Liberty is on the other side of the mountains.
Liberty is on the other side of the mountains. Tobin Akehurst/shutterstock.com

The Reasons Two State Representatives Give For Making Eastern Washington Its Own State: Because we have very different cultures, lifestyles, and economies. Folks in Eastern Washington badly wanted to be a part of the Trump revolution, but they missed that history-making moment because Western Washington's huge urban population voted for Hillary Clinton. Even the suburb of Issaquah voted overwhelmingly for that nasty woman. The two state representatives behind this proposal, Matt Shea and Bob McCaslin, have even come up with a name for this Eden of idiocy. It will be called Liberty. Western Washington has, of course, no problem splitting with the other side of the state, but it definitely has a problem with Liberty gaining two seats in the Senate. Rural folks are already vastly over-represented at the federal level. The vote of a man or woman in the sticks actually has more value than mine—a man who will always belong to the city.

From a Conversation I Recently Had With a Local Novelist: "While driving through Eastern Washington [aka Liberty], I actually heard on the radio an exorcism. I just could not believe it. A preacher, on air, was trying to get a demon out of some poor woman. It really is another world out there."

That Stuff Seattle Cannot Handle Might Fall Today: Even a little snow shuts this city down. Other cities don't even think twice about two inches of snow (the amount that is expected to fall today), but we do; we get all nervous because our notoriously bad drivers become even worse in this kind of weather. Also, our buses get stuck and people are forced to walk through the freezing air. However, Link light rail, which is still breaking ridership records (up 78.4 percent last month), is like an empire-era English gentleman, in the sense that it knows no weather. The trains can move through falling snow with the ease that they move through falling rain or the sun rays of a clear day. The good news is that our snow is expected to turn to rain on Friday morning.

Home Sales in Vancouver B.C. Fell 37 Percent In November: Why? Everything points to the 15 percent tax imposed on foreign buyers this August. The decline in sales, however, has not yet translated into a fall in home prices. They are still way up there and expected to stay up there until sometime next year.

Portland to Tax CEOs Who Earn Way More Money Than the Rank-And-File Employees in Their Firms: The tax, which targets "salaries at least 100 times higher than the salary of a median worker," is supposed to address income inequality caused by what is known as "bonus culture." The Portland City Council approved the plan, pushed primarily by Commissioner Steve Novick, in a 3-1 vote. This tax is completely original. It is the first of its kind. And it was inspired by the work of the French economist Thomas Piketty. The words of John Maynard Keynes: "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else."

22-Year-Old Driver Smashes into 9-10 Cars on I-5: Then he drove the wrong-way up the Columbian Way ramp. Then he stopped his car. Then he began running to nowhere. The police found and arrested the young man near Airport Way South and South Horton Street (exactly where nowhere is). The police suspect the driver was disorganized by drugs.

Obama's Team Is Alarmed By the General Slowness of Trump's Team: Which has yet to fully understand that there are lots of little but very important details in the transition process. At present, Trump is all about the flashy and fun stuff, like nominating the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon to run the Small Business Administration. Or nominating Hardee's/Carl's Jr. CEO Andy Puzder to be the next Labor Secretary. Puzder loves low wages and machines that replace low-wage workers.



The transition from Obama to Trump is like the transition from a universe with normal matter to one with bizarre matter.

Americans Can Say Christmas Again: Finally, you can stop dreaming of a white Christmas. Trump is here and you, dear rural white people, can have more whiteness in your Christmas than you ever dreamed of. But before you go all happy, let's think about this:

We're now living in a world where the people of Bedford Falls have sided with nasty old Mr. Potter. Instead of banding together to bail George Bailey out of a jam with their nickels and dimes, they've formed a lynch mob to string him up. Donald Trump has made Christmas movies into horror movies for anyone not born into the comforting illusions of white, small-town America.

Life Expectancy of Americans Declines For the First Time Since 1993: It fell from "78.9 in 2014 to 78.8 in 2015." The heart is what kills most Americans.