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American Values

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 12/16/13, 6:50 pm

Cathy McMorris Rodgers is being horrible again.

“This is a Democrat party that has no interest in working with Republicans — one that’s openly hostile to American values and the Constitution,” said McMorris Rodgers, a member of the House Republican Leadership.

House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Washington. They have resisted strong, Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act bill, but appear resigned to letting it pass.R-Wash., Republican leaders in the House

McMorris Rodgers did not identify which “American values” to which her Democratic colleagues, including eight in the Washington delegation, are hostile.

“Just look at President Obama’s actions on Obamacare and immigration — he has been using unprecedented executive power to rule by decree: The Left will stop at nothing to achieve their goals,” added McMorris Rodgers.

Man, the imaginary Obama is really a horrible person. Why first he gets a moderate health care plan through Congress and then he doesn’t support repealing it! Then he supports immigration reform and takes some minor actions on the fringes that are well within his power as he waits to push reform more broadly and still deports lots of people! Is there nothing this monster isn’t capable of?

Seriously, there have been things that the executive has done that I don’t like: NSA spying is too far, and as I say, I wish there were a lot fewer deportations. Mostly though, it’s the routine executive overreach that we see in every administration. But she can’t very well write a fundraising letter, “Obama has a rather broad interpretation of his war powers, but it’s less than Bush, who I supported. Also, most other presidents since Adams almost got us into an undeclared war with the French have had a pretty broad idea of their war powers. Finally, the drone program that I supported under Bush is following it’s natural course, but we should probably reign it in. A contribution of $25, $50, or $100 will make sure we can continue to have nonsense hearings on whatever the right wing echo chamber is blathering on about now.”

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UW President Michael Young is an Embezzler

by Darryl — Thursday, 12/12/13, 3:17 pm

UW President Michael Young just got a raise to $570,000 . But, under his hiring agreement, he would receive an additional million in “deferred compensation” if he stays through 2016.

Presumably, all this compensation is based on Young’s “fitness” to serve the lofty role as a University President. In creating that contract, the Board of Regents inherently expressed a belief that Young has the temperament, wisdom, and values to lead the state’s premier institution of higher learning—to serve as the state’s intellectual commander-in-chief, if you will.

But given his recent public statement, it’s a façade. Rather than serving as a thoughtful steward of our state’s intellectual life, he has succumb to FOX News style truth-is-whatever-makes-me-feel-redeemed punditry.

And that makes him an embezzler—after millions of our tax dollars.

I know, I know, that doesn’t sound like he is an embezzler in the classic sense. I mean, it’s not like he is actually stealing money he isn’t entitled to. And, granted, he really does have a contract for his salary. But hear me out….

You see, I used to believe that accuracy and truthfulness in describing things like “embezzler” were an important part of being a writer, thinker, and all-around good citizen. But, I’ve recently learned that intellectual honesty isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve learned that sometimes it is okay to be incendiary to get people’s attention.

Where did I learn how to avoid being encumbered by truth? Why…from President Young, himself!

Last week, Young claimed that Washington State’s Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) plan is “a strange program—a Ponzi scheme, essentially.” (ST link).

The statement is entirely inaccurate. GET is nothing at all like a Ponzi scheme. Calling it a Ponzi scheme defies the actual definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Such a statement coming from the U.W. President is absolutely stunning! Is it now okay for a University President to, essentially, lie to the citizens of the state. Is it moral for Young to belittle 150,000 families by suggesting they have invested in “vaporware” for their children that is really just the opposite (i.e. guaranteed)? Is it right for a University President to besmirch a functioning program that is the only sure financial path to a college education for many middle class Washington families?

Through a spokesperson we learn that Young’s use of “Ponzi scheme” is “a handy quip to explain what he perceives as the financial fragility of the GET program.”

The Seattle Times’ columnist Danny Westneat takes Young to task over his misleading words:

“No, GET is not like a Ponzi scheme, not at all,” said state Treasurer Jim McIntire, when I asked him about Young’s comment. “I would hope that what was going on here is that he misspoke.”

GET, or Guaranteed Education Tuition, is factually not like a Ponzi scheme, except in the most superficial ways. For starters, it’s an open book. Last month it got an “A” risk rating from the state actuary. It has $2.5 billion invested, in federal bonds and equity funds, that last year returned a healthy 16 percent.

