by Carl Ballard — ,
And a happy first day of the legislature in Washington. If you have some pressing concern, you should contact your legislators. The session will probably focus on COVID-19. So you might want to push them to make sure that funding doesn’t fall on the poorest people in our lopsided sales tax heavy tax system. Maybe you have some issues that you’re afraid will be overlooked in a probably narrow focused session.
Also, wash your hands right now.
by Darryl — ,
Bruce W. Nelson: ♫ A song for Louie Gohmert ♬
Vox: The real cost of smart speakers
A Big Fuck You to 2020:
Robert Reich: Defeating McConnell—The real stakes of the Georgia runoffs
Lauren Mayer: ♫ Empathy & irony (not in the modern G.O.P.) ♬
The Dotard Трамп and Other Treacherous, Anti-American, Evil Bastards:
Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian: Things Republicans are going to pretend to care about again
LegalEagle: Section 230 repeal—What would happen?
ТрампPlague:
Keith Olbermann: 140 GOP Reps to vote against Biden. This is war against the Constitution
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
by Carl Ballard — ,
by Carl Ballard — ,
I am glad that the action of Governor Inslee meant that Washington’s unemployment system still worked during President Trump’s delay. No missed payment. No reapplying. It would be better if President Trump had not fucked around, but at least we mitigated most of the damage.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
by Darryl — ,
Meidas Touch with Heather Gardner: State TV is in trouble
LegalEagle: What’s the deal with “packing the court”
Roll Call: Three defense takeaways from the massive spending bill
President-elect Joe Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris:
MoveOn: These activists made history in 2020
LegalEagle: Did John Roberts scream at the other Justices?
The Dotard Трамп and His Co-seditioners:
Drunk History: Best of Teddy Roosevelt
Now This: Texas ranch owners organize “Say their names” memorial
Desi Lydic: Arizona daylight savings time opt-out
Holiday Politics:
LegalEagle: Massive changes to copyright?
Bruce W. Nelson: ♫ Man up and go away (MAGA song) ♬
Roll Call: Three tech takeaways from the massive spending bill
The Week in ТрампPlague:
Blaire Erskine: $600 is more than enough!!!!!
Mark Fiore: The year in bad
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
by Carl Ballard — ,
The oil train derailment and fire in Bellingham is scary stuff. Fortunately, if you can call it that, it wasn’t an explosion. The environmental damage is still going to be pretty gross. And these trains running through our cities is going to inevitably be derailments.
Anyway, this is the last post before Christmas, so have a good one if you celebrate it.
Anyway, anyway, wash your hands right now.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I don’t know about the rest of you, but since the city cleared out Cal Anderson Park, it seems like there are more tents popping up in the rest of Seattle’s urban core. Not getting people the help they need — starting, but very much not ending with housing — is just shuffling them around. Shame on us, in the shadow of Amazon and other large companies, we can’t find the resources to help.
by Darryl — ,
Vice News: How defunding the police is working out in Seattle
Trevor: President Obama—Inspiring future leaders & “A Promised Land”
Really American: Traitor Ron Johnson tries to accuse Democrats of his own crimes
Present-elect Joe Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris and Other Election Stuff:
Stephen Interviews Joe Biden:
Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian: Satan’s busy year of sneaky tricks
Trevor: President Obama on police reform & the impact of slogans
BuzzFeed: Why the Electoral College is useless in 8 minutes
The Dotard Трамп and His Fellow Delusional Imbeciles:
Trevor: Obama on roasting people
WaPo: The biggest Pinocchios of 2020
Mother Jones: Here’s what $1.7 trillion in student debt looks like
Roy Wood, Jr.: North Pole diversification
ТрампPlague:
Roll Call: Congressional hits and misses of the week
Now This: Your bank could be funding private prisons
Desi Lydic spends Christmas with her FAUZ News fam
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Seattle Police are taking public comments on use of force and crowd control policies. They have decided to make it difficult, so there are several links to PDF’s at the bottom. You can comment at the bottom of those. Nonetheless, it’s worth commenting on.
