It was 20 years ago today that I published the first post here on HA, and mygod did it change my life (and hopefully a few elections and public policy debates along the way).
For a few glorious years HA was one of the most widely read, influential (and feared) state and local blogs in the nation. We were the official WA state blog at the 2008 Democratic Convention. HA helped get me my own radio show at 710 KIRO back when it was still a 50,000 watt news/talk powerhouse, and eventually a gig at The Stranger where I helped advance the nation’s first $15 minimum wage. And ultimately this weird adventure led me to my current job, which is hard to explain, but is gratifying and difference-making in so many ways.
I don’t blog here at HA anymore. Darryl and Carl keep it going on a daily basis, and so happy blogoversary (and a big THANK YOU) to them too. But of course, the biggest thanks goes to HA’s readers, past and present, because none of this would’ve been possible without you. HA’s comment threads may have been a cesspool of trolling since nearly the very beginning, but I was very, very, fortunate to find an audience large and loud enough to make my writing relevant.
By the way, if you miss me, I host a weekly podcast with my billionaire boss, Nick Hanauer, called Pitchfork Economics. It’s wonky and subversive and we interview amazing guests—Nobel laureates, best-selling authors, administration officials, and other leading or should-be-leading thinkers in economics, philosophy, science, politics, and public policy—so if you’re not already a subscriber, now would be a great time to start.
And finally, a much earned thank you and congratulations to my daughter Katie. She was just seven years old when this blog first started consuming my life and she patiently put up with more than her fair share of “just a minute, baby, I need to finish this post.” Today, coincidentally, she graduates from USC with an MFA in film and television production and I couldn’t be prouder. Here’s hoping our democracy, our economy, and our civil society survive another 20 years (at least) so that she and all our children have the opportunity, the security, and the means to pursue their dreams.
If a Virginia School board wants to vote to restore ‘Confederate Hero’ names to local schools that’s their business but we are also free to make fun of them and shun them from polite society.
Cornwallis Junior High sounds good.
George Custer Preparatory?
Uday and Kusay Elementary?
Happy anniversary. it’s been fun posting here. Still haven’t got the conservatives to admit they’re wrong. Man they’re stubborn.
teh kreepshit troll seems to believe yours truly has some affinity for
Goldy…
naah.. I’m no nutjob always wrong winger.. that’s your speed kreepout troll..
My best to David Goldstein and family’s continued success..
Some recognition is perhaps due to the bankrupted, penniless chair thief who inspired the ballot initiative for which the blog is named. And whose toxic personality drove a dozen or so wretched, groveling conservative victims to come here daily and troll themselves into a self-gratified stupor.
Chair thief is ruined and gone now. And only one of his supplicants retains enough cognitive awareness and partial sobriety to make a low quality trolling effort.
But it’s worth it to see Goldy’s blog survive and surpass them all.
Congratulations 👏👏👏
In nearly twenty years yours truly has minted one ironclad rule of the HA troll:
Anyone just to the nano-meter left of Dino four (five? lost count) -time Lossi is a Marxist-Leninist Stalinist Maoist North Korean Pol Pot commie.. wears a dull green “revolutionary vanguard” uniform.. waves the little red book of Chairman Mao – that kind of thing.
Where have all the trolls gone? We have maybe 3 left…
all retreated now to their social media silos where they circle jerk each other and spin new klownspiracies and fantasies.. some even cash in and make a good living at it.. bilking, grifting greater fools…
None has done better at that then their orange maga demi-god drumpf.. what a bunch of suckers..
heh.. good riddance..
Looks like Israel is running a dark prison.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/middleeast/israel-sde-teiman-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd/index.html
And what a long, boring post that first post was. 😂
SeattleJew’s blog is 6 years younger, dating from May 2010, and like HA is thriving.
“Sound Politics”? Never heard of it.
I dunno about the “20 more years,” Goldy. It doesn’t look encouraging. The world is flat and we’re all going to be swept off its edge by the tsunami of ignorance headed our way.
@1 It must be one of those Moms For
Reinstating SlaveryLiberty school boards.@2 They were born wrong and will go to their graves wrong after being wrong all the years in between.
@4 Wikipedia says Eyman “was born in Yakima, Washington and adopted shortly after birth.” Even his parents didn’t want him. They knew a bad penny when they saw one.
We should not forget the sacrifices Goldy has made over the years to bring us horses’ asses to pick on. Such as the time a B grade terrorist dumped a truckload of manure in his driveway. IIRC he got death threats, too. But then don’t we all?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-barron-age_n_663dc171e4b0c38baf0fa3c2
Too senile to be president.
Do not tailgate Kristi Noem. If she’s on the highway ahead of you, give yourself at least 1,000 feet of following distance. It may save your life.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kristi-noem-book-mistake_n_663de68fe4b03d2dfea527c2
Now, I’m completely blocked?! Test, test, test.
Free Gman Goldy. Happy Anniversary.
Free speech, uncensored, can save lives. Others here might not like it, because they can’t handle the truth. I know you can!
@15 & 16,
Stop trying to post spam links.
They automatically get dumped into moderation.
Be an adult and take responsibility for yourself. Or at least quit crying like a baby about it. There is nothing anyone can do if you put spam links in your comments.
@17.
Bullshit- I didn’t even include a link.
Censorship! Biased censorship. They can fix it!
Heterosexual Neanderthal Virus is the cause
You want to label it as crying like a baby. Not, just shining light on the censorship.
How come I can post here, now. But as soon as I connect to a known wifi address I get moderated?
Bullshit is what it is.