Westneat’s “most superficial way” is, essentially, that there is investment and, therefore, risk—you know, like any insurance program, any retirement plan, loans, layaway, venture capital, real estate purchases, or even just investing in a college education. They’re all fuckin Ponzi schemes because someone is taking some kind of risk. Hell…by this definition even Young invested in a Ponzi scheme when he agreed to deferred compensation, because there is some chance he will not last until 2016. Man…what a gullible bozo to fall for that old Ponzi scheme!

But to be fair, we should hear Young’s side of the story. Westneat to the rescue:

“It’s incendiary, I admit,” Young said when I called him. “But this can be a real go-along to get-along community. You have to be a little incendiary around here to get people’s attention.”

Young said the GET program, because it’s a defined-benefit plan (it pledges to pay no matter what happens to the investments), is a ticking time bomb. He compared it to Detroit going bankrupt in part due to its crippling defined-benefit pensions.

“It’s 100 percent predictable that this is going to go south,” Young said. “It might be fine now, but let’s have this conversation six years from now. It’s going to need an infusion of capital to prop it up.”

That’s not what the state actuary predicts. But I can’t say who’s right.

I see…it’s because Detroit. Nevermind that there are 20,000 cities in the U.S. and the vast majority have not been crippled by defined-benefits pensions. There is a reason that Detroit went bankrupt, and the root cause isn’t the pension obligations!

So, that’s why I can say he is an embezzler. Not because he has stolen any money. He’s fine right now but, hey, let’s have this conversation two years from now. I’m just sayin’. And, it’s okay to be “just sayin’” in an incendiary way, because I’m just trying to get people’s attention. Think of it as a handy quip to point out the fragile position that Young put himself and the University in.

Thanks to President Young, truth be damned, we can all behave like FOX News pundits!

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Open Thread 12/9

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 12/9/13, 7:58 am

– I try not to link to the same blog twice in one open thread, but there are two really good pieces at Seattle Transit Blog recently. So please, either read this about standing on the bus or this on the rail options to Ballard. But not both!!!

– 6 questions for the media about the Soho anti-prostitution raids

– In the larger context, note that when the Obama administration moves the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See closer to the Vatican, the right deems it “anti-religion.” When conservative slam the pope’s economic views, that’s fine.

– Things that aren’t gaffes if they’re fine in context aren’t gaffes.

– I knew most of the Mark Driscoll is terrible stuff here, but it’s helpful to see it in one place.

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Or Less

by Carl Ballard — Friday, 12/6/13, 3:12 pm

In the last post, I estimated the cost of legislating for all of the states that were competing to give Boeing all of the tax breaks was probably millions of dollars. Of course right after I hit send, I stumbled across this piece on how much legislators have claimed for the session (s/r link). Obviously, there are other costs like security, staff time, and keeping the lights on. But the cost is actually less than I would have guessed. So maybe it didn’t reach into the millions and I should probably be more careful about the numbers make up as examples, even when they’re obviously made up.

The tab for last month’s three-day special session to approve tax breaks for Boeing stands at $28,626 and counting, the most recent reports filed by legislators show.

Requests for the $90 per diem that legislators can claim have been processed, with some filling only for a day or two and some not requesting any. Some expense vouchers for travel to and from Olympia by senators might not come in until February

Because legislators can be reimbursed for driving expenses at 56.5 cents a mile, the biggest payments went to Eastern Washington representatives and senators who travel the farthest.

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Open Thread 12/5

by Carl Ballard — Thursday, 12/5/13, 7:54 am

– Yay for Bill Clinton saying states should decide for themselves if they’re going to legalize marijuana and all. Still, he was president, and he didn’t really move in that direction. Obviously states have forced the issue since he left office, but he was president.

– Instead, the racial battlegrounds of the Obama era have settled on a series of more ambiguous controversies. Conservatives have made endless jokes based on the strange premise that Obama is unable to express coherent thoughts unless reading from a teleprompter, defined health-care reform as “reparations,” imagined a Reagan-era program to subsidize telephone use for the indigent is actually “Obamaphones,” or complained when black entertainers or athletes socialize with the First Family. The accusations of racism that follow merely confirm to conservatives that black-on-white racism is a canard, that the balance of oppression has turned against them.

– I’m not sure how assholes decided that happy holidays was the worst thing imaginable. It seems nice to me.

– White, wealthy people who are members of the dominant religion are not “the real victims” of anything. They’re actually not even in a position to know what experiencing structural oppression feels like. So why do they still have an audience every time they want to complain that, notwithstanding everything, they’re still not privileged enough?

