I’ve been quite impressed by KUOW’s series on The Jungle. The most recent piece this morning on the social worker and the preacher who go into the jungle was just amazing. It tied those two to the larger situations and to the city’s looking at future policies, so well.
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What’s the statutory time limit on involuntary commitments? If it’s seven days, Puddy will be back this week. Not looking forward to it.
http://www.npr.org/sections/th.....egulations
When uber and lyft have follow even some of the same rules as taxis, they quit.
@ 2
Then that’s your secret weapon, Better. Just have every municipality force more stringent regulations on Uber and Lyft. You can regulate them right out of existence.
Go for it. Protect those medallion values. Make it more difficult for citizens in Houston to pick up that second, part-time job. Reduce competition and incentive for cabbies to drag themselves into the 21st century.
Maybe it’s all a Corporate Lie again, Better. Ask around.
Barack does his best Andy Shepherd.
“We are in serious times, and this is a really serious job,” Obama said.
http://thehill.com/homenews/ad.....rump-fight
Hey, I thought it was a really good movie, too.
Ryan to Trump: Go ahead. Make my day.
Ryan opens door to stepping down as convention chair, if Trump asks
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....tcmp=hpbt1
@2,3,
well, aren’t there at least a few good reasons the for-hire industry has historically been regulated? Aren’t at least some of those regulations beneficial?
The big “deal breaker” here was fingerprinting and background checks. What’s wrong with that?
I think Boob starts off raising some good points. Many cities have traditionally operated their for-hire license system as a exclusive monopoly that suppressed competition. And maybe excluding any criminal history is too restrictive. But the companies have a shit poor record of ensuring driver safety. And the cheap web-based commercial background checks they continue to rely on are full of holes. Maybe driving vulnerable people around late at night isn’t appropriate work for violent ex-felons who’ve skipped parole in another state. Just a thought.
The companies are acting like assholes here. Little wonder then that Boob flies to their rescue like an avenging Randian angel. This is where we get to see how classic Libertardian solutions are stupid. In the imaginary rainbow-Unicorn-Libertardian universe all the for-hire demand would just naturally flow toward the unregulated operators who had a flawless record of driver safety. No government needed.
But in reality it sadly is cheaper and more internally efficient for well capitalized companies to simply pay lawyers and PR flaks to settle claims and suppress bad publicity. So your teenage daughter gets raped and bludgeoned into a persistent vegetative state. But hey, she gets a “fair” settlement from the binding arbitration agreement buried in the boilerplate somewhere on the company website. See how it all works out? Magic invisible hand! Wheeeeeee!
@1; if the puddiot does come back, I wanna know if he’s gonna vote for Chrump. I assume yes, since Chrump has been endorsed by puddiot’s friends in the KKK…
@ 6
Tell you what:
You amass all of the articles of teenage girls raped and bludgeoned while riding in Uber/Lyft vehicles.
I’ll amass articles of teenage and pre-teenage girls sexually assaulted by union-protected teachers at public schools.
Which of us, DR, do you think will come up with a greater number?
@3 And here’s Bickle again, defending the “right” of workers to be slaves. Boob is a Cheap Labor Conservative to the bone.
@8 LMAO! While you’re at it, Boob, why don’t you count the birth and death notices in the Seattle Times, then tell us whether Seattle is growing or depopulating.
@8,
WTF?
Where do you get this shit? Are you volunteering your offspring to be sacrificed at your beloved altar to Ayn Rand?
Here’s a thought: maybe for the sake of “jobs” and “unlimited competition” we ought to reconsider the ponderous weight of licensing and regulation on the cheap food industry. Let’s ask Jack in the Box. And guess what, fuckstick? There’s an app for that. It connects dumbshits like you with “talented home cooks” who prepare “yummy treats” for their “neighbors” all appetizingly listed and just a click away on their smart phones.
Mmmmmm. Ecoli never tasted so fresh!
Tell you what:
You tell us what number of unregulated for-hire assaults is the right number. Okay?
How many, Boob?
@ 11
When a girl’s hymen snaps during a rape, does it hurt less if it’s a rape by an unregulated aggressor than if it’s done by a union-backed, municipally employed aggressor with a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate, DR?
“I’ll amass articles of teenage and pre-teenage girls sexually assaulted by union-protected teachers at public schools.”
