Are you paying attention to this? Elon Musk is making huge cuts at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). What? Isn’t that “the backbone of the Northwest power grid.” Indeed, it is, and it’s being strangled by the hands of DOGE. An important note: BPA was not funded by taxpayers, but ratepayers. So cutting jobs there will have minimal to no impact on the deficit. But the price of the cuts will be huge. We can expect, as two BPA administrators predict, that the staff reduction “will seriously degrade BPA’s ability to maintain reliable power service.” To make matters worse, before the layoffs, the BPA had something like 50 openings. They needed more workers to ensure the resilience of the grid. And now they have lost a bunch of workers. Though BPA rehired 30 workers, it is still “eliminating about 430 total positions.” So, the rehiring means jack. We are fucked. The BPA supplies 75% of PNW’s power.
Because we live in the time of the goras (vultures in Shona), we need to think like preppers. They are no longer that crazy. The risk of power outages has increased from 1% to 10%. Combine that with extreme weather events caused by climate change, and you have a recipe for disaster. Get a portable generator while they are still affordable. Mine cost $400. I also bought solar panels for $200. The goras are circling the sky; they will be around for a while.
True, English has a term for the kind of society we are now in, a society where a company fires federal workers willy-nilly: vulture capitalism. But in Shona, gora also means a person who has no inhibitions. They do whatever they want and look at consequences with eyes that are as dead as a doornail. For this reason, this extra and deeper meaning, it’s better to call the economy we entered a little over a month ago: gora capitalism.
There will be clouds today, but little chance of rain. And temperatures are expected to stick to the low 40s. Also, did you see the clouds last night? It looked like they had somewhere to go in a hurry: Ellensburg? Walla Walla? Spokane? The morning clouds, however, are much slower. They want to hang around and see what Seattle is up to.
After fucking up America every which way from Sunday for four decades, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell is hanging his hat. He will not run in next year’s election. You toerag. Thanks for nothing.
When you say the Sonics are coming back, and you happen to be the mayor, people will believe you. But it seems Bruce Harrell had no idea that losing the Sonics because a billionaire had to make even more money than they already had in the bank wasn’t a laughing matter. What universe does he live in? The interim news editor of this paper, Marcus Harrison Green, has to go all the way down to Portland to watch an NBA game. And the trip between that city and ours is, unlike the one between Seattle and Vancouver, ugly. Well, no one laughed at Harrell’s joke, and so he had to apologize for making fun out of something that’s hardly funny.
Harrell, you could’ve just repeated this joke by The Needling: “Trump Pardons Howard Schultz for Moving Supersonics to Oklahoma City.”
Harrell is certainly not laughing at the revelation that he was “arrested 29 years ago in Iowa” for packing heat. He claims that the matter had nothing to do with the charge (carrying a concealed weapon), and everything to do with racial profiling. I hear that. By the way, did you know “iowa” means “no” in Shona, Zimbabwe’s number-one language.
How much is Delta offering the passengers on the plane that flipped after landing at Toronto Pearson Airport this Monday? 30,000 bones. It comes with no strings attached. Just take the money and let’s move on. You lived. You got nothing to complain about. Use the cash to buy a power generator or stuff it into a mattress. The US economy is bound to crash at any moment. Consider yourself lucky.
Graham, Washington lost the soul of a 15-year-old boy “after he lit a ‘mortar-type’ firework” near a church. This happened on Monday at 2 am. Because the church is watched not only by God, but a surveillance camera, there’s a recording of his last moments in this world, which is the only world. Nothing comes after death. The boy is seen hopping the fence with other boys, he then climbs “a grassy hill [by one] of the church buildings,” ignites the firework, puts it in a tube, and it explodes.
Jeff Bezos now owns James Bond. Yes, he does; he bought the franchise. And there’s nothing King Charlie can do about it. Consider “on her majesty’s secret service” the stuff of the past. Bond must now call an American billionaire with the phone in his shoe.
By the way, if you are lucky enough to be rolling in dough like Bezos, you might consider this new opportunity: “Penthouse that inspired ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ up for sale in Seattle.” The film is about a kinky billionaire. The penthouse is asking for $11.5 million.
My recent post Don’t Hang the Bartender, which concerned the cultural importance of letting bartenders play their own music, rather than programming that tired music (Stones, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, and so on) we hear all of the time, failed to mention this French-pop gem: “Christine” by Christine and the Queens. I first heard it two years ago at Saint John’s Bar and Eatery while Michael Lee was bartending.
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@49 exactly. I’m glad you’re learning finally. The league could have a huge gambling scandal tomorrow and the franchise value would plunge and nothing would change for the rest of us.
