I’m quoting the theme song to the Poseidon Adventure in my headline because let’s face it, yesterday’s election was a fucking disaster for Democrats, though just like any disaster flick, not exactly a surprise at the end. But I don’t really want to talk about that. Old people voted and young people didn’t. And so Republicans won big, giving America exactly the kind of crotchety, dyspeptic, backward thinking government the crotchety, dyspeptic, backward thinking electorate asked for.
But there was a silver lining here in Washington State and in Seattle in particular. Not for Democrats—they don’t control the state senate either. But with the ballot measures.
With the historic passage of Initiative 594, Washington is now the first state to approve gun control restrictions at the polls, and by an impressive 60-40 margin. And this wasn’t just asshole Seattle liberals forcing our immoral lifestyle on the rest of the state—I-594 actually won a few Eastern Washington counties, and did respectably well in a number of others. Meanwhile the intentionally confusing anti-background-check Initiative 591 is going down to a resounding defeat.
Together that shows up the NRA for the paper tiger it really is, and sets an example for how to defeat the gun-nuts with sensible gun control ballot measures throughout the nation. And once the NRA goes down at the polls a few more times, perhaps our politicians will begin to lose their fear of Charlton Heston’s shadow.
At the same time Seattle voters overwhelmingly approved measures funding both transit expansion and universal preschool. Nobody really expected the former to fail, but with all the public confusion over Metro’s finances, I guess anything was possible. And universal preschool faced a surprisingly hostile and mean-spirited opposition from folks with whom I’m usually aligned, so I figured anything could’ve happened. But the Seattle electorate came through once again, voting to tax itself to fund the programs we desperately need.
Over the past year Seattle led the charge on the minimum wage, and following our success here, voters approved minimum wage hikes yesterday in a number of cities and states. In fact, San Francisco will actually beat us to $15 after voters massively approved a straight-up three-year phase-in for all workers by 2018—not exemptions, no tip credit, no nothing.
We need to remain vigilant as Seattle’s preschool program is implemented in order to fend off the corporate reformers. But my hope is that if we successfully implement a program here, cities and states throughout the nation will eventually follow our lead, just like they are doing on the minimum wage.
So yeah… I’m actually not so bummed the morning after. Dems lost as big as I expected Dems to lose, and that totally sucks. More on what we need to do to turn that around in a subsequent post. But on the ballot issues that will have the most immediate impact on our city—preschool, transit, and gun control—Seattle residents won big.
Focus on the local. That is the lesson—in more ways than one—that progressives should take from yesterday’s election.
Oh please. Seattle did exactly what was expected of them Where’s the surprise? If that’s what makes your morning fiber go down a bit easier, have at it.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1sS0ugCUAAXlfb.jpg:large
“Remind me again — which one is the “regional party” that has lost touch with America?”
While you are comforting yourself with predictable Seattle results, mull over this national headline “Brain Dead Dem Voters In Washington State Elect Dead Man”
Stowaway on the Poseidon?
Chad Pergram ✔ @ChadPergram
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Sen. Angus King (I-ME) is holding a 3;30 pm et presser in Brunswick, ME to discuss with which party he will caucus next year.
Where’s the surprise?
We defeated the NRA at the ballot box. Any chance you’ll ever admit that? Because you’ve written like fifteen comments between the last two posts, and you still don’t seem to understand what a huge, historic defeat the gun-fondlers just suffered.
…mull over this national headline…
The one you attributed to no newspaper, and to which you have supplied no link? That one? (Which nation, Freedonia? Ruritania? Outer Absurdistan? Teabagger Heaven?)
Seattle voters approve tax hikes for transit. No news there. The political class only presents sales taxes and car tab taxes as the choice to stave off big bus cuts. Again, no news there. You democrats are cumming over higher regressive taxes the day after an election. Same old same old.
Same old same old.
Yeah, the NRA has a long record of political defeats.
You guys just aren’t going to mention our passage of I-594, are you?
I’m doing a happy dance too Goldy.
I feel sad for the losers in the rest of the country, but we’re making progress at home. And this is where we live.
@1 And the rightwing troglodytes who turned out yesterday did exactly what was expected of THEM. Now, they’ll have to live with it.
@3 Shows you how unpopular Republicans are.
@6 Don’t worry, I’m still willing to raise taxes on the rich every chance I get.
Well, they say free markets are price discovery mechanisms, so here’s the value Wall Street is putting on the GOP victory this morning: DJIA +0.48%, S&P 500 +0.46%, Nasdaq -0.17%. Well within normal daily fluctuation ranges, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement of our reshaped Congress. What does the invisible hand know that we don’t? That Republicans are stonewalling obstructionists who would rather tear down than govern? I’m making only $1,500 off this. I expected twice that. There’s a distinct lack of enthusiasm everywhere. It doesn’t appear anyone has hope or expects change.
Roger: You won’t get that chance. The democrats in this state suck up to the rich and get off on taxing the poor. That means NO progressive taxes are put on ballot measures that would bring popular things (buses, stuff “for children”, parks, schools, etc.).
You understand property taxes also function regressively, right?
By the way, my portfolio is up about twice yours, and that’s not counting the 401k assets.
@13 Maybe that explains why their base didn’t vote. If they tried being Democrats again …
Where have we heard this before?
“GOP’s Walden predicts ‘a hundred-year majority’
“After Tuesday’s sweeping electoral wins, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) predicted the new House GOP majority may be ‘a hundred-year majority.'”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/1021561.....:topnews:6
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Hey, why not go for a 1,000 years like the last guy? Republicans actually lost the popular vote in the 2012 House elections by over a million votes. It’ll be interesting to see how much lower the turnout was this time. These guys are nuts if they think they have some sort of mandate for their crazy agenda. People in this country want things fixed and got tired of waiting for the Democrats to do it, that’s all it means. It never occurred to them that Republicans are the reason Democrats couldn’t do it.