For me the issue starts with a massive provocation every time the police show up. Namely that they are armed at all. The average beat cop having a gun, bringing long guns to protests, it really makes the police antagonistic.
Then when they deploy tear gas or rubber bullets, they get labeled as “less lethal” as if they are the gentle alternative to firing indiscriminately into a crowd, rather than a last resort. But it shouldn’t be an option!
In much of the world, most police don’t carry guns. There are still problems with policing, but there’s one less.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Man, fuck NIMBYs. Fuck the demonization of homeless people. Fuck kicking people out in the middle of a pandemic. Fuck thinking that an empty hotel is more desirable than one housing people.
Fuck kicking homeless people out of Cal Anderson Park without having a place for them to go. Fuck. It doesn’t have to be this way.
And wash your hands right now.
by Carl Ballard — ,
We’re less than a month away from the new legislature meeting. It’s going to be less liberal than we thought on election night, but still pretty solid Democratic majorities.
So, what should we push for?
I think it’s going to be COVID-19 related. We are going to have to figure out how to make sure that there isn’t an eviction crisis once the moratorium is lifted. That probably means at a minimum making sure that unemployment stays funded no matter what the Federal government does.
It would also be nice if we could figure out ways to not blow up the budget. Generally, the more progressive the taxation, the better. I can understand if legislators don’t want a fight over the income tax to delay getting the money. But I hope funding wouldn’t just be more sales or sin taxes.
And please wash your hands right now.
by Darryl — ,
Bruce W. Nelson: “Turtle in the toilet”, a Mitch McConnell song
The Daily Show: FAUX News—Staten Island protests vs. BLM protests
Robert Reich: Who will hold the power in the Biden administration?
Conan invites political song parodist Tip Rivers to perform.
President-elect Joe Biden, VP-elect Kamala Harris and Other Electiony Things:
The Daily Show: How to pretend 2020 never happened
Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.
Vice News: ICE is deporting multiple witnesses in gynecologic surgery scandal
The Deplorable Dotard Трамп and His Cohort of Criminals:
The Daily Show: 2020 in review—The year in protests
Amer4D: This is our House
The Late Show: Immigrants praise Kelly Loeffler’s corrupt American dream.
Trevor: Facebook sued by the Federal Trade Commission and 46 U.S. states
Roll Call: Congressional hits and misses of the week
The Week in ТрампPlague:
Now This: Greta Thunberg on understanding the climate crisis gravity
Samantha Bee: America’s New Year resolution—Making housing a human right, part 1
Samantha Bee: America’s New Year resolution—Making housing a human right, part 2
Trevor: Rachel Maddow—“Bag Man” & decoding right-wing media
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
by Carl Ballard — ,
We have Democratic members of the redistricting commission. It’s the guy who is maybe most well known because he ran against Pramila Jayapal and a woman I had not heard of but sounds like she has done good work at the Labor Council.
If Washington gets another seat, hopefully they’ll make sure it is a Democratic seat.
If Washington doesn’t get that seat, I hope they can figure out how to make the Southwest Washington seat competitive. Also, for the last decade, the map of Washington Congressional Districts has featured a corgi standing on its front paws; The commission should commit to making at least one district that adorable.
And you should commit to washing your hands right now.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Jenny Durkan isn’t going to run for reelection. It’s not something I am going to shed a tear about.
One thing that strikes me, generally, is how many mayors are not good at mayoring. In Seattle every mayor since Rice has either lost the election or left at or before the end of their first term.
Nationally, I was struck during the Presidential primary how many of the candidates had been mayors and not a lot of successful ones. Other than Booker, they all seemed like either they were forgettable or bad mayors. Even people who did well in other jobs. Maybe there are different standards we hold mayors to, or maybe it’s the job.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!