@51 “nothing would change for the rest of us”
So you are admitting that wealth is real since ‘something’ would change for them once their wealth is gone. Are you finally learning that independently wealthy individuals leverage their wealth to generate income?
and life would change to varying degrees for professional sport fans once their team undergoes a major financial crisis. Professional sport is also the part of the sport pyramid so its health impacts the rest of sport, which is an essential part of education and individual well being so wild financial speculation at the top has real impacts.
Thedonolde’s
concluded that
taxing the top 10%’s
‘too challenging’* & so’ll
remove tonnes of IRS Agents
so’s the IRS can Focus on ‘the bottom
90%’ for the Lion’s Share of the USofA’s
tax liability — because it’s less tangible or fungible
or I’m sure You could Explain it all away to us?
don’t Forget the hand-wave part — it’s
what we, the Little People’re used to
tho many’e Prefer the ‘it’s just
Too damn Complicated.’
*’Destroys Innovation!’
‘Unmotivates all the
Jobs Creators!’
‘damn Incon-
Venient!’
or,
‘if we
Defund
the hated
Government
we can sell it off
cuz it’s too Busted!’
we just wanna
be Hungary
starving
people
but not
the fucking
rich who do NOT
‘taste like chicken,’ or,
as Some would say, ‘like Lobster.’
@18 – yes, the three Mid-C PUDs are the only beneficiaries of the current purge of experienced federal employees. The “pension double-dip” where you vest and accumulate a federal pension then transfer to a PUD to vest and accumulate a state PERS pension has been a tradition in central Washington for decades. Even a triple-dip for those who started their career in the military and then lateraled to a federal agency before ending their career at a PUD.
What is happening now is a uni-directional transfer of talent that will certainly help friends at Grant, Chelan and Douglas PUDs who are also in need of staff. Unfortunately, the Columbia is a river whose coordination and operation requires the work of people across different agencies in two countries, as well as affected Tribes, local communities, etc.
Punching holes in the federal organizations doing that critical work is going to be a problem – and eventually a tragedy – if not mitigated.
@Hydronerd
what’s to prevent
Thedonolde from
seizing our PUDs?
‘specially when
settled law
holds no
Sway
over
the
djt.
For someone who at least appears to have a scientifically savvy mind, Elons wanton “chain-saw” approach to cutting is excruciatingly paradoxical.
@52 It’s not real in the sense that it impacts anyone else. Progressives love to scream about wealth inequality and cite how the wealthy only pay 1% in taxes but none of that is true. They only pay 1% in taxes if you take into account the equity they are sitting on. Again that could go away tomorrow and no one benefits from that. It doesn’t shift to another person, it it just simply gone. A wealth tax only works if you force them to sell some of their assets to pay for it. It’s like the government is going to accept shares of stock or a piece of land as payment of the tax. That is exactly why wealth taxes never work.
@57 ” It’s not real in the sense that it impacts anyone else”
So the financialization of everything like for example, housing, isn’t affecting everybody? including when the bubble burst like in 2008? The employees of that sport franchise you were talking about aren’t affected when it goes down the drain? etc .
“They only pay 1% in taxes if you take into account the equity they are sitting on. Again that could go away tomorrow and no one benefits from that.”
so Bezos taking only a small income to avoid taxation and the community would not benefit from actually taxing him for what he is worth perhaps?
“It’s like the government is going to accept shares of stock or a piece of land as payment of the tax”
No, government will take a check, which can be had by selling assets if necessary, until wealth concentration has returned to a reasonable balance.
“wealth taxes never work”
It works just fine, don’t worry.
@58 you really do need to take a couple of economics/finance courses. Comparing a tangible asset (house) to a financial instrument isn’t apples to apples. In the sports franchise example the franchise can still run if the value goes down. There is a difference between everyday operating expenses (P&L) and what the franchise is worth if it is sold. So yes if the franchise value declines no one is injured and no one really benefits (not even the owner unless he was looking to sell). Bezos will get taxed when he sells his stocks. That is how it should be. Again using the government sledge hammer to fix wealth inequity is about the worst thing you can do. It has never worked but feel free to provide an example, there are many examples of wealth taxes that were implemented and ultimately rescinded.
@50 kristofarian: No worries, kris. I hear ya. 😉
O, Canada, say fuck you, Mu$k and Trumpf.
Take a zamboni and stuff up MAGA rumpf….
@59 “Comparing a tangible asset (house) to a financial instrument isn’t apples to apples.”
Right, because unrealized gains from appreciation of the house value are taxed but equivalent gains from financial instruments are not. The largest asset owned by regular people is taxed annually, and they just have to figure out how to pay, while major assets owned by billionaires are tax free. Gotta love capitalism.
WeBackBaby, I do apologize. I just assumed, given your constant stream of inanities and fetishization of trump, that you had suffered a head injury sometime in the past.
