but lead shot and tackle is CHEAPER. why do you hate the lead shot and tackle industry? because of some fucking BIRD? fuck birds.

The Times may be right about that tax revolt. Everyone is complaining about the car tabs, and that's always an opportunity for the Eyeman types. Of course, most people fail to grasp that we have such "high" taxes because we are so heavily subsidizing the wealthy.

Personally, I thought it was interesting that the tabs on our used Nissan Leaf were significantly higher than the tabs on our used F-150, and that both had about a $100 line item labeled "Seattle TBD".

And another time where charles completely misses the point, the feeds on car tabs are calculated using a model which overestimates the car's value. Think of it this way, you're paying property taxes on a old'ish house, and the state continually says its worth more than a reasonable assessor would value it at you end up paying higher taxes because they say your house is worth more.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news…

"We see, once again, that Republicans can be trusted to be Republicans, but Dems cannot be trusted to be Dems."

And now it appears that bipartisanship is only OK if you agree with it.

You will always find the GOP on the side of the rational in policies that, on a macro-scale, are irrational.

Except of course for all the times you find them on the side of policies that don't make any rational sense on any scale, and actively harm anyone actually affected by them.

I was impressed by Sessions' fluent Russian while denying that he did the foreign relations with that ambassador.

at the level of the individual, the taxes hurt and it is rational for you to want to avoid them. But at the level of society, it is rational to heavily tax cars and the fuel they use. You will always find the GOP on the side of the rational in policies that, on a macro-scale, are irrational.

Of course. This matches perfectly with core republican ideology that the individual is more important than society as a whole. It's embedded in almost everything they do (e.g., personal responsibility, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, anti wealth redistribution, etc.)

The core republican philosophy that you ultimately control your own behavior and make your own decisions, mostly independent of your environment, is unfortunately wrong. They are committing the fundamental attribution error. People's environments--the society you live in--has much greater control over people's decisions and behaviors than most realize or understand.

It's too bad too, because it causes people to place blame on individual others for making so-called "poor life decisions" when in fact, a lot of that blame should be placed on themselves as part of society.

Eric Holder is from the south?

It's almost comical how the bug-eyed, tongue-talking, hair-pulling, poop-flinging, fanatical Twitler-nazis are now contorting themselves into increasingly shrill and insane positions to justify the constant lying, praising Putin, conspiring with Russian spies, and treasonously destroying the US government from the inside.

EVERYBODY DOES IT, LIBTARDS!

Almost comical... except that these hate-KKKrazed submorons will be the death of us all.

Is it any wonder that people don't support higher taxes when they see the City already squandering the funds they have (rainbow crosswalks anyone)??

On another note I love how Muede is the first one to complain when he feels condescended to but seems to think he's entitled to decide what's "good" for everyone else.

lolol. mfw the psychos come out.

Are people earning under 45k/yr able to get a pass on paying the new regressive and extraordinarily high car tab tax?

People complaining about having to pay vehicle registration fees to support mass transit are like people standing in line at the grocery check-out complaining that the self-check line is moving more quickly; they both look like unfair impositions to the person complaining, because they never stop to think how much worse their situation would be if these things didn't exist.

@10: a big fan of personal responsibility, I see, except when it comes to paying taxes.

These stories about the knives coming out against Sound Transit serve as a reminder that, as monumental a win as ST3 was, we transit supporters just can't afford to get complacent and act like we've already won.

I'm kinda with @2. The one thing that scares me is another Eyman initiative against the MVET. I vaguely recall that's a legal dead end, but I'd have to be refreshed as to why.

@6: Once individuals acquiesce into thinking that society is more important than the individual a vacuum is created as to whom decides what is best. Cultures that follow that philosophy end up in the ash heap of history.

@12 Except the self checkout line moves slower. And requires at least two employees to manage because the customers screw up or - worse - want to use a God damn coupon with their purchases and whole self checkout scheme is less efficient and more expensive than if the grocery store had just used the place to have two checkout lines with checkers who actually know how to ring up merchandise in the first place.

So...

Self checkout lines are EXACTLY like Sound Transit.

What happened to "Don Ward"? Did that account get banned?

@14,
No culture has ever followed that philosophy. As long as there are self-centered individuals in the world, they will invade and destroy cultures that try to be cooperative.

It's like when people say that Communism doesn't work because all the countries that have tried it have failed. That's a false statement. No country has ever tried communism, so we don't know if it would work or not.

Jeff Sessions Spits In Face Of FBI Interrogator Trying To Get Him To Turn On Trump

“I’m not gonna crack, so you G-men can threaten me with whatever the hell you want—you’re just wasting your time. I’ll fucking die before I flip, so you got the balls to kill me?”

At press time, Sessions had reportedly begun to break down and was frantically divulging everything he knew after agents asked him how long he thought he would last on the inside with all the people he had helped put away on marijuana charges over the years.