Go for it. I’ve already amassed all of the cases where children were sexually abused by Republicans, – including sub-categories, such as which kind of costume the Republican wore while abusing kids, animal and clown.
@12,
For fuck’s sake, you idiot. Your argument makes no fucking sense at all. Okay?
First, teachers unions and public school districts, in general do not oppose or obstruct background checks of classified employees. Washington’s OSPI requires FBI background checks of all public school districts.
Second, the fact that some classified employees, having already passed such background checks nevertheless commit violent felonies, is not a good argument to eliminate background checks. Actually, it argues for such checks.
I like to call this the Jerry Sandusky rule (another fine Republican). Simply put, nobody knows anybody. Period. Where the safety of vulnerable people is concerned, criminal background checks make sense. Since, as you so helpfully point out, people do bad things, it is probably wise to learn about who these people are. By doing a criminal background check. Which you are opposed to. Because
FREEDOM!you are a fucking idiot. QED.@11 “WTF? Where do you get this shit?”
Boob’s knockoff of Moneyball.
Remember Jan Brewer? Unemployed ex-governor of Arizona? Famous for disrespectfully wagging her finger at Two Term President Obama when he visited her state. Says she’s “willing to serve” as Drump’s vice president. (Groveling much?) Another Republican with no class. Maybe Boob knows her; according to Wikipedia: “Born in California, Brewer attended Glendale Community College (Arizona) where she received a radiological technologist certificate. She has never earned a college degree.” (And it shows.) Sounds like someone he could relate to. Boob, I mean. It’s hard to see any presumptive nominee, even Drumpf, taking her seriously. He’s desperate, but not that desperate. Besides, we all know who Carson’s veep search team will recommend.
http://www.aol.com/article/201...../21373675/
Why the Republican Party is sinking toward oblivion. http://tinyurl.com/z3sn6wf
“I think Republicans are more than justified in waiting. That is following both principle and precedent. But the principle is to have the most conservative, qualified jurists that we can have on the Supreme Court, not that the people ought to decide before the next election. I’ve never held that position. If we come to a point, I’ve said all along, where we’re going to lose the election, or we lose the election in November, then we ought to approve him quickly. Because I’m certain that he’ll be more conservative than a Hillary Clinton nomination comes January.” – Sen. Jeff Flake
At which point, President Obama would actually be a lame duck. And would withdraw the nom in deference to the newly elected (or presumptive) next President. So… tick tock motherfuckers!
There will be no coal terminal at Cherry Point:
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sided with Northwest tribes Monday in a decision to block the largest proposed bulk-shipping terminal in North America at Cherry Point, finding it detrimental to treaty-protected tribal fishing rights.”
http://www.seattletimes.com/se.....rry-point/
Here’s another way to test the false equivalency nonsense that “conservatives” have been tossing around as they watch their political party crack up.
Ask yourself: If Bernie Sanders were to win the nomination, would pretty much every single leading Democratic and progressive political figure refuse to attend his nomination convention?
Which begs the question: Why do Republican elites hate their own voters so much?
@2 Might have something with their business plan. After all some attorneys sue people over a bill and if that person shows up at court they decide not to argue the case and it gets tossed, but because the person being sued doesn’t know to ask for “with prejudice” the whole thing starts over.
@1 It’s 72 hours but can be extended to 14 days, 90 days or 180 days. Even I would not wish an involuntary commitment on Puddy. I doubt that what he puts on here would give cause to an involuntary commitment. Though the list owner could get a subpoena for any postings that were deleted or denied.
@3 The competition between the cab companies and gypsy drivers continues. Only for once the gypsy drivers have an advantage. Too bad the actually taxi drivers don’t derive much benefit from the commercial benefits that come with having those medallions. Rather akin to having a liquor license. And typically just a pricey. Does seem to be some local politics involved. Do we the public get any benefit from the medallions? Do they pay for anything or just the occasional prosecution of a gypsy driver? Doesn’t seem like a very capitalist system the government picking winners and losers.
@6 That is if she makes it out of the public restroom without being attacked by that pedophile/rapist straight male. At least you get a settlement with the taxi company. Perhaps we are a fearful society and people play on that.
@8 I bet they are both small numbers every year approaching zero for both. And are you limiting the statistics to just the United States. Including other parts of the world then the numbers would go up. How are you proposing to do the statistics in a meaningful way?