– I never get invited on the panel of important seeming people

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Sark

by Carl Ballard — Wednesday, 12/4/13, 7:09 am

I don’t really have very many feels one way or the other about college football. But Andrew at NPI has a nice piece on Steve Sarkisian going to USC.

Washington’s highest-paid employee is headed south for a more lucrative job.

Steve Sarkisian, who was hired to turn around a winless University of Washington football program five years ago, acknowledged earlier today that he has accepted the head coaching position at the University of Southern California, which is one of the most elite schools in the country and a traditional powerhouse in the Pacific 12 Conference (formerly the Pac-10). Sarkisian was an assistant coach for seven years at USC prior to being hired by UW, so his desire to return his understandable.

But the timing and circumstances of his departure are not becoming of a man who claimed for half a decade to bleed purple and gold.

It’s tough, perhaps, for a city and a state to put much civic pride in an institution with a mercenary at the top. Perhaps that why we cling the game with a spirit of amateurism in the rest of the game.

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Preparation for self-failure

by Darryl — Friday, 11/29/13, 11:31 am

Republican anarchists didn’t like everything about the shutdown they forced last October. No…it wasn’t the fact that important things like food and aviation safety programs were put on hold. It wasn’t that poor people were going hungry or that “essential” government employees were working but not receiving their paychecks. It wasn’t that untold numbers of applications, hearings, meetings, consultations, and enforcement actions were delayed, sometimes causing damage beyond repair. It wasn’t that scientific research and medical trials were being harmed (sometimes irreparably). It wasn’t that the taxpayers paid for, and lost two, weeks of productivity from millions of government employees.

It wasn’t the $24 billion in damage they caused to the U.S. economy. Oh, well.

Nope…it wasn’t about any of that. It was because…Veterans. And national parks.

“Why were veterans turned away from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked Wednesday….

“Why were members of the Americans’ finest generation in their 80s and 90s turned away and told they could not visit what would be undoubtedly in many cases their last time at those monuments?” Issa asked. “Why were private businesses and nonprofits operating near park land shuttered?”

Because YOU SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT, you stupid fuck!

Republicans were caught unawares. And then, even with their best efforts, they were unsuccessful in shifting the blame of their own obstructionism to the Black guy in the White House.

What to do for the next government shutdown that could happen again after January 15th? Plan ahead!

The Provide Access and Retain Continuity (PARC) Act, which has 17 Republican co-sponsors, would allow states to keep national parks operating in the event of another shutdown and would make them eligible for reimbursement by the federal government. (During the shutdown, six states entered into a similar agreement.)

That’s right…Republicans are now planning for their own failure to govern. “Screw all the other negative consequences…we want our shutdowns to be less politically painful.”

Bruce Sheaffer, Comptroller of the National Park Service, isn’t having it. He delivered a solid smackdown to G.O.P. obstructionists:

We have a great deal of sympathy for the businesses and communities that experienced a disruption of activity and loss of revenue during last month’s government shutdown and that stand to lose more if there is another funding lapse in the future. However, rather than only protecting certain narrow sectors of the economy…from the effects of a government shutdown in the future, Congress should protect all sectors of the economy by enacting appropriations on time, so as to avoid any future shutdowns.

[…]

[Planning for failure] “is not a responsible alternative to simply making the political commitment to provide appropriations for all the vital functions the federal government performs.”

In other words…DO YOUR DAMN JOB!

Fucking assholes.

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Open Thread 11/26

by Carl Ballard — Tuesday, 11/26/13, 8:01 am

– President Obama was in town over the weekend.

– I wonder if the public transportation data for Thurston County would look the same for the rest of the state.

– Obamacare remains a great deal for Boehner and his contemporaries, and while eliminating the law altogether might save Boehner a small amount of money if he re-entered FEHBP, it would be a huge liability for a much greater number of 64 year olds without Boehner’s wealth and job security.

– I don’t know why the grade-school hero fantasies of conservatives are allowed to et the terms of all of our political debates. But that’s how we do things.

– Like so many aspects of American life, holidays have become 2-tiered

– And speaking of, I don’t know about the rest of the bloggers here, but I don’t think I’ll post anything on Thursday or Friday.

