a.k.a.RonK, Seattle Lighthouse in a fogged-up world. Futures(?) of democracy & discourse Climate's changing, billionaires are taking over, and we all have a brain the size of a walnut.
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Black voters who "crossed over" for Trump now have choices to make. They can admit error (not something most ppl are good at). Or they can dig in and construct impenetrable fortresses of auxiliary rationale (something most ppl are mighty good at). Hispanics likewise.
"Hector, 21, is nearly deaf, doesn’t understand or speak English and experiences intense anxiety around strangers, said Elian, 23. Hector has a developmental disability, knows only minimal Spanish and struggles to speak his native language, K’iche’, ... " 2/2
We're doing this: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news... "Hector, now detained at the Northwest ICE Detention Center in Tacoma, is unable to understand his own legal proceedings and is isolated from the few people who know how to communicate with him ..." 1/2
Evidence suggests humans can learn to like football, and T.S. is one.
Halloween is coming.
Whatever your W/L estimate, the distro's fat-tailed? Strong D, top punter, run first, possession receivers, capable kicker -> close games?
From where I sit, every newscast should open with "An authoritarian takeover of the United States continued today, as ... ... ...".
🧵 from a couple months back. Key point: RFK Jr impeachment pays off, whether or not impeachment succeeds, whether or not conviction succeeds. bsky.app/profile/coge...
Wikipedia: The bogeyman (/ˈboʊɡimæn/; also spelled or known as bogyman,[1] bogy,[1] bogey,[1] and, in US English, also boogeyman)[1] ..." etym from 15thC
It's horrible when that happens. People from all over relocate to your city, thinking the magic will rub off on them.
A lot of stuff depends on a lot of other stuff.
A smoking ruin, or so I've been assured by distant relatives in distant locations.
Oh, ship! www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news... @davidmt.bsky.social
That's often where the argument dies.
Will see how the average #Seahawks fan responds to adversity.
So many threads devolved to insisting "it's genocide and in genocide everybody dies so Trump couldn't be worse so he might be better". No daylight there! Trans folks I know IRL don't stick cis folks with the entire burden of understanding. Quite different on the digital soapbox.
States with compliant GOP governors - plus New Mexico, which had already activated some Natl Guard to "fight crime", possibly to preempt a federal move like this. And you're right, it's the elephant's toe in the wading pool. "Oh, y'mean Jumbo over there? Yeah, he's one of the regulars."
First they came for the people who could dance. Next they came for the people who thought they could dance. Then they came for me.
New Mexico seems to be an outlier here. The others are red states or at least states like Virginia with a current GOP Governor.
Ok - so I'm going to do a real context+write up but for now, here's what some of these things look like. To start my data reference is DCinbox which is ~208,000 official e-newsletters over the past 15 years.
Expect delays due to ferrymeandering.
You can't sell it if it contains sassafras OR asbestos!
Sadly, there's no more [commercially available] real root beer. The woke outlawed sassafras back in 1960.
Contemporary polling should include a "right track but pointed the wrong way" option.
The leaders I stood with yesterday are working hard every day to be prepared, protect our state’s resources, and uphold the values of our state. We are not bending the knee to a Trump Administration that, day by day, drags us closer to authoritarianism.
Speaking of Quincy Jones ... the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute's 2025 summer musical (**always** a great show) is The Wiz -- running Fri-Sun at Benaroya symphony hall. www.langstonseattle.org www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...