@12 First we have to establish the type of rape. Is this statutory rape? In which case the young lady may have been hormonally overcome and was a willing participant, but because she has no right to choose to have sex it’s considered rape even if it was consensual or even if she is working as a hooker on certain strips of 99 and no longer has a hymen. Of course it will annoy the judge if she shows up under a prostitution charge and her real age is revealed and she gets to walk.
My understanding is rape generally hurts with or without a hymen. Not withstanding the advice from a former Spokane law enforcement person for women to just lie back and enjoy.
So is raping a virgin worse than a non virgin. Which would appear to what the intent of the original post brings up. Does not seem to matter as who ever is doing it has a mother and father and perhaps a brother and sister and typically would not rape them.
@2. Yeah, regulations will keep Boob from his dream part time job being an Uber Driver. He holds that position in such high regard, I’m sure he always wanted to do it but just couldn’t fit into a Medicare reimbursement form.
@19 That should kill it except for the upcoming 10 years of lawsuits that the decision will spawn, or the facility is built in Canada, even though the very same fishing rights will be effected. Fortunately everyone forgot there are coal veins and mines under Bellingham. Nothing seeping from them affecting the bay and fishing places.
@3…..that second part time job…you mean it doesn’t pay well enogh to do it full time…or are you referring to the over achievers who earn $100,000 and just want a little extra cash?
@19 Then again I don’t think we should be shipping American coal or oil to anywhere else in the world. Should stay right here, preferable in the ground or used by and for Americans. Sigh I guess I’m a nationalist or a conservative in some respects.
@16 Jan’s biggest mark against her is that she’s in Arizona. The demographics don’t make her a great choice. And the Donald is all about great. She’s a woman so that is a plus. There is no requirement that the President (therefore the VP) have any kind of college degree what so ever. Though most members of the political class have had and do have a degree.
Arizona is likely to go Republican no matter who the candidate is. Senator McCain has made reasonable noises and is all the support Trump should need.
Nothing wrong with Jan tooting her own horn either. You go girl. She would not be a bad choice, but probably won’t be the choice.
I suspect we will be kept in suspense for awhile longer. It’s all about the buzz.
@17 A lot of Republican’s don’t think there should be Social Security. Seems like what he suggested may have some merit wonder why industry did not do that in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Oblivion isn’t that bad a place as sometime politicians want us to forget. This is what the artist formerly known as President Bush is waiting for. Then he will also become a high flying jet set person who will orchestrate peace in the middle east. Hinges on everyone forgetting so much.
No amassing anything here except the number of transgenders in the ladies rooms. All that other shit is complexly acceptable.
@18 What the Mr. Flake is saying is not precedent or based on principal. They are just ignoring the Constitution. The President has given them a canididate to consider and they should simply do so. Then they can use that Principal thing to reject the nominee and they can then deal with a new nomination. Rather than show just how quickly they can get the fellow into office after the election should the outcome not be what they want. Whoudl there be a Republican in the white house and the Senate be democratic should the Democrats engage in some tit for tat? Or will there be Republicans howls of foul. With the appropriate response of fuck you. This is what the Senator is leaving out of his analysis.
@34,
“Then they can use that Principal thing to reject the nominee…”
Unless there are 16 Republican members (assuming they invoke the cloture rules) who don’t happen to agree with shitbirds like Flake about the proper role of a Senator in confirmation.
So in other words, political nihilism is the “principle” Republicans are fighting for. Which calls for them to neither confirm nor reject a nominee. But instead to simply bunker themselves in the office suites drinking Sterno and jerking off to Guns ‘n Ammo.
@18 Not much in the way of principle going on there, eh? Just sheer, raw, power politics. It’s what you expect from Rethugs.
@20 “Why do Republican elites hate their own voters so much?”
Uh, let me guess, because their voters are finally waking up to who’s been screwing them over so badly?
Let’s skip over the fact Drumpf’s tax plan would bankrupt the Treasury and consider who would benefit from the ensuing chaos when “The Donald” attempts to renegotiate the public debt.
“The Tax Policy Center found that 40 percent of the money in Trump’s tax cuts would go to the top 1 percent, with the bottom 60 percent of the country getting 16 percent of those tax cuts.”
http://www.motherjones.com/pol.....p-tax-plan
And there you have it: The Drumpf tax plan is the Bush tax cuts on steroids. Brought to you by a guy who thinks repaying loans isn’t necessary. Wasn’t that sort of thinking at the heart of the subprime crisis that nearly plunged us into another Great Depression?