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A Good Veto

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 11/25/13, 8:19 pm

I-502 got more than 54% of the vote in Pierce County. So naturally, you’d think that politicians in the county would be, if not eager, at least willing to zone marijuana businesses. You’d probably not think they would support banning any business until the Federal government decides to legalize marijuana. Maybe somewhere like Franklin County where it lost more than 61% of the vote. But not a Puget Sound county where a majority of voters supported legalization at the ballot, surely.

Well, a majority of the Pierce County Council voted to not allow any marijuana businesses. Fortunately, it was vetoed by the exec (Tacoma News Tribune link; hat tip to Sensible Washington on Facebook).

Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy has vetoed the County Council’s ordinance that prohibits licensed marijuana businesses from operating until the U.S. Congress removes marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances.

McCarthy said the county’s ordinance conflicts with state law. She said the county must comply with state law, which permits the licensing of marijuana businesses.

[…]

An override requires five of seven council votes.

[…]*

The council adopted the ordinance Nov. 5 by a vote of 4-3.

So yay. It probably won’t be overridden.

Still, it seems strange to me that people are so hesitant to support marijuana legalization where it’s popular. I mean I get that drugs-are-bad is the default position that a lot of people have. And the Federal government is a big scary thing people can point to. But I-502 was passed with popular support and the sky hasn’t fallen. It’s time for people to stop fighting it.

[Read more…]

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Open Thread 11/25

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 11/25/13, 7:54 am

– The Seattle Weekly has an interesting piece on Rosellini’s FBI file.

– Obama is better than George W. Bush. Still it’s still too many deaths in wars.

– Oh, and hey, a deal with Iran for 6 months.

– But the GOP has no plan if ObamaCare works. They have no plan for the sick, the healthy, or their own political future. What that should do is twofold; It should tell you clearly that we’re going to win and it should terrify you. The Republicans are in the midst of madness and with it comes a blindness that will destroy them. Let’s hope they don’t take the rest of us with them.

– Are you being persecuted?

– I’m glad KEXP is going to be DJing the New Year’s Eve at the Space Needle but this article seems to think that Pearl Jam and The Ramones are what’s hot in the streets. What?

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Open Thread 11/21

by Carl Ballard — Thursday, 11/21/13, 8:02 am

– Two Ed Murray things. I love this story of him helping a fallen cyclist (Seattle Times link). Also, here’s the transition webpage if you’re interested.

– It’s not as if the GOP aren’t marketing BS to the public on a daily basis. But I always hold out hope that people running for office won’t be so obvious about it. Color me naive.

– Does anyone care about the WA Dem Chair race? I tried to write about it, but nothing really came together. I could give it another try if y’all care.

– It was the 150th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address this week, and the biggest deal about it is that Obama was asked to read one of the versions of it. Also, how does it compare to President Whitmore’s speech from Independence Day? I’m glad you asked.

– WARONCARZ

– I would hate to be a former Zimmerman juror today. I’d also hate to be Sean Hannity, but that’s true every day.

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Let Us Know

by Carl Ballard — Wednesday, 11/20/13, 5:05 pm

Unlike most Seattle Democrats, Reuven Carlyle is willing to push an agenda pretty hard. Unfortunately, often times (privatizing public education and the Boeing giveaway for example) he pushes a terrible agenda. At other times, like defending King County against the state trying to vacuum up all of the money, he’s better. So, while most Seattle Dems inspire apathy and a wish that they would use their safe seats for something better than acting as placeholders, Carlyle actually has bold proposals. This is one that I like.

But Carlyle believes lawmakers and the public deserve to know how much a company like Boeing pays in state taxes, especially if that company comes to the Legislature asking for special consideration in the tax code.

Washington is certainly not alone in guarding corporate tax information. Oregon and Idaho do the same. But in Wisconsin, anyone can fill out a form and request a company’s—even an individual’s—net tax information.

Sounds good to me (although I’m not sure about individuals, or really how that would work in our sales tax heavy state). But it seems reasonable to know how much business are paying. And I was somewhat taken aback by the fact that we don’t know.

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Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by Darryl — Tuesday, 11/19/13, 5:12 pm

DLBottle

It’s time to let out your inner Socialist! Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at tonight’s gathering of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.




Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another nearby DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Shelton chapters meet. The South Seattle chapter meets this Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.

With 212 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

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This Is Why People Are Electing Socialists

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 11/18/13, 7:12 pm

Senator Baumgartner is upset (or pretending to be upset?) that Jay Inslee hasn’t made Washington a right to work state. It takes a lot in some of these metacommentary pieces to not just write “fuck you” after every paragraph, but instead try to come up with jokes and actual commentary. This may be one of those times where I just give into the urge.