It is true that Seattle has become less Black in recent years. As waves of folks moved in from other time zones, bidding up housing prices, many Black folks moved south of city limits. 10/10
The Bureau also measures ethnic dispersion. An area can be "diverse" in raw numbers but physically segregated - with Finns next door to Finns and Fijians next door to Fijians. In this department, Seattle rules. (These metrics likely go away - or go underground - during Trump 2.0) 9/10
Per local legend, 98117 is the most diverse ZIP code in the country. Not so - a misstatement by a careless Census official. Last I checked, a couple ZIPs in NYC and one in Hawaii ranked higher per the Bureau's diversity index. 8/10
NYC Hispanics of different national origins don't even interact that much. They are siloed. They know their boundaries, and don't walk and talk with each other, much less with Samoans or Arabs or Koreans. Sez G: "I'm so fortunate to be here, where diverse connections come naturally." 7/10
My Nuyorican buddy G was enthusing the other day about Seattle vs the Bronx he grew up in (and visits regularly). In NYC, as you say, you can map diversity by neighborhood, by block, even building by building. But as a rule, the ingredients don't interact. 6/10
The place where I've seen at least 3 black-white couples reach or approach the century mark ... where I knew & outlived Shirley, Trev, Demene, Patricia, Patricia, Willie, Mavis, Ivy, Dennis ... 5/10
Whose H.S. jazz bands routinely take top honors at Lincoln Center's Ellington festival? Where Festál celebrates 25 different ethnic heritages around the year, and Seafair a like number of summer neighborhood/community parades & festivals - many packed with ethnic/inter-ethnic flavor. 4/10
Whose Indian immigrant Rep. Pramila Jayapal chairs the House Progressive Caucus? Where Girmay Zahilay from Sudan chairs the County Council? Where Chinese-American County Exec Gary Locke became Governor? Where Japanese-American Lloyd Hara won 7 elections city-wide or county-wide? 3/10
The city with an Afro-Asian mayor, after Norm Rice in the 1990s, after "Big Bill" Grose in the 1890s (back when T.T. Minor was its leading medical practitioner and educator)? Where Clinton OMB chief Franklin Delano Raines grew up? Where Obama's HUD Deputy Ron Sims was County Exec? 2/10
I meant all kinda people. Notes on census stix - and NYC - downthread. But I'm curious. When you say "Seattle", do you mean the city that gave us Quincy Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Sir Mix-a-Lot? The town Alex Haley & August Wilson chose to put finishing touches on their bodies of work? 1/10
Yet people in Seattle are more likely to live next door to other ethnics than anywhere else in America, including - and especially - NYC.
I'd never heard that! So I googled "whitest city in america", and now I know why I'd never heard that. Anyway, an important blue dot in the midst of a great expanse of red turf ... with a kick-ass progressive Mayor.
Proper beer cheese soup is more globby than "chunky", and I don't know what it's doing on the shelf in a can ... but beer lovers do tend to embrace chunkiness.
Opsec, slopsec. What could possibly go wrong?
Classic mismanagement, as it were.
"You're gonna need a bigger sandwich"
Not news that fear and trauma has taken over many Los Angeles communities—and others across the country— but last night I was at a support group for survivors and family members of ICE raids and the devastation. If watching raid videos is too much for you (I get it), I will share some stories.
Possible special teams pickup?? I would seriously like #Seahawks special teams to be, y'know, *special*.
Give that man a GoFundMe. And a podcast!!! And a Subway coupon.
@heardislandgov.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/iwan...
Nothing to see here, go on about your business.
Bluesky, unfortunately, is not a healthy environment for serious discourse. Abusive dogpiling cost us useful allies re plausible strategies for the greater leftward coalition. Our best people eagerly join in without checking validity of premises or plausibility of conclusions.
News is less good in King County Council District #5 (diverse district vacated by progressive Dave Upthegrove to become state Commissioner of Public Lands), where progressives got aced out in a low turnout (~25%) 6-person top-two primary.
What we really need are modified T-shirt cannons ... or sandwich trebuchets!
Drunken frat boy antics, an embarrassment to The Resistance.
Pepper spray?
Oh stop it!
If I read the poll release & xtabs right, the "under 35" subsample - after weighting - equates to only 73 RVs. Similar grains of salt for other categories. And the weighting is based on overall *state* demographics, skewing the NYC estimates whiter and more Republican.
Also, raw counts were then weighted for age, region, race/ethnicity, education, gender & party registration. Will actual vote be proportional on all these metrics? Not jolly likely. Expect more polls than usual on this very interesting race, and (for many reasons) less predictive power.
Size of the city is irrelevant. But the poll sampled 813 registered voters in New York State, of which 39% (~317) were in New York City. That a small sample, and it's not *likely* voters. In recent mayor's races, ~25% of RVs actually voted.
muted
Yet SPX is up nearly a % so far today. Comforting? Or totally not comforting??
Moderates in both parties dominate the WARP top ten. Competitive districts magnifying the WAR-to-WARP factor? Or is there more to it?
