworthy. Maybe you made a few too many jokes where victims were the punchline, or other crass comments. Maybe something came up in the news and you talked about women making stuff up. Maybe they started to tell you a story and they could figure out your reaction part way through, so they bailed.

So maybe you haven’t heard the stories, or been asked to stay a bit late so they don’t have to be alone with whoever. But it’s out there, and it’s happening to women all the fucking time.

The last day to register to vote online came and went with record smashing numbers. Congrats to any new voters! But if for some reason, you’re a reader of HA and still need to register in Washington, you can. Do it in person.

Before we get too removed from the Trump tapes, I’d like to extend an extra special fuck you to the people who enabled Trump over the decades who are now condemning him. Oh Republican elected officials who knew who he was thing this is beyond the pale. Great, but you’re late to the fucking party. Mitt Romney spent half of 2012 alone with Trump and still desperately courted his vote. He was a gentleman the whole time? Oh producers of his show say he said even worse? And yet you kept working with him. Oh there’s probably tape of him dropping n-bombs? Did you not do anything when they first came out?

It’s always a bit tough to figure out when companies make decisions that activists have been pushing, how much is because of those activists, and how much is the stated reasons. So Shell won’t be sending oil trains to Anacortes.

I don’t know how much oil prices had to do with it as the company says, and how much activists and environmentalists won the day. It’s great for Anacortes, and good for everywhere between there and the Bakken.

On top of the instrumental benefits of getting the hell around much faster, Sound Transit expansion will be good for the environment. It’s sort of duh, but it’s nice to be able to read some specifics. It’s nice to be able to say it will cut over 360 million vehicle miles per year, save 800,000 tons of annual carbon emissions. Rather than just I assume it must be because driving is still driving.

I’ve always thought that with vote by mail and the general good government stance of the state, that Republican secretaries of state can’t fuck things up too badly. But Kim Wyman is determined to try.

Is anyone surprised that the Seattle Police are tracking people’s social media, including location? I mean Geofeedia seems like creepsville in general. Add to that people with guns and tasers and the ability to literally arrest you.

I know the post-debate analysis has been done already. But I just want to highlight this that Trump said.

And when it comes to stop-and-frisk, you know, you’re talking about takes guns away. Well, I’m talking about taking guns away from gangs and people that use them. And I don’t think — I really don’t think you disagree with me on this, if you want to know the truth.

There were some people who called out in real time how shitty it was that he was telling a woman how she really feels. And yeah.

But the other part of the dynamic is white people talking to other white people. One says something racist and the other person rejects it. It can be a joke, or some “observation” or a policy proposal. And the other person doesn’t agree. But the first person insists that the other person approves of their joke or observation or policy proposal. No matter how much they say they don’t.

This is the same dynamic of people yelling about PC culture.

Did anyone else go to the Angle Lake Station? I skipped the opening ceremony, but did check it out later in the day. It’s a lot more isolated than any of the other stations. Just walking around it looked like it was mostly hotels and a federal detention center that I didn’t know existed. I guess that’s probably good for future growth. Maybe.

I’d prefer a Graham Street Station (or other places where it’s a long distance between stations) to that. But I guess the goal is to get further and further South. I’m always happy with more light rail, so it was pretty neat.

Also, a lot of parking.

I’m all for the City Attorney’s office suing the crap out of people who cut those trees down in West Seattle. I mean fuck them. Oh, my view could be better if I just clear cut city land illegally is not an OK thing.