State Sen. Michael Baumgartner today responded to Gov. Jay Inslee’s refusal to act on his call to begin moving Washington toward becoming a right-to-work state – a move that many believe will make Washington more attractive to employers, including Boeing.

Fuck you. No. I have to do more commentary. Fuck you and your corporate apologist shit. Fuck you and your anti-worker horse shit. If Boeing or Microsoft asked you to give them a blumpkin (yes, the entire company, don’t ask about the logistics, you pervert), you would probably not only do it but demand that Governor Inslee watch. Then write a whiny press release complaining when he didn’t.

According to media reports, the spokesperson for the governor told reporters a special session for right-to-work “is not going to happen.” Baumgartner, R-Spokane, and a member of the Senate Trade and Economic Development Committee, released this response:

Fuck you! Sorry, I really have to do more commentary here. Did you really think that Jay Inslee was just going to decide to fuck over unions because one of the biggest assholes in the Senate GOP caucus (and holy shit are there a lot of gigantic assholes) wrote a whiny bit of nonsense? And in a special session?

Also, he block quotes the rest of his response but since it’s in a press release, I’m not playing along with a double block quote.

“I am disappointed that the governor is not willing to engage in this effort to save Boeing jobs and attract other employers to our state, but frankly I am not surprised. This governor has shown a persistent lack of leadership when it comes to making Washington a more attractive state for employers to locate and create new jobs.

Fuck you. No — wait — here’s some more sarcasm. Yeah, that’s the fucking problem: that Jay Inslee was not friendly enough to Boeing. That Jay Inslee who just pushed the largest piece of corporate welfare in history through the legislature and is pushing for more in the form of a transit package for Boeing. That Jay inslee “has shown a persistent lack of leadership when it comes to making Washington a more attractive state for employers to locate and create new jobs”? And when, as day follows night, we’re inevitably ranked among the best states to do business, I’m sure governor Inslee won’t get any congratulations from Baumgartner.

“While he was willing to call the Legislature back to pass a series of incentives for Boeing, he repeatedly refused to urge union members to support the contract. On November 9, Governor Inslee met with the media after the adjournment of the legislative special session. He was once again given multiple opportunities to encourage machinists to accept the contract. One reporter specifically asked, ‘Are you saying that you’re ok if the machinists decide to reject the contract?’ The governor responded by calling the vote ‘an individual decision,’ once again refusing to show any level of true leadership to protect thousands of family-wage jobs in our state.

I don’t think the governor should be negotiating private sector contracts. Also, Boeing is trying to make them no longer family wage jobs. That’s the fucking point. That’s what unions do. Those jobs don’t become family-wage jobs out of the benevolence of gigantic corporations. They become them because those corporations are made to provide good wages by unions and by governments. Also, Fuck you.

“So now Washington must compete for these jobs and the governor is once again failing to lead. While Governor Inslee is off in China, rejecting my right-to-work proposal through a spokesperson, other governors are wasting no time courting Boeing and making the case that their business climate is superior to Washington’s. Within hours of learning of the machinists’ vote, Texas Governor Rick Perry tweeted, ‘Texas is a right-to-work state w/low taxes, smart regulations & skilled workers – perfect for @Boeing 777x manufacturing!’

Fuck you. Be more like Texas? Texas doesn’t have the skilled workers. Nobody outside the Puget Sound does, and if Boeing wants to start from scratch, they’ll have the same delays the South Carolina plant has had. Or hey, maybe Boeing can build a new plant next to another unregulated Texas fertilizer plant.

Also, the tax system here has been rigged by Boeing for decades, so Texas really can’t offer them better taxes. And for real, I love the implication that Jay Inslee is just fucking around in China. Like it isn’t a trade mission that will probably end up helping Boeing sell planes.

“Lawmakers in Utah, South Carolina and Alabama were making the case for their states, and Boeing representatives were on the ground or on the phone, in talks with these states the very next morning after the vote. Our aerospace workers are the best in the world, and they deserve to have a governor who is doing everything in his power to protect their jobs. Unfortunately that is not the case with Governor Inslee.

All of the fuck yous. Every single one. And frankly that probably isn’t enough. Also, who do you think the union that rejected Boeing’s shitty deal is made up of? Is it possible that they want good aerospace manufacturing jobs in the region more than you?