@ 8 — Yeah, real progress. We’ve got the most regressive taxing structure in the country, and that bad situation just was made worse. Ed Murray was a leader in Olympia when all the recent regressive taxing authority statutes were adopted, and he pushed the property tax, sales tax and car tab tax hikes hard once he became mayor. Is is a gay thing? Do queers like taxing the lower middle class and working poor really heavily? David was at the Stranger for years — help me understand them David.
@ 4
Nope, King stays put.
Roger: Pull your head out of your ass. The state democrats’ “base” is multi-millionaire techies, the big corporations in town, and the public employee unions. Full. Stop. THAT is who writes the state/local democrats the big checks, THAT is who pays the lobbyists that camp out at city hall and in the hallways of the King Co. courthouse outside their offices to get those local policy-makers to do their bidding, and THOSE are the squeaky wheels that get the grease. They want regressive taxes, they want no progressive taxes, and they control the state/local democrats.
The one you attributed to no newspaper, and to which you have supplied no link?
The Washington Post
11-5-2014
The Fix
Washington appears to have elected a dead man to their state
We defeated the NRA at the ballot box. Any chance you’ll ever admit that?
Big surprise in Seattle. But for how long? 18 pages of gobbletygook that no one read. As soon as some daddy finds out he’ll be taxed to leave his wife a gun in his will … yeah look for a repeal initiative that will be short, sweet and to the POINT.
And, by the way
“Gun Control Candidates Crushed…”
In Texas, NRA-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott (R) won.
In Maryland, NRA-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Larry Hogan (R) won.
In Alabama, NRA-endorsed Governor Robert J. Bentley (R) won.
In Wisconsin, NRA-endorsed Governor Scott Walker (R) won. In Michigan, NRA-endorsed Governor Rick Snyder (R) won.
In Nevada, NRA-endorsed Governor Brian Sandoval (R) won.
In Ohio, NRA-endorsed Governor John R. Kasich (R) won.
In Oklahoma, NRA-endorsed Governor Mary Fallin (R) won.
In Wyoming, NRA-endorsed Governor Matt Mead (R) won.
In Idaho, NRA-endorsed Governor Bruce Otter (R) won.
In Kansas, NRA-endorsed Governor Sam Brownback (R) won.
And in Maine, NRA-endorsed Governor Paul R. LePage (R) won against gun control candidate Michael Michaud (D). (On August 8, Breitbart News reported that Michaud was supported by Gabby Giffords.)
In Senate races, gun control
Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) was defeated by NRA-endorsed Cory Gardner (R)
and gun control Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) was defeated by NRA-endorsed Thom Tillis (R).
In Kansas, NRA-endorsed Senator Pat Roberts (R) won.
In Georgia, NRA-endorsed Senatorial candidate David Perdue (R) won.
In Arkansas, NRA-endorsed Tom Cotton (R) won.
In West Virginia, NRA-endorsed Shelley Moore Capito (R) won, marking the first time that state has sent a Republican Senator to Washington DC in over five decades.
The spotlight was also on the race between NRA-endorsed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and pro-gun control challenger Alison Grimes (D). McConnell won handily.
NRA-endorsed Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst (R-IA) also won.
OH! And re Gabby Giffords seat:
McSally is leading with 105,484 to Barber’s 105,099 votes with 100 percent of the precincts reporting, but The Associated Press has not declared a winner the race.
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....z3IELMcV5Y
R
Sorry made a wrong attribution regarding Giffords seat
2nd District
74.7% Reporting
R M. McSally 50.0% 78,799
D R. Barber (i) 50.0% 78,763
http://www.politico.com/2014-e.....FqR1haa_QU
re 19: No one’s disputing the fact that U.S. voters are stupid and often vote for idiot Republicans. We’ve all known that since the beginning of the universe about 6,000 years ago.
Gerald Ford, though, is still the poster boy for dumb Republicans for his insistence that the photographs of him buttering the wrong side of an English Muffin was not a mistake on his part, but merely a dieting device to consume less butter.
http://research.archives.gov/description/6829626
Roger: I forgot another key component of the state/local democrats’ base: urban commercial property speculators. They also cut the city councilmembers and county councilmembers big checks. Vulcan/Wallace Properties/Wright Runstad is a BIG part of the democrats’ base here.
You guys won but you still sound like desperate losers. Why don’t you tell us how the Republican congress is going to help the country?
@wallace
What ‘progressive taxes’ would you suggest as you have said sales taxes, property taxes, car tab fees, and the MVET are unacceptable to you?
Are you saying you’d support a state personal or corporate income tax?
Rest assured that there are those of us that will not comply with 594…come and take it. And I have every confidence that this preposterous initiative will fail to pass constitutionally…so crow while you can, another defeat is coming your way.
@16 No, it’s a Republican thing. Our legislature passes regressive taxes because it’s the only kind of taxes the political system allows. Who pays for campaigns? Who controls both parties? Not the poor who are victimized by regressive taxes.
But the problem goes deeper than just the influence of money in politics. We saw that when 70% of Washington voters said “no” to taxing the richest 2% to sustain public services in this state.
@Goldy
I wouldn’t get too complacent about the NRA. According to my gun nut friends the NRA put up only a token fight against I-594 they didn’t go ‘all-in’ as they have elsewhere in the past. Said gun nuts are rather pissed and wondering why the NRA abandoned them.
The two theories my gun nut friends have are:
1. The NRA has given up on Washington and figures no amount of money they could have put in would have defeated 594.
2. The NRA figures there is an extremely good chance of overturning 594 in the courts.
@16 No, it’s a Republican thing. Our legislature passes regressive taxes because it’s the only kind of taxes the political system allows. Who pays for campaigns? Who controls both parties? Not the poor who are victimized by regressive taxes.
