Hospital oversight bill died in the House: The Keep Our Care Act (SB 5241) seemed pretty cool, but it never reached the House floor after passing the Senate. The bill would have given the Washington Attorney General’s Office more power to impose conditions on big health care mergers, or to reject them altogether if it found negative impacts on patient care, a decision that would be subject to judicial review. We’ve got a bit of a problem with major health systems swallowing up independent providers–a preliminary report found that eight large health systems controlled 90% of the state’s hospital beds, according to the Seattle Times. With less competition, costs go up and speciality services like reproductive and gender-affirming health care become harder to come by.
Seattle cop allegedly slashed tire during a protest: The Office of Police Accountability is investigating a Seattle police officer for allegedly slashing a tire during a February pro-Palestine march near the World Trade Center. A video posted by @dubsea on Instagram shows an officer sticking something into the rear tire of a moving minivan.
Little plane, little crash: Nobody is hurt, but a small, propeller powered Cirrus SR-22 airplane crash landed in the Newport Hills neighborhood of Bellevue Tuesday afternoon. The pilot and passenger were on a training flight from Renton. When the engine failed, they deployed a whole plane parachute (cool) and came down in a relatively controlled manner—for a crash at least. The NTSB said it will launch an investigation into the incident.
Goodbye: The most senior member of the state Senate, Karen Keiser, announced her retirement yesterday. Since 2001, the labor committee chair and Senate Pro Tempore has represented the 33rd Legislative District, which includes parts of Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Kent, Tukwila, and Renton. Her announcement comes one day after Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig announced that he won’t seek reelection. People retire every session, but these departures, along with exits from Democratic Sens. Kevin Van De Wege, Mark Mullet, and Sam Hunt free up some major leadership positions and positions on key committees.
Legalize it (cafes): A bill that would have required cities in Washington to allow cafes in residential zones died after the state Senate’s local government committee rendered it basically useless. After the bill reached the Senate, the Association of Washington Cities complained about the legislation bossing cities around. Then Sen. Liz Lovelett from Anacortes sponsored an amendment making the bill voluntary, but that sort of defeated the purpose. Cities already could allow cafes in residential zones if they wanted.
SUPER FUCKING TUESDAY *air horn* As anyone conscious could have predicted, Haley dropped out, setting up Donald Trump and Joe Biden to square off in an old-guy gambit this November. She announced the suspension of her presidential campaign after losing all but one of the Super Tuesday primaries. In her concession speech, Haley did not endorse the former president.
Uncommitted: Even though Biden won almost all the contests last night, a significant number of people in seven states voted “uncommitted” to protest Biden’s support for Israel. On the low end, 3.9% of Democrats in Iowa cast a protest vote. But in Minnesota, with 90% of the votes counted, 19% of Democrats voted uncommitted. We encourage you to do the same in Washington on March 12, and you can read our endorsement here.
Jalapeño conspiracy: Dallas-based D Magazine discovered a spicy and disturbing truth: Decades of planning made jalapeños less hot. What the hell. You can literally blame Texas A&M University for this, but the industry has been breeding those bad boys to be shinier, prettier, and bigger—flavor be damned. The standardization began twenty years ago with the development of the TAM II, a variety that could grow six inches long “with little to no heat.” Read more here.
Missouri lawmaker introduces wild anti-trans bill: Under House Bill 2885, school counselors and teachers could be convicted of a felony, end up in prison for four years, and be put on the sex offender registry for supporting a trans minor’s social transition. Social transition includes someone taking a new name and pronouns at school. The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Jamie Gragg, told reporters the bill would apply to LGBTQ-related books or signs in classrooms, too. The bill is one of 35 anti-trans bills being considered by the State Legislature in Missouri.
Missouri Republican proposed legislation that, if passed, could imprison teachers who support transgender students, the latest in a string of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community nationwide.
Representative Jamie Ray Gragg last week introduced House Bill 2885, which would charge…
— Rainbow Youth Project USA (@RainbowYouthUSA) March 3, 2024
Child support begins at conception: The Republican-dominated Kentucky Senate passed a bill that granted a parent the right to retroactively collect child support for pregnancy expenses up to a year after giving birth. Supporters of abortion-rights are watching this one carefully to make sure anti-abortion lawmakers don’t try to sneak in any BS about fetus personhood.