“The governor has a sign in his office that says ‘we can do hard things,’ yet he has never been willing to do the hard thing and stand up to his donors in organized labor, even if it has meant potentially costing Washingtonians jobs.

Fuck you. Maybe have a discussion about standing up to Boeing and other large corporate interests in this state for once?

“While his predecessor, Governor Gregoire, was willing to work in a bipartisan manner to achieve key reforms to unemployment insurance, he has refused to take on the unions when it comes to addressing our state’s out-of-control workers’ compensation costs. He has also failed to stand up to his friends in the environmental movement to provide a more reasonable permitting and regulatory climate for employers.

Fuck you. Governor Gregoire fucked over workers but it’s never enough is it? Always we need to do more and more and more and more to fuck over workers. And hey, why don’t we let people pollute more as long as we’re at it?

“Making Washington a right-to-work state is not a silver bullet that will solve all of our business climate concerns, but it is one of the concrete steps we can take to put Washington on a more even playing field with the twenty-four right-to-work states competing for these high-wage jobs. Perhaps just as important, it is also the right thing to do. Every individual should have a right to decide for him or herself whether or not to join a union and pay union dues.

Fuck you. Right to work makes the jobs less good. That’s literally the main point of them. That’s what makes them so attractive to business interests. Stop fucking using phrases like “high-wage jobs” when talking about them since the point of the proposed legislation is to lower wages. Also, fuck you and your scab propaganda. The right thing to do?

“This is about making Washington competitive, not about being anti-union. As the son of educators, I have a strong appreciation for the role unions play in our society. This is about competing for jobs and respecting the rights of workers. There is perhaps no state more associated with unions than Michigan, but on March 28 of this year, Michigan became a right-to-work state. Lawmakers there weren’t trying to attack unions; they were trying to revive the manufacturing base of their state.

Fuck you. You literally demanded that the governor “take on the unions” like 4 paragraphs before you said your plan is “not about being anti-union.” Pick one, or at least take the time away from snugglepupping Boeing for long enough to proof read your own goddamn press releases.

“Passing a right-to-work law here in Washington will be a challenge, but if they can do it in Michigan, we owe to our state’s workers, and those looking for work, to make the effort here. The governor claims he wants to do ‘hard things,’ well here’s his chance. It may be hard work, but we need to give Boeing, and all of our employers, an environment conducive to growth and job-creation, and making Washington a right-to-work state is the key step to reaching that goal.”

If Michiganders jumped off a bridge would you? I mean obviously, yes, if an executive from a big company asked him to.

PS Fuck you.

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Open Thread 11/18

by Carl Ballard — Monday, 11/18/13, 7:51 am

– Who could have predicted?

– You don’t know how much time I tried to think of a war on Cranksgiving joke for here. Like 3 minutes at least. There isn’t one.

– Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have a petition asking the House to take up ENDA.

– No, Mr. Feaver, Katrina isn’t shorthand for “bungled administration policy.” It’s an actual tragedy in which at least 1,800 people lost their lives. Thousands of others were left stranded without food or water in their flooded neighborhoods, on freeway viaducts, in hospitals and nursing homes, and in the televised hell-hole of the Superdome.

– Regional subtext to the Boeing special session: Left Coast (Cascadia) vs. Deep South Also, I’ve linked to several from the series, but I don’t think I’ve come out and said go read Emmett’s Cascadia Exists pieces, but you totally should if you’re interested in what makes the region unique.

– Sadly, pathetically, too many of us still see the mentally ill as crazy, nuts, losers, cursed by God, and so on. Few of us would joke about the bald head of a woman fighting cancer, but that same woman, mentally ill, wandering the streets and talking to herself – left on her own as many of the mentally ill are – would be mocked and laughed at endlessly. The woman would be the same woman, just suffering from different health ailments. The difference would be us: our knowledge and our attitudes.

– I realize you shouldn’t read too much into a press release, but it looks like good numbers for the Washington exchange.

-There is no nadir.

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  • Monday Open Thread Monday, 7/7/25
  • Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza! Friday, 7/4/25
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  • Drinking Liberally — Seattle Tuesday, 7/1/25
  • Monday Open Thread Monday, 6/30/25
  • Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza! Friday, 6/27/25

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I no longer use Twitter because, you know, Elon is a fascist. But I do post occasionally to BlueSky @goldyha.bsky.social

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