Monthly Archives: October 2017

Posted inElections, Media & Culture, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Stadium opponent Tim Eyman goes to Texans-Seahawks game, brags about his great seats

by Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, the Seat­tle Sea­hawks and Hous­ton Tex­ans played a top­sy-turvy, thrilling bout of grid­iron at Cen­tu­ryLink Field, with the Sea­hawks ulti­mate­ly pre­vail­ing 41–38 after com­ing from behind to over­take the Tex­ans in the final sec­onds. The game is like­ly to go down in Sea­hawks lore as one of the team’s most mem­o­rable vic­to­ries, and will […]

Posted inOpen Government, Policy Topics

Mueller Monday: Ex-Trump campaign advisers Papadopoulos, Manafort and Gates indicted

by Andrew Villeneuve

The first shoes have dropped in Robert S. Mueller III’s inves­ti­ga­tion: Spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor Robert S. Mueller III on Mon­day revealed charges against three for­mer Trump cam­paign offi­cials — for­mer Trump cam­paign chair­man Paul Man­afort, his long­time busi­ness part­ner Rick Gates and for­mer Trump for­eign pol­i­cy advis­er George Papadopou­los — mark­ing the first crim­i­nal alle­ga­tions to […]

Posted inMedia & Culture, Views & Reviews

Book Review: Bernie Sanders’ “Guide to Political Revolution” aims to be teen resource

by David A Johnson

Democ­rats still get into argu­ments about the mer­its (or lack there­of) of Hillary Clin­ton’s and Bernie Sanders’ can­di­da­cies for the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion. It’s why many of us on the left con­tin­ue, inex­orably, view­ing con­tem­po­rary events as a chance to re-lit­i­­gate that con­test and who was right. To say that Bernie Sanders: Guide to […]

Posted inElections

Panicking Republicans lash out furiously at Manka Dhingra in desperate bid to defeat her

by Andrew Villeneuve

On Tues­day, Novem­ber 7th, vot­ing will con­clude in what has become the most expen­sive state Sen­ate race in the his­to­ry of the Ever­green State. The out­come of the con­test in the sub­ur­ban 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict will deter­mine who con­trols Wash­ing­ton’s Sen­ate through 2018, and maybe beyond. If Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date Man­ka Dhin­gra wins, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party […]

Posted inElections

Stick it to Tim Eyman by voting “Maintained” on all “Advisory Votes” (Push Polls 16, 17, 18)

by Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton’s thir­­ty-nine coun­ties have now mailed bal­lots for the Novem­ber 2017 gen­er­al elec­tion. Although there are no statewide ini­tia­tives or ref­er­en­da this year (which is unusu­al and has­n’t hap­pened since 1985) we unfor­tu­nate­ly still have Tim Eyman’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al “advi­so­ry votes” clut­ter­ing up our bal­lots. Until we can get rid of these stu­pid things, we urge […]

Posted inBreaking News

Seattle Times endorses Jinyoung Englund to keep spiteful Senate Republicans in power

by Andrew Villeneuve

Con­tin­u­ing a long tra­di­tion of endors­ing Repub­li­cans in key state and fed­er­al races, the Blethen-con­trolled Seat­tle Times edi­to­r­i­al board has belat­ed­ly pub­lished an endorse­ment of Jiny­oung Lee Englund, the Repub­li­can Par­ty’s can­di­date for the state Sen­ate in Wash­ing­ton’s 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict. To the sur­prise of many, the Times neglect­ed to make an endorse­ment in the […]

Posted inMedia & Culture, Views & Reviews

Book Review: Read Zoë Quinn’s “Crash Override” to understand the Trump error

by David A Johnson

Read Crash Over­ride to under­stand what can be done now as we live with forms of intim­i­da­tion and harass­ment that nev­er could have exist­ed pri­or to the advent of an always on, Inter­net-con­nect­ed cul­ture — and what we still need to do as a soci­ety to con­front and stamp out these tox­ic behaviors.

Posted inBreaking News, Education, Elections, Policy Topics

Manka Dhingra says yes to simple majorities for school bonds, Jinyoung Englund says no

by Andrew Villeneuve

In a mat­ter of weeks, vot­ers in Wash­ing­ton’s 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict will be decid­ing which polit­i­cal par­ty con­trols the state Sen­ate in 2018. By elect­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date Man­ka Dhin­gra, vot­ers in the 45th could oust Repub­li­cans from pow­er and put the Sen­ate under Demo­c­ra­t­ic man­age­ment for the first five in five years. On the oth­er hand, […]

Posted inElections, Our Environment, Policy Topics

California DISCLOSE Act signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown to combat dark money

by Andrew Villeneuve

Fires, hur­ri­canes, the Trump-Cork­er spat, and the fate of the JCPOA with Iran dom­i­nat­ed the news this week­end. Amidst all of the bad news, though, there was some good news: Cal­i­for­nia has a tough new law that takes aim at dark mon­ey in pol­i­tics, thanks to Gov­er­nor Jer­ry Brown’s sig­na­ture. SACRAMENTO, CA — Today, Governor […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Media & Culture, Views & Reviews

Documentary Review: Ava DuVernay’s “13th” offers eye-opening look at mass incarceration

by Theresa Curry Almuti

If you have yet to see Ava DuVer­nay’s Oscar-nom­i­­nat­ed and Emmy-win­n­ing doc­u­men­tary “13th”, you should real­ly make plans to screen it as soon as pos­si­ble. This short com­men­tary will sure­ly not do it jus­tice. Kevin Gan­non, Pro­fes­sor of His­to­ry at Grand­view Uni­ver­si­ty, who is white, sums up the chal­lenge we as coun­try face today early […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

A Jinyoung Englund win would mean more inaction on gun violence in Washington State

by Andrew Villeneuve

The gun lob­by knows that if Repub­li­can Jiny­oung Englund wins, the NRA’s accom­plices stay in charge of the Sen­ate, and will retain the pow­er to kill off any gun safe­ty bills they don’t like. The gun lob­by can over­look Englund’s diver­gence from the par­ty line. What ulti­mate­ly mat­ters to them is the major­i­ty, not what Englund tells East­side vot­ers in an effort to attract sup­port for her candidacy.