But the problem goes deeper than just the influence of money in politics. We saw that when 70% of Washington voters said “no” to taxing the richest 2% to sustain public services in this state. The poor are their own worst enemy. They either don’t vote, or when they vote, too many of them swallow the rightwing b.s. and vote for Republicans. Go figure. You can’t get anywhere by voting against yourself.
So, we’re stuck with a regressive tax system that’s already hitting the poor as hard as they can stand, and then some, so our state is stuck with a structural revenue problem (which Goldy has explained numerous times), and faces slow erosion of what public services are still left after the latest Republican depression.
@27 What would be their legal theory? That the Second Amendment doesn’t allow states to require gun sellers to determine whether the buyer is a criminal before selling him a gun?
@25…
You can’t be serious…a law that constrains gun shows and private parties from selling lethal instruments to persons who could not buy from a gun store?
Violates your…whatever…
Really?
@25 “Rest assured that there are those of us that will not comply with 594…come and take it.”
Could you possibly be a bigger fucking idiot? There’s nothing in I-594 that confiscates guns. It’s just a background check law, for god’s sake. If you’re against background checks, you might as well go to a school and kill the kids yourself, because that’s what you’re doing when you make it easy for crazy people to get guns. As for not complying with it, that’ll get you the same place not complying with any other law gets you — a jail cell, followed by an appearance before a judge.
@31 I take back the “fucking” part. You’re too stupid to figure out how to fuck anything.
@18 Obviously both parties have their big donors, but the rich certainly tend to skew Republican. Unions? They’re thousands of little people pooling their dollar bills, and I like most of who and what they support. Democrats also get contributions from trial lawyers, because GOPers want to put them out of business by taking away your right to sue corporations that lie to you, defraud you, hurt you, and kill you.
@25, 31…
The Gun Fetish Death Cult will brook no interference.
@30 & Roger
I really have no idea what the legal theory under the state or US Constitution for throwing the law out would be. Perhaps there is a single-subject challenge, given the length of the text there is a lot of room for some technicality to have slipped in.
We won’t really know until when and if a challenge is filed.
This election was only a half-baked profiteering opportunity. I made only $2,027 in the stock market today. Looks like the invisible hand of the free market isn’t all that enthused about Republicans running our government again. Still, dividing $2,027 by 8 hours, it’s equal to a day job paying $253.38 an hour, which is better than the $7.25 an hour they want to pay. Sure glad I’m a capitalist and don’t have to work for them.
The use of the song “There’s Got To Be A Morning After” in the movie “Kung Pow! Enter the Fist!” is probably a more apt description for the Democrats showing this year.
@35 Single subject would be my guess, but keep in mind that Tim Eyman didn’t do the drafting work on this one.
@37 The Democrats were more like no-show this year. I’m sure part of the problem was that Obama’s dithering on immigration reform left a lot of Hispanic voters feeling, “why bother?” When you get right down to it, the GOP didn’t so much win this election as the Democrats threw it away. Maybe now they’ll finally comprehend that in politics you have to fight for what your supporters elected you to fight for. But I doubt it.
The use of that Maureen McGovern song in the movie “Kung Pow! Enter the Fist!” is probably a more apt description of the Democrats electoral performance yesterday.
Chris: Transit should be paid for via best practices, as the peers do: payroll taxes, taxes on commercial property development and transfers, LIDS, fare-revenue anticipation bonds, fuel taxes, etc. The state legislatures in Albany, Salem, St. Paul and Trenton do a fine job of it.
Roger: FUCK YOU blaming voters for the overly-regressive state/local taxing structure here. Moreover, the republicans have been completely out of power here for over a generation. Their base and causes would have gotten nothing in that time if the democrats hadn’t wanted them to get it. Blaming people and republicans for what the democrats wanted and did is seriously fucked up you asshat.
I’d like nothing more than the state legislature to adopt a statute allowing the boards of Metro and Sound Transit to pass $75 per employee per month payroll taxes on all corporations doing business here with more than 20 employees for transit WITHOUT a vote. The corporations need some skin in the transit game — now they just get the benefits and lower middle class households pay through the nose for buses and trains (worst in the country thanks to the democrats).
The rich are different from the rest of us.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mo.....h-a-minor/
They think they can do whatever they like and get away with it.
Big surprise in Seattle.
It passed statewide. For a self-proclaimed right-wing political expert, you’re doing great with the knowledge thing. Keep trying, and eventually even you will admit, in as many words, that the NRA and their gun-fondlers lost big yesterday.
Rest assured that there are those of us that will not comply with 594…come and take it.
If you sell or deliver a gun to someone without performing the background check required by our law, you may be personally liable for whatever damage he causes with it. Then we will indeed “come and take it” — every penny of it. Then the NRA won’t get any more money from you, no matter how much of their nonsense you gullibly swallow.
Roger wrote: “We saw that when 70% of Washington voters said “no” to taxing the richest 2% to sustain public services in this state.” That was I-1098, pushed by Norm Rice. A democrat initiative that was designed to fail. The stat legislature would have lowered the kick-in level so it would not have remained a high-earner tax, and it would not have targeted businesses. Hence, a democrat taxing scheme.
In addition to the above there are lots of progressive taxes in addition to an income tax. Payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, taxes on wholesale sales of petroleum products, taxes on commercial property development, taxes on sales of commercial properties, etc. Each of those could be structured to NOT hit “the little guy”.
The democrats have been in charge of tax policy in this state for a generation, and they HATE progressive taxing. For them, its hike sales taxes, car tab taxes, and property taxes. Property taxes around here are regressive in that businesses that own property pass the costs on, whereas homeowners just take it in the pocketbook twice a year.
