I am glad that the Washington State eviction moratorium has been extended. I am also glad that Governor Inslee is preparing the way for a future extension. This crisis isn’t going anywhere until there’s a vaccine, or at the very least, competent Federal leadership.
Anyway, please wash your hands right now.
Congrats to the activists who seem to be getting the youth jail closed by 2025. There’s still work to do, but this is a great direction. It would have been better if it hadn’t been built in the first place. Still and all, it’s a victory.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
I should probably write something…
Listen, I hate to do anything to benefit Portland, but if you’re able people I follow on social media recommended bail funds here. It’s scary what’s going on down there. The local police are scary enough, but add in the Feds kidnapping people off the street, and holy shit. Anyway, do what you can if you can.
Also, wash your hands right now.
Desi Lydic FAUXSplains “cancel culture”.
Bruce W. Nelson: Tucker Carlson’s the poster boy for meritless White privilege.
Now This: Militarized federal agents are seizing U.S. protesters in Portland
Stephen: W. Kamau Bell—America was built on White supremacy. it won’t go away until we redesign the system.
Roll Call: Congressional hits and misses of the week
The Dotard Трамп and His Barrel of Swamp Monkeys:
Vox: The fight for America’s 51st state, explained.
Jimmy Fallon: Stacey Abrams breaks down how to dismantle voter suppression.
Seth Meyers: Sen. Tammy Duckworth calls Tucker Carlson a gnat.
WaPo: 50 nights of protests—What you need to know about the tension in Portland.
Trevor: Biden’s poll numbers surge, but will 2020 be another 2016?
Mother Jones: Deconstructing the design and demolition of Confederate monuments.
ТрампPlague:
Roll Call: Democrats well positioned to take the Senate.
Samantha Bee: : The Homophobic History of Blood Donation, Pt. 1
Samantha Bee: : The Homophobic History of Blood Donation, Pt. 2
Jonathan Mann: Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor:
Mother Jones: Why scientists are so worried about this glacier.
Dulcé Sloan: Census suppression and why it matters.
Courtney Jaye: Get lost @TuckerCarlson.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
They’re breaching a dam on the Nooksack River. It seems like it will help with salmon and trout recovery. Very exciting, and I hope it leads to more dam removal around the state.
But for now, wash your hands.
Sorry I didn’t post this morning. I had some work stuff early this morning and then I forgot to write it at lunch. So um. Here it is now.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
Your primary ballots are dropping this week. So I guess look out for them next week. And then you will have until August 4 to get your ballot postmarked or dropped off.
Anyway, please wash your hands right now.
Now This: Artists protest immigrant detention with skywriting
Robert Reich: Monopoly mayhem—Corporations win, workers lose.
The Dotard Трамп and Other Racist, Sexual Preditors, and Con-men:
Anthony Anderson: Political monologue.
Roll Call: Congressional hits and misses of the week.
ТрампPlague:
Roy Zimmerman: The Orange County Rolling Acres Senior Center Cannabis Club
Now This: Joe Biden and Ady Barkan on the future of long-term healthcare.
Black Lives Matter:
WaPo: Biden’s $700 billion economic plan, in 4 minutes.
The Late Show: Aliens discover racist Tucker Carlson.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
The Seattle City Council has committed to defunding the police department by 50%. Will replacing police duties with people from other city departments work? Will it provide better service? Will it reduce police shootings and other escalation of force? Will it reduce crime? I don’t know. But the status quo is not working.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
Tim Eyman is a horse’s ass. But he’s also the only one of the Republicans running for governor who I had any idea about. Who else is running? Wasn’t there some guy who wasn’t going to enforce gun laws? Is he doing anything recentlOHGOD.
In a long-running lawsuit, a woman accuses police and deputies in Ferry County of failing to properly investigate when she reported a pattern of rape and molestation spanning 12 years of her childhood.
Among the defendants is Loren Culp, who is now the police chief in the town of Republic and a Republican candidate for Washington governor. The lawsuit alleges Culp and two other law enforcement officers intimidated the victim, threatened to charge her with making false claims and failed to report her allegations to child welfare authorities as required by law.
Of course a lawsuit filed isn’t the same as all of the accusations proven. But yikes.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
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My previous analysis of the Biden-Trump head-to-head polls was way back in early June, in part because the dynamics of the race didn’t seem to be changing much. Trump is slowly slipping in the polls, as the COVID-19 epidemic worsens in the U.S., as Trump resists movements for police reforms, and as we learn bizarre things like Trump not responding to Russian bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan.
After 100,000 simulated elections, the results are not surprising. Biden wins 100,000 times and Trump wins 0 times. Biden received (on average) 375 to Trump’s 163 electoral votes. In an election held now, Biden would have a greater than 99.9% probability of winning and Trump would have a less than 0.1% probability of winning.
Basically, if the election was today, Biden would win in a landslide.
Trump has a serious electoral college problem. Many swing states are now trending strongly for Biden, including Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Other swing states are pretty solidly in Biden’s camp, like Arizona, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Even Ohio trends slightly toward Biden. Iowa and Texas are in toss-up territory, but leaning slightly toward Trump. Remarkable!
The trend over the past couple months are clear from from a series of elections simulated every seven days using polls from Jul 2019 to the present, and, at each point in time, including polls from the preceding month (FAQ).
There is, of course, plenty of time to turn this trend around. Still, Trump’s bizarre and impulsive behavior will make doing that very difficult.
I saw my parents for the first time since the quarantine started over the weekend. We had a socially distanced, masked walk and a picnick. It was a relatively low risk thing, but it was still nervous making. I was glad to see them, but still I don’t know.
Anyway, wash your hands right now.
Now This: Sen. Mark Warner on cleaning up national parks.
BuzzFeed: How Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will make 1 million dollars during this 7 minute video.
The Dotard Трамп and Other Immorals, Incompetents, and Incontenents:
Samantha Bee: How to save the Postal Service
Now This: The fight to expand vote-by-mail before election day.
Trevor: The CIA is hiring.
Black Lives Matter:
Hasan Minhaj : Why doing taxes is so hard.
The Foundation Singers: NOVEMBER!
ТрампPlague:
Roll Call: Congressional hits and misses of the week.
Now This: Who is Ron DeSantis? (Narrated by Yedoye Travis)
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
It’s depressing how the CHOP/CHAZ is ending. There was so much generated there. Art and community. A garden. But when self-declared security forces kill a Black child it’s tough to support the place.
None of this excuses the actions of SPD in the last month or so. None of this means tear gassing protesters is retroactively OK or that we can’t defund the police. Black lives still matter.
(Also wash your hands right now.)
(At some point I will get back on track with these.)
The Supreme Court had another goodish ruling (pdf, I haven’t read it yet since I’m on lunch) in a high profile case. I am still concerned that Roberts is a swing vote in these decisions.
It’s definitely good that we’re winning these (for lack of a better phrase) culture war cases. But the court ruled on an exact same law a few years ago. It stinks that we have to play defense. If Justice Kagan (or Garland) were the swing vote, it would probably be on better cases.
Anyway, go wash your hands right now.
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