Pretty funny – heard on Rachel Maddow show that Chris Christie is vying along with Drumpf’s don in law to head Drumpf’s cabinet search (I think cabinet). But Drumpf’s son in law’s father is serving time in prison for tax evasion. And Chris Cristie was the prosecutor who put him behind bars. These people are such scum bags. I don’t know how anyone can support such money grubbing bunches of scum.
Hey Puffy what you going to do to protect little Suzzie?
Police: Air Force Member From Rhode Island Sexually Assaulted Teen http://cour.at/279iel6
@3. “Just have every municipality force more stringent regulations on Uber and Lyft. You can regulate them right out of existence.”
No….Since uber is functioning as taxis, they have to work by the same rules that taxis do. If taxis have to get fingerprinted, so does uber
“Go for it. Protect those medallion values.”
You mean those working class jobs? I wonder if sloppy would be upset if uber branched out into radiology and his field was now making McWages. Don’t bother to answer that, you seem incapable of mustering empathy for others.
“Make it more difficult for citizens in Houston to pick up that second, part-time job.”
You mean the second job they need to get cover the loss of wages from their first job as a taxi driver?
“Reduce competition and incentive for cabbies to drag themselves into the 21st century.”
That is actually the only valid reason I can see you have for uber, they force cabbies to improve service and cost. But not if uber does it by cheating.
@38,
not that his bullshit is really even worth considering so closely, but I wonder that nobody considers exactly who it is that the Republicans are proposing to fuck over by welshing on the debt.
A giant percentage of what the Treasury owes is “intergovernmental debt”. Basically it is money the fuckers borrow from the retirement trust funds of future retirees in order to pay for more “stealth” bombers that nobody wants today. So any “haircuts” will cut directly out of the asses of millions of military, federal, and Social Security retirees.
Speaking of retirees, state and local pension funds, as well as private pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies buy U.S. debt. So the rest of us would get to take a nice big bite of Republican shit sandwich too!
And while were at it, lets not forget about the private system of financial institutions that rely on U.S. debt to balance their risk portfolios. Whooops! Guess they never saw Republicans coming! So while all us “takers” retire on our earthquake kits and learn to make do with cat food, we can enjoy the spectacle of the U.S. banking industry collapsing as well. Republicans are financial geeeeeniuses! On To Cleveland! Wheeeeeee!
By the way, Uber taking more and more from their workers
Uber Plans To Kill Surge Pricing, The move likely will be great for riders, but not for drivers.
When there’s not much surge fare, he makes about $11 an hour. When he gets many surge rides, his weekly earnings go up to more like $16 or $17 an hour, on average.
Uber plans to start letting drivers collect tips. It could be that the income lost from surge is replaced by passengers voluntarily giving a bit more.
Thrasher says it’ll take more than tips — that the company will need to raise the base fare for drivers.
“If they took away surge and kept the base fare as it is, nobody could survive doing it,” he says.
http://www.npr.org/sections/al.....b-worth-it
Uber Drivers Plan Boycott After Fare Cuts Slash Their Earnings to Below Minimum Wage
http://observer.com/2016/01/ub.....imum-wage/
“Fares have been cut by as much as 45 percent in some cities, and while Uber is guaranteeing this will actually lead to larger earnings for drivers, the opposite has already proven to be true—drivers are reporting they’re making as little as $2.89 per hour.”
“drivers are reporting hourly earnings in the realm of $2.89 and $3.22, and, after vehicle fees are taken for those who must pay Uber for their cars, $0. Additionally, it’s important to note that these earnings are drivers’ totals before spending any money on gas or maintenance.”
No wonder sloppy likes this company. If a real taxi company did this, that would be…you know…illegal.
child neglect to let your kid alone with a religious man or coach, take some responsibility in life. These kids parents are enablers – kind of like Hillary enabled Bill.
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
Priest removed for abusing girl now works with pregnant teens
http://usat.ly/278WwO8
@39 “I don’t know how anyone can support such money grubbing bunches of scum.”
The kind of people who shut their ears to climate change, evolution, and facts and logic in general. This country is full of ’em. Knowing more about something than they do makes you a “liberal elite” and therefore an enemy of America, their families, and all they hold dear. And now that somebody has organized ignorance into a voting bloc, ignorance is a powerful force in our public life.
