– Bremerton fast ferry riders, test out the bike rack.

– Look at the sexy new trains for the Amtrak Cascades route.

– The Emerald talking about COVID-19 just because it’s still a threat.

– More density in Belltown, please.

– Bringing civility back to the Seattle City Council.

– Ann Davison is still the worst.

– Last Open Thread I mentioned the light rail reduction over the weekend. No more. It will happen later.

– The backlash to the backlash in Seattle? Maybe. Or maybe it’s one election.

– Or maybe there can only be one good Council member at a time?

– Make sure to plan on having a little extra time if you’re taking the 1 Line over the weekend.

– Still working on a sign-off, this is me, signing off.

– The race for King County Executive is shaping up nicely. One note, the longer you struggle with Girmay Zahilay’s name, the greater the side eye.

– I had no idea about Spokane’s Community-Oriented Policing Services but it seems like they have done some questionable things.

– SAM security deserve a fair contract.

– These open threads are often a bullet list, but maybe that’s not the way to go for a city’s legislative agenda.

Pretty checked out right before Thanksgiving.

– Boo to the Seattle budget.

– Boo, I say. Boo.

– I’m not one to put much faith in issue polling, but it seems like not popular, so boo.

– Happy Friday to all who celebrate. Maybe an introduction instead of an exit?

– The bike and walking path over 520 looks pretty cool.

– Anybody doing Autumn foraging?

– Seems like there could be trouble for Hanford.

– I hope glass recycling doesn’t go the way plastic bags did.

Good morning. I hope you survived the storm. Not too bad on the urban core of Seattle, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, here are some links.

– Still reading these essays in Assigned Media, but goddam. Any trans people reading this, I am glad you’re around.

– Seattle’s budget is yuck.

– Home Depot Unveils 12-Foot Turkey Carcass Skeleton

– Spokane looks to be doing good transportation planning.

– It’s good to have a police accountability agency, but it sure would be great if they did some police accountability.

– Still in need of a proper sign off, but it’s probably still a good idea to wash your hands.

– NDA’s for renters. What will asssholes think of next?

– HA was once a preeminent spot to learn about school closure. This round we can leave it to others to look for solutions.

– I don’t know what the right thing for a library asked to host bigoted organizations is. But I can say with 100% certainty fuck transphobes.

– I suspect that it will be a theme of these open threads, but it’s tough to know how much Washington should do on its own and how much should be deducted to opposing awful things from the Federal government.

– Info Wars is good now. What a world.

– Algorithms have been pretty bad for the Internet.

– I have mentioned it before, but if you’re new to BlueSky and inexplicably looking for me, there you are. Darryl and Goldy are also there.

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.