Here is some draft language for an appropriate state constitution amendment allowing income taxing:
“The legislature of the state may impose an excise tax of varying rates on the income received by businesses attributable to their activities in this state, and the income received by resident households. The legislature shall specify each biennium an approximate amount of such income tax revenue to obtain. Sixty percent of that amount shall be obtained from corporations, partnerships, and other business entities. Forty percent of that amount shall be obtained from households with “adjusted gross income” (as that term is used in [IRC sec.] above $200,000 (for individuals) and $400,000 (for married couples filing jointly). Those household thresholds shall increase (or decrease) each biennium to the extent the consumer price index increases (or decreases). Income tax revenue may not be pledged to bonds or otherwise encumbered by any contract terms.”
Anyone want to discuss that approach? Democrats will HATE it.
@41 “FUCK YOU blaming voters for the overly-regressive state/local taxing structure here. ”
You got a better theory? The tooth fairy did it? How do you explain away 70% of the voters saying “no” to a progressive tax on 2% of the wealthiest? If the voters didn’t do it, who did?
@41…
Republicans control the Washington State Senate, dumbass.
Your political observation and commentary has about as much depth and accuracy as a Dori Monson sound bite.
CBS exit polls indicate the economy (within the broader context of worries about the future) was voters’ top issue. Problem is, the U.S. economy has long-term structural issues that neither party can solve, because these issues aren’t a result of policy choices. The growth engines of the past — two industrial revolutions followed by the information revolution — were one-time events. U.S. GDP’s current 2% growth rate is about the best the economy can do, absent some major new civilization-changing technology, and we have that now. So what is there to stimulate growth? Replacing Walkmans with iPhones? Replacing housing consumption with health care consumption? Republicans don’t have some magic wand they can wave over the economy to create more jobs, higher wages, greater job security, and health and retirement security. Their policies take us in the reverse direction. They won this election, but their victory will be short-lived, because they can’t deliver what voters now expect from them.
@46 When did democrats in Olympia advance progressive taxes and the republicans stopped that legislation because they “controlled” something in Olympia? Oh yeah . . . NEVER.
The democrats have been in complete control in Olympia for a generation, and the “fake defection” of Tom and what’s his name two years ago was all for show. The democrat governors could have forces republican lawmakers to accept progressive taxing by threatening to line item veto all kinds of stuff they wanted. Did they do that? Nope.
“You got a better theory? The tooth fairy did it?” No Dwight Pelz did it. He was the democrat party chair and he sucked up to the rich base of the democrats by ensuring ONLY regressive revenue raisers would be used.
Roger — stop playing stupid. You act as if you have no idea how local services — especially transit — are financed elsewhere. Also, I-1098 was intentionally flawed. For an income tax to be done right it needs to be imposed via a constitutional amendment (so the legislature can’t amend it two years later), it needs to target corporations more than households, and the household kick-in level needs to be indexed to inflation. Will the democrats try to go down that path? No way. Their rich base doesn’t want that.
@41 So the world is supposed to dance with your tune? How about just saying, I’d like to see the legislature spend X amount of money on Y priorities, and I’d like them to do it with progressive taxes, or at least taxes that aren’t too regressive? You’re a good example of the adage, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” In politics, you start with a wish list, then negotiate for the best deal you can get, and settle for that. Same in business, marriage, and everything else. That’s how the world works.
@44…
Okay I’ll bite, why will Democrats HATE it?
I don’t expect the world to dance to my tune, but I hope that the democrats will stop imposing more regressive taxes. Imposing regressive taxes and giving Boeing tax breaks — that is what the democrats here do (unlike democrats elsewhere in the country).
@50 Because that is a progressive revenue-raiser that the democrats’ base will hate, and it’s structured in a way that people would vote for (unlike that sham I-1098). Don’t believe me? Ask Ed Murray and Frank Chopp if they’d support that kind of income tax. David has them on speed-dial — he could ask and they’d answer. They’d treat that proposal like it was fucking radioactive.
Do you seriously not understand how the democrats here are corporate whores and lackeys of the rich?
If you look at the full list of house and senate races, mostly what you see is that people held their seats. This wasn’t the title wave people are making it out to be.
And of course young people, poor people, working class people, and environmental voters stayed home. Voting for a party that doesn’t represent them, just sucks slightly less than the other one isn’t enough to get them to the polls. They did get to the polls in previous elections and have fuck-all to show for their efforts.
The Republican-lite party will probably take this election to mean that they need to become more like Republicans. Fuck that shit.
@52…
Oh please…and republicans aren’t. You are stupider than I thought.
@54 There are no republicans in state/local politics around here that matter. They have no big, rich base. Around here the alpha corporate whore/rich lackey politicians are Jay Inslee, Frank Chopp and Ed Murray. What they want goes, and nothing any republican wants could trump it.
Dozens of right-wing comments in this post, and the one before it, and NOT ONE EVEN TRIES TO CLAIM that electing Republicans will improve anything. That admission by omission is the only honest communication they have made here.
Wallace — the current Republican majority in the Senate has claimed credit for blocking Giv. Inslee’s program. Do you think they are lying? (Also, the Republicans controlled both Houses here in the late ’90s, which is within a generation. Don’t ask me what they did, because “neglect” doesn’t count as doing anything in my book.)
Unions? They’re thousands of little people pooling their dollar bills
No they are thousands of little people who don’t value their own worth and subjugate it to the collective; thousands of little people who are forced to “give” their money (except in Wisconsin) to their masters who spend it without care of thought of what those thousands of little people want.
Dozens of right-wing comments in this post, and the one before it, and NOT ONE EVEN TRIES TO CLAIM that electing Republicans will improve anything. That admission by omission is the only honest communication they have made here.
Let’s translate: “Look! A Squirrel”.
Of course tensor’s definition of “improving things”, while he conveniently declines to define “improving things”, refuses to admit “improving things” would be absolutely nothing that Conservatives might pledge, promise and/or attempt.