She (Earth) just isn’t that into you (humans): A group of fancy geologists you’ve never heard of decided our impact on the earth isn’t enough to qualify for the beginning of a new geologic era called the Anthropocene, a term we’ve used colloquially for decades. The Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, which is responsible for delineating geologic time, said we haven’t been irrevocably altering our environment with fossil fuels and nuclear tests for nearly long enough. Epochs, or spans of geologic time, typically span thousands or millions of years, so come and talk to them in 6024–at the EARLIEST. The scientists behind the Anthropocene proposal argue that even if we were smited tomorrow, it would take thousands of years to reduce carbon to preindustrial levels.
Kyrsten Sinema is retiring from the US Senate: The Arizona Independent and former conservative Democrat who was the first openly bisexual US senator will leave Washington at the end of her term this year, leaving an extremely competitive seat behind. Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego and fucking Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee and misinformation machine Kari Lake are the likely contenders to take her place. It’s not that surprising. The Hill reports that Cinema is one of the least-popular politicians in Arizona history.
A message for Arizonans from Senator Kyrsten Sinema pic.twitter.com/1XWFSWgGdh
— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) March 5, 2024
Guy got 217 COVID-19 shots, is fine? German researchers who studied a “hypervaccinated” man say he’s did not suffer measurable side effects. His immune system seems to be fine, too. Researchers invited him to undergo tests after reading news stories about German authorities’ fraud investigation into him for getting so many shots. They believed his immune system would be worn out, but he still showed an immune response on the 217th shot, which he insisted on during the study. Despite their findings, researchers really don’t recommend following his lead. Just get the normal amount, please.
“a whole plane parachute (cool)”!
Awesomesauce! why’ve
we Never Heard of these
Before? they couldda Saved Boeing
TWO MAXes & the 3- or 4-Hundred Souls
LOST to their greed & corporate Malfeasances.
speaking of
Super Tuesday
ending GENOCIDE
& voting Uncommitted:
nyt:
The War
That Will Haunt
Democrats Through the Campaign
When Adam Schiff [D, CA]
took the stage Tuesday night
at his victory party at the Avalon,
a[n] historic nightclub in Hollywood,
protesters interrupted his speech, chanting,
“Cease-fire now.”
When he tried to talk over them, they continued chanting, switching to “Let Gaza live.” At one point, Schiff’s supporters attempted to drown out the protesters by chanting “Adam, Adam,” but the whole thing devolved into a cacophony of noise.
Schiff, who is now likely to be the next senator from California, quickly wrapped up his remarks, but as attendees left the event, they were greeted by more protesters chanting, “Not another penny, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crime.”
The protesters had won the evening. They had focused attention on their issue and signaled to Democrats, who many believe should be opposing the war in Gaza, that they will not simply allow events to continue as usual while a genocide is unfolding.
But I would argue that these war protesters feel even more urgency and are possessed of even more moral conviction because tens of thousands of people have died in a war that many of its opponents insist is being condoned and financed by the United States under a Democratic president.
And last week
UNICEF warned
that an “explosion”
in child deaths in Gaza
was imminent if a burgeoning
nutrition crisis there wasn’t resolved.
–by Charles M. Blow
Opinion Columnist, re-
porting from Los Angeles
more:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/05/opinion/thepoint#gaza-protesters-democrats-schiff
no, no
we don’t
OWN Israel
but as the Largest
Economy on this Planet
(in the well-Known Universe)
and with thee Most Powerful Military
we Do in fact
have some Schway:
END this War
on Gazans grandpa
Joe & Schweep your Way
to Victory & Eliminate El trumpfster
you’ll be doing
the whole Earth a
Giant Fucking Favor.
At this point, the primary is irrelevant, but by all means vote ‘uncommitted’ if that’s what you need to do to feel good about yourself.
@5: And, as this post & comment thread shows, even when the numbers voting “uncommitted” are tiny, and there’s no evidence any such voting has the slightest impact on Israel’s behavior, the protesters promptly award themselves participation trophies, and talk at each other about how great they’ve done.