Someone needs to tell Scott Dworkin (whoever he is) that the BBC/Paul Wood report is almost two months old.

@17,
Or, you know, could just be some rando walking along a platform wearing a blue cloak.

You're trying really, really hard to be outraged. Are you a SJW?

@ 14, Demark, Sweden, Norway, Canada, etc that have the highest standards of living, human development, and happiness in the world will be surprised to learn they're on the ash heap of history.

Even with all of its macroeconomic problems, Japan makes the US look like a third-world shithole w/r/t education, infrastructure, and public investment.

The MVATs here are ridiculous, and I hope the city revolts against them. They're hugely regressive and rich people can dodge them by registering their cars at their cabin in the Olympics or cascades or whatever.

But, us bleeding hearts love regressive taxes because we can never actually commit to a progressive tax or a neutral tax. It's always sales tax this and car tabs that and property tax the other, all of which place a higher burden on the poor and middle class than the rich.

You can call me an anti-tax conservative, but wasn't it the Democrats who gave the biggest state-level tax cut in the history of this nation? Why is it that the Democrats cut the pay stream from corporations while placing the burden on us, and not lifting a finger to fix the structure or challenge the income tax ruling from almost 100 years ago?

Charles, you mischaracterize what is said in the Seattle Transit Blog's article. Their description is in regards to Bob Hasegawa only, your use from the article makes it seem that all or most of the democratic senators that voted for SB5001 are from the region.

https://medium.com/theyoungturks/the-bas…

@15:

Uh, so you think that six to 12 people checking out at once versus one or two, each of whom needs their own checker, and frequently a bagger as well, is "less efficient and more expensive", go figure. Because clearly large grocery chains (which have no doubt studied the dynamics of customer through-put rather extensively) would most definitely select the least efficient, most costly method of check-out, since they are in no way interested in streamlining the process and reducing overhead, thus increasing profit.

Which is presumably why nobody consults with you about either retail design or mass transit...

@17:

Which is precisely why groups such as the National Organization for Women, the National Abortion Rights Action League, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Council of Black Women, the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, Lambda Legal Fund, et al, are known as veritable bastions of Conservative Thought.

I mean, the poor guy who has to drive in from BFE where he can afford an apartment, all the way to Seattle, stuck in traffic -- since he can't afford the Lexus Lanes on 405 -- to install your new Green water heater, is likely thankful for the new regressive car tabs which he literally can't afford, because it means white people get to pretend to have a subway.

@17: I doubt you will understand this, but perhaps you should watch any way

https://www.ted.com/talks/yassmin_abdel_…

@ 29,

17 of the 18 Sound Transit Board members are elected officials. They're mayors from all over the region, as well as city and county council members who represent the interests of their constituents. The 18th is the state secretary of transportation.

@29: You believe that the joint chiefs of staff should be elected?

Really?

@31:

What sort of idiot hires a plumber from Everett or Puyallup or where ever, to install a HWH in Seattle, when there are literally scores of local plumbers right here inside the city limits? And how hard do you actually think it is to replace a heating unit, anyway? Two reasonably healthy people can do it in a matter of minutes with a couple of simple tools.

Or is it your contention Beacon Plumbing, for example, is going to send someone from BFE all the way to Seattle, instead of, you know, sending somebody already IN Seattle to install your HWH. because that's the smart way to manage costs and create a successful business? And besides, it's not like they aren't going to write off the cost of vehicle registration as a business deduction - at least if they're half-way smart, or use a decent tax accountant, so really, it's not coming out of their pocket anyway.

Please, next time, do try to pick a better analogy...

TIL @36 thinks rich white people in Magnolia are have local laborers living in their neighborhood.

Dude thinks poor people don't have to commute to their jobs, ffs.

@38:

You're the one who posited that plumbers were in such short supply in Seattle that the rich white people in Magnolia had to outsource for their services to the far corners of the county, not me.

Poor people don't have to drive from far flung places with more affordable housing to their jobs. You're right. Poor people don't get stuck in traffic driving from their homes in far flung places because they can afford the Lexus Lanes. You're right. Poor people aren't affected by their car tabs going up by a 100 bucks. You're right. Poor people want rich white people to be able to have a pretend subway. You're right.

@17:

Don, you never cease to amuse. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, there is no indication the person in the image is wearing a burqa. A burqa is not usually made of patterned fabric, as the garment under the blue jacket clearly is.

@40: Just admit that someone in Magnolia who calls a plumber is probably going to get a visit from a firm in Interbay. The longer you drag this out, the sillier you look.

@41:

IS's specialty is creating tortuously inane analogies, then beating the proverbial dead horse until even dogs wouldn't recognize the pulverized carcass as a viable food source.

Thank you for the clarification, Sargon dear - but don't you think they could have used a better descriptor?