The role of the Senate is to advise and consent. There was none of that as Harry Reid refused to bring up hundreds of bills – even from his own party! You all ducked your heads and repeated the “obstructionist” mantra knowing you were liars.
The bigger question is why Obama, when he had BOTH houses of congress in his first two years accomplished absolutely nothing. He and you are so desperate for immigration “reform” – where the hell was he in those 1st heady years of entire and absolute control? How did he and his majority “improve things”?
Pump up your talking point machine, tensor, you are predictable and predictably boring.
How will the GOP senate improve things (for dummies [Tensor]
NUMBER 1: Bills will actually come up for discussion and vote – openly (not in the dead of night). Although personally I hope they have the balls to make Harry ‘s sheep live under the same rules Harry enforced.
The role of the Senate is to advise and consent.
For treaties and appointments, yes. Nothing in the rest of your whiny paragraph has anything to do with those Senatorial functions. Civics FAIL.
NUMBER 1: Bills will actually come up for discussion and vote – openly (not in the dead of night).
Believe it when we see it. Last time the GOP ran things in our House, a bill needed “a majority of the majority [party]” to get a vote, even if a majority of the House would have voted to pass it. Thus, a cranky and bitter minority was allowed to kill popular bills. Why do you think that will be different this time?
Ok, so your ONE claim of improvement is pure speculation. Got it.
And yes, all the improvements I would specify have no chance. We know that. I was just noting you guys, for all your crowing, hadn’t given even one reason why having the GOP in charge would be better, even from your perspective. That was the only truthful admission you made.
@55…
Tell that to the ranchers in Eastern Washington. Tell that to the Eastside developers, Kemper Freeman, the BIAW and the rest.
Dumbass.
Two years? Uh no.. Ted Kennedy, Al Franken, Robert Byrd, Scott Brown (R-Naked)? Any of that ring a bell? If your skull is empty, is there anyone there to hear the ring?
Within the first two years try 4 months!. Rolling back decades of wrong wing-o-nomics takes a bit more time.
Oh that old always wrong wing talking point..
Tensor avoidance syndrome alive and well.
Thus, a cranky and bitter minority was allowed to kill popular bills.
You got that wrong: Thus, a cranky and bitter MAJORITY was allowed to TABLE UNpopular bills so their members wouldn’t have to take a public vote on them.
Please explain, how 594 would have stopped the student killer in Marysville.
Please explain how 594 will prevent ANY CRIMINAL from committing any crime with a gun.
In less than 18 pages, please
This 18 pages of gobledygook is not about preventing gun deaths – it’s about raising tax money.
This new troll hasn’t read much Red State lately either.
http://www.politico.com/magazi.....Page2.html
Not even the tea bag base believes in this “wave”.. Naked partisans – yep sure, like our troll with a perm.
And what did Obama accomplish in his first two years with 4 months of “total” Congress control?
Economic stimulus package
Saving the financial system from collapse.
Saving the auto industry from bankruptcy (Mitt was for it dying.)
Affordable Care Act
Financial re-regulation
Major changes in Student Loan programs
This list has over 100 things:
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/.....-302015019
Yes, old news but it bears repeating for the more simple among us.
111th United States Congress
Duration: January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2011
Senate Majority: Democratic Party 57 Democrats + 2 “Independents”
House Majority: Democratic Party Democratic Party: 255 members.
January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2011 THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, dummy
“Wallace — the current Republican majority in the Senate has claimed credit for blocking Giv. Inslee’s program. Do you think they are lying?”
What are you talking about (what bill #)?
Chris Stefan: the existing TBD tax statutes were democrat creations that came from Olympia within the past ten years. They contained a number of progressive revenue raisers (payroll tax, parking tax, commercial property development tax, LID authority). Constantine and Murray pushed the sales tax and car tab tax parts of them though, in April and through yesterday. There’s plenty of other progressive revenue raisers the democrats at the state level could have given the local yokels as well for transit. They never tried that, because they like taxing the working poor and lower middle class exclusively.
McCleary will require new revenues. Who wants to argue that proposed income tax constitutional amendment I set out above would not be better than what democrats want (more regressive taxing)?
You got that wrong: Thus, a cranky and bitter MAJORITY was allowed to TABLE UNpopular bills so their members wouldn’t have to take a public vote on them.
Because we all know how much politicians *hate* to be seen taking a public stand *for* the popular side of an issue.
Seriously, dude, stop drinking the GOP Kool-Aid long enough to learn that when the majority party has a razor-thin advantage, “a majority of the majority” can be well below thirty per cent.
No gun-control law will stop all crimes committed with guns; that’s not an argument against I-594, that’s a complaint against the status quo. Are you seriously arguing that the same background checks already required when purchasing from licensed dealers are a bad idea for anyone else? Really?
Any klownservative jerks around here gloating support “personhood”????
Got to be some of you.
Total fail on that…
Even in Red States! Talk about extreme.
@66 you’re even more stupid than I thought. Never heard of the filibuster let alone Blue Dog Dems in both the House and Senate (see Max Baucus or Lieberman or Ben Nelson).
Thanks for discrediting all your other blather. Thanks for playing.
“There’s a hopeful message in that people would rather vote for a dead Democrat than a live Republican.” Kennah at DU
http://results.vote.wa.gov/res.....Pos-2.html
Seattle’s new motto should be “We don’t know how to fix things, so we just throw other peoples cash at problems”
@44 Why do you need a state constitutional amendment to tax incomes? Because of a 1938 court case that probably wouldn’t be followed by today’s Washington supreme court? If you want to tax incomes just do it already.
[Deleted]
@63 “This 18 pages of gobledygook is not about preventing gun deaths – it’s about raising tax money.”
Well, if it is, then gun show sales must be a bigger industry than Boeing, in which case it needs some downsizing. Anyway, why are we still debating the merits of I-594? The election’s over, it passed. Don’t like it? Suck on it.