Those are New York State totals. In New York City - the context in question here - Harris beat Trump beat Trump like a drum, with 68% of the Nov. 2024 vote. No thanks to Mamdani, btw, who'd face factional fence-mending hurdles if his opponents were more credible.
And a spokesmodel gig with Subway!
Agreed, but ... if I can find enuf Subway coupons I'm gonna start stockpiling sammiches for the next stage.
Did you read the NYT piece? I did. Did you find anything in it that endorses killing journalists (including those named in recent and earlier Gaza strikes)? I didn't. Was there something I missed?
So Thiel has concrete plans, and you have fanciful obstacles that absolve you of agency. (Most EO'S time is scheduled down to 5 minute blocks, 24x365, with personal time booked last after session, committee, staff (capitol/district), constituents, media, orgs, funding/politics, in-transit, etc).
So as far as democracy is concerned, you line up on Peter Thiel's side of the question. Only Thiel's got a concrete plan to remove an obstacle (democracy) to having things his way, and you've got a pisspot full of self-ascribed virtues.
Q.E.D.
Here's the vibe: A working majority of US voters believes the progressive activist corps holds them in contempt. Everything is uphill from there. And still uphill no matter how hard you keep digging.
The issue is not whether republicans will call us names. The issue is whether uncommitted voters will listen.
Ah, but all these words flow downstream from Babel - which is in the Bible. How many b's in labubbuberry?
"Kill them all, let Google sort them out."
Shades of unbridled capitalism!! But it's the *capital* city of the USA, in which we find the *capitol* building where Congress meets.
Needs more gold paint ... or is that only for the Premium edition?
"Hello, fellow crabs!"
Applying the same principles as what drives your basic hobby-shop ectoplasm detector, we've now got the Ghosts of History on streaming video!
Nobody loves a fact-checker. By the same token, nobody loves a scold.
*in the dock of the tribunal - or circle of hell - to which your imagination may assign them.
Big Pollution won the election. What kind of democracy would it be if Big Pollution didn't get all the best seats*?
Kudos to www.fieldgulls.com for posting a #Seahawks roster in NUMERICAL ORDER. Every other site (NFL & team included) seems to list players alphabetically or by position group or etc, which are utterly useless to fans watching the game and trying to decode who's on the field.
Case in point, #2, ballot initiatives/referendums - sponsors write measures to their advantage, controlling the agenda, taking larger bodies politic for a ride.
Common case in point, #1, the egalitarian participatory democracy of the town hall - probably always a mendacious fiction. Interested parties bring premeditated strategies to the meeting, steer the agenda via framing, amendments, diversions, taking small bodies politic for a ride.
Unless Bezos moves on Conde Nast?
Sad.
“Additionally, its 48V electrical architecture provides superior power and efficiency, a feature that rivals are only beginning to develop.” Not to mention Tesla's precision-guided self-targeting disassembly features and superior social media video presence.
Krishnadasan gained the lead - narrowly - in today's count, and is unlikely to relinquish it.
1/3 My hot wash of yesterday:
Also, lots of primary ballots still to be counted, and the pattern here is that progressive voters swing late.
"throwing his soiled underwear at a police officer" suggests either an impressive level of improvisational agility or an impressive level of forethought.
I talked to @felipedlh.bsky.social about it in this excellent rundown awhile back www.thenation.com/article/soci...
All necessary material components (including fuel) can be refined and fabricated out of moonstuff -- assuming adequate energy supplies. How much of the lunar surface do we have to cover with solar panels to get this ball rolling?
Muted dude.
Kiley won handily in 2024, but CA-03's PVI is only R+2. Redistricting would be intended to change that ... and even map him out of his own district (possibly into a head-to-head race vs another incumbent R) and diminish his advantage of incumbency.
Yoda: A Bonaparte to pick with you I have.
If I cobbled together a cabal, it wouldn't look the part. I don't have enough friends that look like Emil Bove.
Cabal cobbler?
The before and after really is amazing MAGAnomics! 🔥
Don't panic over this. Panic over those nuclear torpedoes Trump is locking in on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
wut now?
Aaannnddd ... there goes the neighborhood of estimation! www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/t...