Hydronerd dear, I don’t think what’s happening at BPA will benefit anyone. The PUD’s may be able to pick up some labor from the people who are being let go, but can they afford them? I would be much more economical to pay for their services through BPA rates. And the unified marketing of Columbia River power (along with Handford and the wind/solar plants) benefits everyone. The last thing we want is a race to the bottom or preferential dispatching.
Also, as you know, the transmission system is a complicated and somewhat delicate beast. Part of my current job involves power quality issues and that means monitoring BPA conditions and researching issues for large industrial customers. There’s very little, if any, “fat” and only so much that can be cut before you hit the bone. It can easily become a house of cards.
I was at a beauty parlor in Eastern Washington this morning, having my wig washed and set. To say that people in that community (which is heavily dependent on the Federal Government for highly paid jobs that require specialty skills that many of those people learned while in the US military) are vexed is a complete understatement. There were even protesters – yes, protesters in Eastern WA – in front of the post office, and people driving by were honking.
“There were even protesters –
yes, protesters in Eastern WA –
in front of the post office, and
people driving by were honking.”
Joyous News,
Catalina! let la
Revolution be begun
by Rednecks, ‘rednecking’
the Oligarchs w/torches pitchforks
Mickey’s 40s and AfuckingK-forty-sevensies
you may be
Back, baby
but you’re
gonna
Pay
for
it
just say NO
to Fascists.
@59 So now you are going to pretend that hedge funds haven’t heavily invested in the housing market and that it doesn’t have any impact on the availability of housing. It’s like you are living in a parallel universe entirely unaffected by reality or more likely you are gaslighting us. On top of which you go on posturing about your somehow superior knowledge. Geez
“there are many examples of wealth taxes that were implemented and ultimately rescinded.”
There are examples of wealth taxes rescinded by neoliberals doing favors to their favorite constituency, yes, but it has no bearing on the viability of the wealth tax
@64 then regulate investment in housing instead of taxing their unrealized gains. Duh
Thanks for throwing out the eternal progressive excuse for every failed policy. It’s not the actual policy is bad it’s that it was undermined/didnt go far enough. Lol
Actually, investment needs to be regulated AND disproportionate wealth needs to be taxed
Every policy torched by neoliberals over the 40+ years has been so because it worked too well and stood in the way of financial capitalism taking over the economy, like Glass-Steagall for example, not because it failed
@65 can you explain why levying taxes on the assessed value of a house is entirely workable and accepted but levying taxes on the value of for example stock is, in your opinion, unworkable and absurd?
@67 there are plenty of articles on this if you Google them but the simplest answer is a property tax is not a wealth tax. It’s the rent you are paying the city for occupying the land your house sits on to pay for services in the communitiy. That is why the appraised value of your home for tax purposes is rarely equal to the market value. It’s not perfect and it does impact home ownership and rental prices but it’s the best we have for now. Using that as justification for an even worse tax that is also more difficult to administer is not a winning argument.
@68 that’s not a practical explanation it’s philosophical, and it’s not even intellectually honest. If property tax was “rent” for “occupying land” it would be based solely on lot size and not consider improvements. Beyond that you could just as easily claim a wealth tax is a “fee” for the privilege of doing business in this country to pay for services.
@68 but a wealth tax isn’t about doing business is it? That would be a B&O tax or capital gains. A wealth tax is simply that government has determined that there is an upper limit on the value of something you own and anything above that should be theirs because they can put it to better use than you can. This is untrue of course but you and Bob will never be willing to accept that. I asked Bob above to provide an example where a wealth tax actually worked and produced the benefits you both claim it will produce.
@70 “but a wealth tax isn’t about doing business is it?”
Correct, just like property tax isn’t about occupying land. That was the point.
You two are great examples of why we can never move forward around here. Despite zero examples of this policy even coming close to what you claim it will do and numerous examples of its abject failure around the world somehow, someway WA state will get it right. It’s a delusional pipe dream and thankfully we still have some saner heads in the legislature and I seriously doubt this will go anywhere.
@72 that’s rich coming from someone who refuses to acknowledge the basics of being independently wealthy, like the many ways to leverage wealth in order to generate income. All so that you can keep on to better claiming that “wealth isn’t real” or pretending that the wealthy playing monopoly with housing doesn’t affect everyone who needs lodging (everyone)
You certainly haven’t provided any example of wealth tax rescinded because it failed, a central claim of yours. I have neither the time nor the inclination to delve into the details of wealth taxes but Spain has a smallish wealth tax, which doesn’t solve everything but it contributes to offsetting inequality. I’d consider that a success.
@73 you keep talking in circle. Taxing wealth will have zero impact on the housing market. Most of the wealth you are trying to tax is tied up in financial securities. If you go after real estate what will happen is farmers and ranchers will be impacted far more than the likes of Bezos. There used to be 12 countries in Europe that had wealth taxes of some form in the 1990s, now there are only 4. They do not solve the problem you think you are solving.