@51 “I hope that the democrats will stop imposing more regressive taxes.”
Me, too.
“Imposing regressive taxes and giving Boeing tax breaks — that is what the democrats here do (unlike democrats elsewhere in the country).”
Can’t really argue with this, provided we straighten out some terminology. The “democrats” around here don’t do this, it’s the “Democrats” who do it, which are two different things, because Washington is really a one-party state, but that party has two factions, a democratic faction and a Republican faction. Yep, ever since the GOP drove out everyone with a modicum of sanity, all the halfway reasonable Republicans in this state having been calling themselves Democrats and getting elected to the state legislature as such. So, we really have three parties represented in the legislature — Democrats, Republicans, and Tinfoil Hatters (who prefer to call themselves the GOP party). Seen in this light, democrats don’t have a majority, even when Democrats have a majority. The concept of a Democratic majority in our legislature has always been misleading, because half the Democrats in the legislature are Republicans. I hope this clarifies things for you.
@74 Another putrid comment “disappeared”. Good riddance.
I’m a fan of tensor.
There are way too many commenters in the blogosphere to count, but when it comes to comments to count and take notice of, tensor’s are nearly always on point.
Those of us with 2 or more brain cells should always read what tensor has to say.
Look, if you live in Seattle this election was very good.
If you live in Washington this election helped you out.
If you live in Washington and think I-594 means Jay Inslee and Barrack Husein Obama is coming for your guns, your mental illness treatment is covered under ObamaCare.
Unfortunately all USA voters are not as smart and careful as Washingtonians. As we live in a federal republic Washingtonians were negatively impacted by the result last night.
Don’t be sad Washingtonians. If you’re a western Washingtonian living in Seattle, be proud! We’re a light in the darkness.
Shine on you crazy diamond!
@76 Roger,
You’re spot on, but allow me to offer a bit of evidence to buttress your point.
One of the reasons WA Democrats did not take back the WA senate last night was the election of in an open seat of Mark Miloscia of Federal Way.
Miloscia ran for that seat as a Republican after becoming a “Republican” on 14 March 2014. Prior to March Miloscia was a 7 term WA State House of Representatives “Democrat” for 7 terms. As a WA house rep, Miloscia had ambitions to be Speaker of the House for the “Democrats”.
So Miss Wallace, did Federal Way elect a Democrat on Tuesday, or had they elected a Republican for the 14 years prior to selecting Miloscia (R-Federal Way) on Tuesday?
What are you talking about (what bill #)?
Go over to SnitWAAA!! (ShiftWA.org) and read post after post after anonymous post about how their holy Senate Majority Coalition prevented tree-hugging extremist Inslee from whatever it was they imagined him to be proposing that day.
Anyway, why are we still debating the merits of I-594? The election’s over, it passed.
Hey, he was getting there. Maybe after another 150 substance-free comments about how golly gosh darn swell Republican majorities are, he might note a majority of Washingtonians voted in the opposite direction from what the GOP preaches.
But, since he asked me, here’s how things will improve. Every second term American president longs for his place in history, to depart as the Wise Elder Statesman who took the long view and transcended partisan bickering. President Obama will now get that for free, by having bucketfuls of pure Teabagger stupidity slopped onto his desk. His easy and consequence-free veto pen strokes will put him in stark contrast to the gibbering blowhards who will bellow helplessly about how their thin majorities give them mandates he has to respect.
When the subsequent elections bring out many voters who sat it out this time, we liberals can offer positive programs, and obvious relief from Teabagger stupidity.
That’s my set of improvements. Do any of our right-wing friends have any idea of how their darlings in Congress will improve matters for them?
The libtards cannot stop whining and making excuses and launching ludicrous conspiracy theories. Good. Keep that attitude. You will keep losing
Watch Obama worry more about his legacy that your f’d up causes!! He will sign the Pipeline Bill and lots of other common sense Legislation Harry Reid blocked.
Obama has Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Look it up.
It’s all about HIM!
@Wallace
A couple things here:
1. Why such an axe to grind about taxes used for transit? You wouldn’t happen to be the crank who is always spewing about metro and sound transit funding on Crosscut and the Seattle Times?
2. Washington is dead last in supporting transit at a state level. Transit agencies in other states get at least some money from the legislature.
3. Most of the authorized taxes for transit don’t raise all that much money. The sales tax and MVET (for Sound Transit) are the big ones.
4. Washington actually has relatively low property taxes. Property taxes are much more progressive than other sources of tax revenue used in Washington. Sure there are issues but as a rule businesses and the wealthy own much more valuable property than the average person.
5. Considering there have been few serious attempts at passing an income tax in this state including in eras when both the Democrats and Republicans were much more liberal than they are now I think the voters are very much to blame for our regressive tax structure.
The R’s will agree to raise the Fed Minimum Wage because most states will already have a higher one. Obama will claim a huge victory….while he says F U to the fools on the Left.
The R’s will agree to raise the Fed Minimum Wage because most states will already have a higher one. Obama will claim a huge victory….
See, here’s a guy who knows his history. The new Republican majorities in 1995 vowed not to raise the minimum wage; President Clinton subsequently signed two such increases.
“…while he says F U to the fools on the Left.”
Because nothing says “F U” to the people who voted for you quite like doing exactly what they wanted.
Just one full day since the polls closed, and already our resident righties have begun to comprehend they won’t be getting most of whatever the heck it is they believe they want. Maybe there is hope for them yet! :-)
Unfortunately all USA voters are not as smart and careful as Washingtonians.
Right Direction or Wrong Track – Rasmussen 11-5-2014
27% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction
Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the Political Class believe the country is headed in the right direction, but 75% of Mainstream voters disagree.
Are you seriously arguing that the same background checks already required when purchasing from licensed dealers are a bad idea for anyone else? Really?