@42 All of what you say is true, but you’re missing the elephant in the room: If the world’s most reliable debtor becomes unreliable, what happens to the credit system? And how much of the world’s economy can function without credit? We got a small taste of what that would be like when the credit system froze in October 2008 and the federal government had to step in when the “too big to fail” banks began failing. Who’s going to bail out the world when the U.S. government can’t borrow?
@43 Companies like that soon don’t have workers.
If you read Wikipedia’s Uber profile, Uber looks like little more than a criminal racketeering enterprise. Compete against them, they target you. Criticize them, they target you. Get raped, robbed, or murdered by one of their drivers, they don’t know that guy. Why would anyone work for such an outfit, own their stock, or be their customer? I want nothing to do with them.
The naive and the desperate work for uber, the ones uber can abuse the easiest.
Yes, there are always people willing to be slaves. I don’t understand you humans. You should’ve been born rabbits. Then you wouldn’t have to work and could eat, shit, fuck, and play all day.
Many Americans, especially liberals who cherish a long-standing dream of diverting defense spending to social needs, have talked themselves into believing China has peaceful intentions. I don’t believe that. China clearly is preparing to fight a major war against the United States, one they’ll likely start, possibly by invading Taiwan or sinking an American aircraft carrier after the U.S. Navy refuses to keep its ships out of the South China Sea. China may not be seeking global hegemony, but they certainly desire to dominate Asia, and countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and Vietnam are getting edgy.
Until now, most of the reaction in the United States has been coming from rightwing think tanks. But now respectable nonpartisan and centrist thinkers are recognizing the threat and raising the alarm.
The threat is unmistakable and in plain view. China is building weapons — submarines, anti-ship missiles, etc. — specifically designed to take out American aircraft carriers. Their latest generation fighter jets are designed to achieve air superiority against America’s best.
China is stealing American technology as rapidly as it can, and Chinese hackers are probing America’s cyberdefenses for weaknesses. They are turning reefs into military bases astride the South China Sea’s shipping lanes and threatening their neighbors. They are developing weaponry capable of taking down the satellites we rely on for surveillance, communications, navigation, and guiding our ICBMs, missiles, and precision munitions to their targets.
I’m nervous. China is preparing for war. They are infusing their military with a mindset that they can beat us, if not now, then in the not-distant future. And they’re acting like a country spoiling for a fight. Their new leader is a bellicose guy focused not on solving his country’s economic problems but on building up its military capabilities at a breakneck pace.
I’m a Democratic party hack and liberal propagandist, but I don’t believe we should cut defense spending. I think we need more defense, not less. The probable GOP nominee, Trump, is all bluster and doesn’t understand the issues. A CIA spokesman recently said he’s a hard man to brief, because he’s so damn ignorant and so damn unwilling to learn from others.
I believe Obama and Hillary Clinton do understand (see, e.g., Obama’s “pivot to Asia” in our defense priorities), and are on top of this, and that President Hillary will do at least some of what’s necessary even though it may not be what everyone in her party wants.
Knowledge is power, and Trump’s lack of knowledge is weakness, not a source of strength. Along the same lines, I think all Americans need to work at coming to a better understanding of the reality of what we’re facing — and what we need to do about it.
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/0.....55284.html
Let’s be honest about this — and some Republicans ARE honest about their motives — voter ID laws and other election laws passed by GOP-dominated legislatures aren’t really aimed at preventing nonexistent voting fraud. They’re designed to keep Democrats from voting, and some Republicans will admit it, because they believe only people who think like them should be allowed to vote.
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/0.....54655.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans don’t believe in democracy and never have. They believe they’re right (against all evidence) and only they should have a say in how we all live. And we all know how that works: We have to fight their wars, we do all the work and they get all the money, and they make rules for us to follow that they don’t follow themselves. Because we’ve seen, time and again, that’s how things work when they run things. That’s what’s really at stake in this election and every election.
Wow that Rob in #7 is a real ASShole. Casting aspersions and making insinuations is one thing; but making incorrect ASSumptions ranks you up there with the most idiotic of HA DUMMOCRETINS.
Just remember when you walk in that November Tuesday a vote for Heilary what you are announcing to the world Rob!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Being a libtard is a dangerous mental disorder!