Watching their slow divorce from reality has been most amusing.
good riddance Kyrsten Sinema.
there are other ways to look at this fall’s election besides “old guy gambit”, vivian.
one candidate has been governing conscientiously and competently for 3 years. the other is the worst person in America, literally a rapist, and will throw Ukraine under a bus for starters.
I remain steadfast in my stated non indulgence of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict debate (hot take: noone here has the slightest idea what’s going on over there. The situation is so old and incomprehensibly dynamic and complex, with so many inter and intra related factions, and information relayed through so many layers of biased sourcing, that not even the smartest and most well informed person in the history of human civilization, Neale Frothingham of course, has a fucking clue what he’s talking about, not that he’ll ever admit as much.)
That said, I’m fine voting non-committed and consider myself a proud member of Team Ckathes, who has advocated doing so as a means by which to signal to the DNC that we’re not happy with Biden as the nominee for any number of non-Gaza reasons, starting with the fact that he’s surely not the best candidate out there. And I genuinely(!) like(!!!) Biden and think he did as fine a job as could possibly be expected over the course of the past four years given the circumstances and constraints he was dealt.
But he should’ve been forced to sign a blood pact prior to taking the oath of office in 2020 that he’d be one and done. The DNC and those in his inner circle had every means and opportunity by which to avoid this potential catastrophe and they absolutely blew it. I’ll support him with every fiber of my being if he winds up being the nominee and I think there’s probably still a decent chance he’d be OK, win the election and serve out another admirable term, but we shouldn’t be in this position and it’s utterly indefensible that we are.
And yes, before anyone mentions it, of course a brokered convention and/or last minute alternative candidate would be potential chaos and completely unprecedented. But so have about 12,000 other major developments that have transpired over the course of the past decade, and this would possibly not even be the most bizarre and unforeseeable one, IMHO (personally I’m still in awe that we elected a black guy back in 2008. Not sure I’ll ever get over that, given what I’d witnessed in this country over the course of the past 30 years preceding it’s happening.)
‘but
we shouldn’t
be in this position and
it’s utterly indefensible that we are.’
Bingo Mike
political Malpractice
at its Finest: the
“Democratic”
National
Commit-
tee.*
LLC.,
lol.
@9 And if Biden had signed that “blood pact” who would’ve been the Democratic candidate in 2024? Kamala? An open primary? Not great options. The minute McConnell decided not to convict Trump and banish him to political exile, the equation changed.
@7
late-stage
capitalism
at its Finest
maybe not a 747
but all those Little jets
like an Airbag in an automobile
present Co
excluded
obv.
@12: If Biden had signed a blood oath to only serve 1 term, Gavin Newsom would have sealed the deal yesterday. He’s going to smoke the Dem field in 2028 no matter what happens in November.
Harris doesn’t have the charisma.
While a relatively small number of delegates, Biden’s defeat in American Samoa makes him the first incumbent president to lose a nominating contest since Jimmy Carter.
@14 I wouldn’t be so sure that Newsom would have wrapped up the nomination, particularly considering an incumbent VP and Buttigieg would also probably be running in that situation (Although I think both, especially Harris, would have their own challenges in a general). The phrase “California Democrat” is anathema to large parts of the country even among democrats in the delegate rich industrial rust belt and southern states. The leading moderate democrat won the last two open Democratic primaries and in the minds of many he’s a too far left San Francisco democrat.
@12,
I feel like there’d have been options. My unwavering support for Cory Booker is probably worthy of mocking at this point, particularly given how unsuccessful he’s been at gaining credibility as a viable candidate, but I still think it’d be great if he could ever break through.
Ideologically, he’s pretty Biden-esque, far left on social issues, more moderate on economic ones. He’s a black man who’s outspoken on racial issues, thereby ensuring the minorities are likely to be motivated. He’s also incredibly intelligent, charismatic and well-spoken and ffs, he once RAN INTO A BURNING BUILDING AND SAVED A RANDOM WOMAN’S LIFE!!! My god, if he were just the slightest bit spiteful he could absolutely rip Trump’s fat ass to shreds in a debate and would be utterly invincible to any of those petty accusations of laziness or cowardice that he loves to throw around.