Are you seriously arguing that it makes sense for a licensed gun owner have to have multiple MORE background checks when she inherits multiple guns? AND that she should have to pay a tax on every one of them?
Look for a great big jump in ‘trusts’ in estate planning …
Anyway, why are we still debating the merits of I-594? The election’s over, it passed. Don’t like it? Suck on it.
Until it’s challenged in court (18 pages of gobbledygook double speak to be sliced, diced, argued and defended), overturned by the Congress (remind me, didn’t they overturn the “will” of the good people of WA on multiple occasions?) and/or another initiative repealing it comes along. Enjoy it while YOU can.
I’m a fan of tensor.
Of course you, he’s the queen of non sequitor, squirrels changing the subject and name-calling.
Hey! I have a GREAT IDEA – -especially in light of President Useless’s intransigence and threats regarding his illegal illegals amnesty today. Let’s talk about OREGON 88!
Hint: “Measure 88 won more votes (941,042 votes, 66.27%) than anything else on the Oregon ballot. More votes than pot legalization (802,627 votes, 55.76%). More than the incumbent governor (696,416 votes,49.71%), the incumbent senator (774,646 votes, 55.61%) or any of the six other ballot measures. The widely popular, landslide winning Measure 88 prohibits illegal immigrants from getting drivers licenses.”
So Miss Wallace, did Federal Way elect a Democrat on Tuesday, or had they elected a Republican for the 14 years prior to selecting Miloscia (R-Federal Way) on Tuesday?
My favorite tweet today was that Scott Walker won his 3rd elections in 4 years while Charlie Crist lost his 3rd election in 3 parties.
“Improving Thing” Agenda:
Reduce highest corporate taxes IN THE WORLD
Trade treaties
Keystone Pipeline
Forces and the WILL to defeat ISIS
Repeal medical device tax
Pass a budget (hey, there’s a novelty, wouldn’t you say Patty tennis shoes?)
Revamp the tax code
FLOOD THE DESK OF PRESIDENT USELESS WITH PASSED LEGISLATION SO THAT WHEN HE HAS HIS VETO TANTRUM THE COUNTRY WITNESSES WHO THE OBSTRUCTIONIST REALLY IS.
And that affected Republican conservatives how? They were DUMMOCRETINS you moron!
Stoooooooooooooopid, chronologically and naturally!
Sux to be you!
[Deleted]
BTW HA DUMMOCRETIN heads used Oliver Willis earlier this year…
Oliver Willis @owillis
Follow
anthony brown will win #mdgov by about 10%. its the only election result i feel pretty confident about.
1:08 PM – 31 Oct 2014
OOPSIE!
Puddy hopes you klowns use Oliver more and more!
Of course you, he’s the queen of non sequitor, squirrels changing the subject and name-calling.
And in the very same comment, you simply refuse to answer MikeBoyScout’s question about our “Republican” majority in our state Senate. You also talk about some Measure in Oregon no one else bothered to mention. Priceless!
Have you yet figured out that a person who is denied the purchase of a gun by I-594 won’t commit a crime with that gun? Because you had seriously (?) claimed to need an explanation for that.
…overturned by the Congress (remind me, didn’t they overturn the “will” of the good people of WA on multiple occasions?
Really? When was the last time the Congress “overturn[ed]” a state law which had been passed by a popular vote? The last thing I can recall was a US Representative, Henry Hyde of Illinois, trying to meddle with Oregon’s end-of-life law. He failed, and that was a long time ago.
Also, no need to put scare quotes around “will”; the vote was large and clear. But hey, you’ll get there eventually…
@79, “Don’t be sad Washingtonians. If you’re a western Washingtonian living in Seattle, be proud! We’re a light in the darkness. Shine on you crazy diamond!”
Yippee for the land of rabid political correctness and fruity socialism!!!!
Really? When was the last time the Congress “overturn[ed]” a state law which had been passed by a popular vote?
Pay attention. WA Initiative WA Congress WA Supreme Court.
Have you yet figured out that a person who is denied the purchase of a gun by I-594 won’t commit a crime with that gun?
Have you figured out that CRIMINALS by definition DO NOT COMPLY WITH LAWS.
Have you figured out that a CRIMINAL won’t be denied because HE DOESN’T CARE IF IT’S REGISTERED, IF IT’S LEGAL, IF IT’S STOLEN, BORROWED OR TRANSFERRED.
Be sure to post your pictures of all those thugs lining up for their background checks and fingerprinting!
tensor @ 85–
Like most leftists, you fail to understand a very very simple point. Obama will get his Federal Min Wage hike to a level that accomplishes NOTHING cuz most states already have one higher.
In exchange Obama will sign Keystone Pipeline and other Republican Legislation. You fools will be making much out of nothing!! Watch
LMAO! Unable to comprehend the gist of the conversations,..
Try harder, Dismissed,
Oooh they all so ugly when they gloat! G’night!
This Wallace character comments from an alternate universe.
Maybe an aspiring physics major can study this strange phenomenon taking place right here in the HA comment threads!
Meanwhile more truths… Try again since this is upsetting to the HA DUMMOCRETINS heads… http://townhall.com/tipsheet/k.....OnTownhall
How sweeeeeeet it was!
This is really bothersome to HA DUMMOCRETINS. Republican women ruled the day! Even a Black Republican Woman was elected in Utah!
Imagine that!
Oh monomaniacal moronic moonbat,
Puddy understood the conversation perfectly. You threw up some conservative DUMMOCRETINS when Wallace was discussing the DUMMOCRETIN – Republican mix. You party cheered those conservative DUMMOCRETINS coming into Congress beating Republicans. Your party put them forth as viable candidates. Your party gave them money to campaign in the general election. Your party welcomed them in with open arms.
Sux to be you!
