Lets fact check this thing.
"Presidential" in that he said the usual racist stuff while reading from a teleprompter. getty images

Donald Trump Gave His First Address Before a Joint Session of Congress: "There’s a banality to this class of political speeches that they’ve learned in places like North Korea to ignore as a means of survival—so you don’t go crazy, hearing the same shit repeated over a loudspeaker," writes Massoud Hayoun. "It’s an art we’re still learning in the United States."

All the Fact-Checks You Need: NYT, WaPo, PolitiFact, NPR.

Read Hamilton Nolan, Too: On Trump's promise to create a new office for victims of crimes committed by immigrants: "The reason for this proposal is that racism is politically convenient. Having an enemy makes it easier to unify your base. Having an enemy who is powerless makes it easier to scapegoat them. Having an enemy who looks different or speaks a different language makes it easier to view them as less than human. Immigrants, unfortunately, fit the bill. You can call this 'xenophobia' or 'anti-immigrant fervor' if you want to be pedantic, but racism is the word that best captures the common understanding of what is being done here. It is also the word that carries the power appropriate to the danger it describes. Nobody believes that they, personally, are racist, but almost everyone understands that bald discrimination against an entire class of people is what racism is. That is what this is, also."

The Democrats' Underwhelming Response: Watch it here.



Democrats Also Offered a Spanish Language Response: Which was better. Immigration activist and dreamer Astrid Silva took aim at Republicans' platform, including immigration enforcement, climate change, and cuts to Planned Parenthood.

Kshama Sawant's Response on Behalf of Socialist Alternative: Watch it here.

The Latest on the Ballard Missing Link: After years of fights over the missing link of the Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard, the trail may finally soon be finished. Seattle Bike Blog has all the details.

Did You Think the State Legislature Might Be Close to an Education Funding Deal? Nope.

Family of Muslim Man Found Hanging in Tree Seeks Information: Lake Stevens police say a medical examiner first ruled 18-year-old Ben Keita's death a suicide but has now labeled it "undetermined." Keita's parents are now asking anyone with information about his death to contact police.

The latest idea to fight Trump from Seattle: Tax high earners to fund social services.
The latest idea to fight Trump from Seattle: Tax high earners to fund social services. RAMON DOMPOR

Could Seattle Be "Trump-Proof?" A coalition of organizations led by the Seattle Transit Riders Union is pitching a local income tax to offset potential losses of funding under Trump: 2.5 percent on unearned income (capital gains, interest, dividends) for households with a total income of $250,000 or more. The coalition, branding itself Trump-Proof Seattle, acknowledges the tax would likely have to survive a court fight to actually take effect. Today, they'll hold a day of action with a forum at city hall at noon. If you can't make it but support their idea, they're urging you to call your city council members.

What Does Mayor Ed Murray Think of the Idea? Murray has recently proposed a new property tax to fund homelessness services and a soda tax to fund education and health programs. As mayor, he has not proposed a tax on high earners like this. In a statement, Murray said, “Our state’s regressive tax system has always been a barrier to adequate, long-term funding for critical functions such as education. As I did in the Legislature, I support efforts to rectify this, including a state income tax. [The] proposal by the Transit Riders Union is intriguing, though it faces a long legal road before any revenue could be collected, making it ill-fitted to address some of our immediate needs such as homelessness and possible federal funding cuts."

How Nick Hanauer Became the Leader of Mayor Murray's Latest Homelessness Initiative: Murray recently announced plans to put a property tax on the August primary ballot to fund homelessness services. Super-rich venture capitalist Hanauer will co-chair the committee that will finalize that levy and Hanauer says the plan started at his think tank. "We came to the mayor and said, ‘We are throwing down on homelessness. We said, ‘We are going to take something big to the ballot," Hanauer told the Seattle Times.

As Seattle Housing Prices Increase, Millennials Consider Moving: "A new poll from a local nonprofit finds that 45 percent of millennials in the Puget Sound region think they will have to move somewhere cheaper to afford the life they want, even though nearly all would prefer to stay in the area," reports Mike Rosenberg at the Seattle Times. "Local young adults ranked housing costs as their biggest concern, beating out problems that older adults find more troubling, like traffic and homelessness."

Jay Inslee "Shocked" After Attending Events with Trump: On Trump and Republican promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Washington Governor Jay Inslee said, "It was just stunning to have the president who wants to dismantle the whole system to basically show that he doesn’t understand it in its complexity in the first order. It was just a disturbing thing to hear him say."

Wells Fargo to City of Seattle: Yeah, Go Ahead and Go. Because of the bank's financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Seattle's city council voted in January to not renew a current contract with Wells Fargo and avoid new investments with the bank. In a letter to the council and mayor this week, the bank told the city it could sever its current contract immediately with no penalty, the Seattle Times reports.

This post has been corrected to reflect that Mayor Ed Murray has not proposed a tax on high earners during his time as mayor. When he was in the state legislature in 2013, Murray floated a capital gains tax.