Looks like the GOP is writing off Arizona’s Senate race.
https://www.rawstory.com/kari-lake-senate-2668226982/
@20 – http://horsesass.org/happy-20t.....nt-1504710
The Management Robot has classified you as human type “Crybaby”.
Based on The Management Robot’s careful study of all the available data on the behavior of your species The Management Robot has determined that you shall be assigned an automated AI program of childish teasing and random deletion to frustrate you.
Kindest regards.
In today’s crime news,
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/steve-bannons-contempt-congress-conviction-upheld-appeals-court/story?id=110107409
Enjoy eating prison loaf, asshole. Hope you get raped, too, bitch. Heh, just kidding about that last one.
23,
Rotten (/s) timing in May.
His application to the SCOTUS won’t survive the month.
Which puts this repeat customer inside soon after the convention.
So it goes when you have chosen to turn to turn your back on democracy and betray the greatest nation in all of human history by becoming a Republican voter.
In other crime news,
When you read the story, it gets even better. After being found in a chicken coop, passed out, he stole a police car while cuffed, crashed it, was hit once by gunfire from 11 cops, then stole another police car and crashed it, too, stiff cuffed. Oh, and the police ordered him to raise his hands while handcuffed.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-theft-suspect-stole-2-police-vehicles-handcuffed-110118660
What police are trained to do, and do, is spray bullets at a target. Little or no marksmanship is required, needed, or wanted. Collateral damage to bystanders is to be expected.
This is good for ammunition sellers.
In the middle of being forced into bankruptcy and asset seizure by almost everyone on earth, the LAPTOP fraud and criminally disbarred former attorney Rudy Rectal incontinence has now been fired from his last income producing gig by billionaire media mogul John Catsimatidis.
Creepy drunks like Rudy are like Republican canaries in Trump’s coal mine of corruption and failure.
@22 I love your dry humor, carry on and tease away.
Anything to bring light to the Heterosexual Sexual Neanderthal virus is that is killing the Womenz is fine with me…..it’s a start or step on the right direction.
There’s probably some 600 lb prisoner that wants another fat ass’ ass, who is especially interested in fucking while in jail. Hope they enjoy each other, lol.
@27 He can’t draw unemployment benefits either, because he was separated from employment for willfully disregarding company policies of which he was aware.
Rudy tried to end it all by jumping out of his apartment window, but was unable to climb up to the sidewalk, so he crawled back inside.
@24 “when you have chosen to turn to turn your back on democracy and betray the greatest nation in all of human history by becoming a Republican voter”
It wasn’t that, it was using a subpoena for toilet paper. Not even a substantive crime like mail fraud and money laundering (he was pardoned for that); it’s a “kick me sign” infraction like Trump being tossed in the can for mocking a gag order.
“Sound Politics”? Never heard of it.
Dead and buried. Tensor and I were there at the end, kicking the carcass and then hammering nails into the coffin.
Goldy, If you’re reading these comments, please consider allowing Elijah and Rodger to blog here. They’d liven things up a bit, hopefully attracting better trolls.
Wishing you the best.
That government is best that governs least.
@33 There’s a ton of lively Roger Rabbit postings on SeattleJew’s blog. In fact, since his death, everything on his blog is by me.
Recommended today: “Don’t tailgate Kristi Noem”
By the way, you could comment there if you wanted to. I do have the ability to let comments post. I just don’t want trolls polluting the place.
@34 How’s police understaffing working out?
34,
MAGA Republican Representative Katie Britt, who represents House Republicans as their official spokesperson to respond to President Joe Biden, this very week introduced a proposed new federal law to register and monitor every uterus in the United States. Her bill has received backing and support from leading Republican lawmakers including co-sponsorship from former presidential candidate and top contender for the Vice Presidency, Sen. Marco Rubio.
36,
I’m pretty sure the “least governing” this Republican dipshit is yearning for is the 500,000 deaths and 14 million lost jobs that Republicans delivered four years ago by “standing back and standing by”.
Any American who had moved to Canada that year reduced their chances of dying by 300%.
@34. So you don’t mind if a corporation put a vast pig excrement pond right next to your house? So you don’t mind if the president kills his political opponents? So you don’t mind 600% inflation per month? You don’t mind if your food and drugs are laced with poison? You don’t mind if the bank crashes and erases you life savings?
Or are you just pissed about the regulations that won’t let you discriminate against and cheat and kill the out groups you despise?
@36 – That’s a better question for the Defund the Police idiot in places like Seattle and Portland, rodent.
34 and 40,
Totally cool with their Republican government taking a detainee’s lunch, pureeing it in a Vitamix, and pumping into the detainee’s rectum through a green garden hose.
Well within the modern Republican idea of “limited”government.
@41 – That sounds like something Victoria Nuland (formerly of the State Department) and Jake Sullivan might do.
@39 “So you don’t mind if a corporation put a vast pig excrement pond right next to your house?”
And he thinks Chinese wet markets are bad …
Oh wait, he’s convinced it was a deliberate biolab leak. My bad. Live bats and pigshit ponds are perfectly okay.
@40 Well, since I never endorsed defunding the police here or anywhere else, you’re singing to the wrong choir. I’d also point out that cops’ obstinacy over masks and vaccines shrank police staffing more than any budget cuts ever did. I’m not just talking about cops fired for refusing to get vaxxed; for several years Covid was the leading cause of police officer deaths, exceeding gunfire and vehicle accident deaths.
42,
Dubya authorized it. Probably kept the videos and still faps to it. Have a little pride in what you’ve “accomplished”.
Barack Hussein Obama born in the exotic foreign land of Hawaii shut it all down.
No wonder you hate him so.