You always go off on some useless insipid tangent when you enter the conversation! That’s why you are the dumb brick of HA!
Roger asks: “@44 Why do you need a state constitutional amendment to tax incomes? Because of a 1938 court case that probably wouldn’t be followed by today’s Washington supreme court? If you want to tax incomes just do it already.”
The constitution needs to be amended in the way I suggested so the democrats don’t lower the kick-in levels, reduce the percentage businesses pay, and/or start pledging it to bonds. It needs to remain a high-earners tax, one that corporations pay most of, and one that can’t be securitized.
Chris Stefan: Transit taxes are the highest in the nation here, and they are entirely regressive. That is fucked up, and the democrats are responsible. They could have used the TBD statutes and Sound Transit’s enabling statutes to impose payroll taxes, issue fare-anticipation bonds, etc. Instead, it was sales taxes, sales taxes, car tab taxes, and more sales taxes. The democrats in this state tax like sociopaths BY CHOICE.
http://cdn-media.nationaljourn.....8;id=42726
Asshole@97
WRONG! Try again.
Obama will get his Federal Min Wage hike to a level that accomplishes NOTHING cuz most states already have one higher.
No, it will accomplish raising the minimum wage in “red” states like Idaho, which is at the federal minimum wage. This will increase the wages of workers in those red states. Again, this is part of the reason we liberals are proud to have voted for President Obama.
In exchange Obama will sign Keystone Pipeline and other Republican Legislation.
You really, really need to review the history of President Clinton and the Republican Congresses he so easily manipulated.
Pay attention. WA Initiative WA Congress WA Supreme Court.
What is a “WA Congress”? Was that your semi-literate attempt to spell “legislature”? Because if it was, you need to give examples of the WA state legislature “overturn[ing]” Initiatives. You won’t find many, because in the first two years after we enact an Initiative, our legislature needs a two-thirds vote in both houses to alter it. Good luck with getting two-thirds of our Democratically-controlled House to alter I-594.
So, my question to our local right-wing friends, “what will a GOP-led Congress improve,” produced, after some whining, the speculation Congress will behave in exactly the opposite of the way they previously behaved, because they will want to avoid good publicity (?).
After some more prodding, we get:
Reduce highest corporate taxes IN THE WORLD
Apparently, the new GOP-led Congress will first lower corporate tax rates in Japan:
“Japan takes the cake. Its corporations are levied a 40% tax on income, with Japanese effective tax rates the highest in the world at 37% for domestics and 38% for the big MNCs.”
(Of course, that’s from Forbes; what the hell do *they* know about corporate tax rates worldwide, those capitalist-bashing, card-carrying members of the Communist International…)
“Pay attention. WA Initiative WA Congress WA Supreme Court.”
WA Congress? LMFAO!! How fucking stupid.
WA Congress? LMFAO!! How fucking stupid.
Fun, isn’t it? They come here to crow about their great victory, and just a few simple questions will send them bawling incoherently about their losses. Reality, how does it work?
“Fun, isn’t it?”
No matter the election results on Tuesday, our trolls were destined to still be dumber than stumps on Wednesday. And, of course, my friend Puddy was destined to still be crazy.
I see that (u)SP comatose again. Yet more proof that Jim Miller’s posts are blog-killers.
WA Congress? LMFAO!! How fucking stupid.
That’s the best you have? The joke’s on (and is) you: http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/congress?s=t
Synonyms for congress
noun delegation of representatives
assembly
association
caucus
chamber
club
committee
conclave
conference
convention
convocation
council
delegates
government
guild
league
legislature
meeting
order
parliament
senate
society
union
legislative body
the Hill
Feel dumb yet? You should.
No matter the election results on Tuesday, our trolls were destined to still be dumber than stumps on Wednesday.
Perfect self reflection should you be smart enough to see and understand it.
That’s the best you have? The joke’s on (and is) you…
Every other reference to “Congress” in this thread is to our U.S. Congress. If you want to give examples of anyone, ever, other than yourself here, referring to our legislature as “WA Congress,” please go right ahead.
While you’re at it, cite examples of the “WA Congress” when it “overturn[ed]” a popular Initiative, because you suggested that is a possibility for I-594 — you know, the issue on which gun nutters just suffered a huge, historic defeat at the hands of “WA voters.”
On both counts, I boldly predict you will have nothing. Nothing. Good luck beating something with nothing.
And thanks for the laughs.
Apparently, the new GOP-led Congress will first lower corporate tax rates in Japan:
Content for – Japan Corporate Tax Rate – was last refreshed on Friday, November 7, 2014. 35.64%
United States 2006-2014 40%
The U.S. Has the Highest Corporate Income Tax Rate in the OECD”
Remind me, isn’t 40% higher than 35.64%? Use your Common Core! Make a math sentence and see if you can figure it out!
And thanks for the laughs.
Remind me, isn’t 40% higher than 35.64%?
You might want to read the fine print. From the Forbes article I cited earlier:
But after deductions, the median US domestic company pays 23%, while the MNCs pay 28%.
Let’s see how you do with that math sentence!
(It’s strange, you guys could just go live in wonderful places which have unlimited personal firearms ownership and low taxes — Somalia, for example. Yet, you persist in staying in over-regulated, dystopian hell-holes with confiscatory taxes, like the U.S., Japan, Germany, and Sweden. What gives?)
Also, still no information on when “WA Congress” is going to “overturn” “WA Voters” on I-594, I see. Nothing.
“PermMaj-NON!”
Synonym for fucktard twit.
@109 The nominal corporate tax rates don’t mean a damn thing because no corporation pays them. Many large corporations pay no U.S. corporate income taxes at all. Overall corporate tax collections, as a percentage of total federal tax collections, are at their lowest level since World War 2.
A Spear campaigner’s assessment of the local lay of the land. http://revolutionaryds.wordpre.....rat-chopp/