@ 98102CH:
sheldon
fucking
White-
house*
you send
Him a Letter
you won’t even
need an Address
*No-nonsense
hard-hitting Dem
a Bane to maggots but
a boon to MOST of the Citizenry
as are
M4ALL
Childcare
an Education or Trade
improved Social Security*
all that shit we, the Peeps Crave
*See:
Bernie Fucking Sanders
and the Bill to make
SS fucking Solvent
til ’96 or so.
https://news.yahoo.com/finance/news/social-security-bill-could-seniors-145812838.html
@19
fucking
Socialists
@4 kristofarian and @8 Max Solomon: +2 for the WIN!!!
@14 Newsom is one of the slimiest politicians in the country – it’s unpleasant to even be reminded of him having the French Laundry opened for a private dinner party while everyone else was in lockdown. To say nothing of the massive disaster of city-sized addict populations dying outside in that state, everything about him is intensely unpalatable to anyone outside California.
An important point on the “uncommitted” vote re: Biden, is that many of those individuals are voting that way not to register an Israel protest vote, but simply because Joe Biden is an octogenarian and they believe that’s he’s too old for a second term.
@22: I can’t hear you over Newsom’s dazzling smile, perfect hair and rugged good looks.
@24 Pretty as you may find him, I don’t personally see anything “rugged” about his intensely artificial lifelong-rich stretched-skin looks and tooth veneers, and it seems a little more car-salesman type in the Romney mold, but to each their own…
Shit, I forgot to mention my man CB is fluent in Spanish too! How freaking great would it be to have a candidate who could court the largest minority group/voter base in America in their native tongue? Have him addressing the border issue in a manner that demonstrates something resembling familiarity? I’d think this point alone could be worth several thousand of those swing state votes that Neale is always droning on about us needing.
I hope he doesn’t, but if Biden somehow fudges that address tomorrow, I really hope the powers that be at least seriously consider all their options going forward.
Wow, great comment @9 by mike blob, starting with the sentiment of his which I have concurred with when he shared it previously: “I remain steadfast in my stated non indulgence of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict debate….”
As I shared on this comment board, I had been planning to vote for Nikki Haley, if only to reduce Trump’s margin, but now I have to seriously consider voting Uncommitted on the Democratic side. Like mike blob, I would be voting that way as a general plea to shake things up, not specifically to protest how the Biden administration is responding to what the Israelis are doing in Gaza, even though I don’t approve of Biden’s response. I just wonder how an Uncommitted vote in Washington State will be interpreted.
In Michigan, it was very clearly about the war in Gaza. That’s what the Uncommitted campaign was about. And while I initially was put off by the idea, I eventually came around to it. Better that Biden get the message now that it is unacceptable for him to be sitting on his hands while the Israelis are engaging in what can be considered ethnic cleansing than for him to get that message in November. And you can be rest assured that Kamala Harris would not have been calling for a cease-fire in her speech in Selma if not for that big protest vote.
On the other hand, what are the odds that having a bilingual, African American President would be the thing to finally set the RWNJ faction off and start the next civil war? I’d likely put it at like 70-80%.
mike blob @26: “Shit, I forgot to mention my man CB is fluent in Spanish too!”
Not only that but Cory Booker is a vegan. OK, now that I think about it, that might be an electoral strike against him right up there with a presidential candidate admitting they’re agnostic.
Yeah, but totally agreed he’s a wonderful guy whose politics are pretty pragmatic and palatable to the general electorate. Considering the crowd he hangs with, I look at him as sort of an honorary Jew. And actually, the vibe he gives off is “nice Jewish boy.” His perception problem may be that he comes across a little too nice.
mike blob @26: “Shit, I forgot to mention my man CB is fluent in Spanish too!”
Not only that but Cory Booker is a vegan. OK, now that I think about it, that might be an electoral strike against him right up there with a presidential candidate admitting they’re agnostic.
Yeah, but totally agreed he’s a wonderful guy whose politics are pretty pragmatic and palatable to the general electorate.
Oh yeah, ha ha! A black, vegan, bilingual, progressive democrat! Hopefully he’d name Buttigieg as his running mate. Or maybe RuPaul. Or anyone with gender neutral pronouns who gets demonstrably offended anytime their opponent misidentifies them.
I blame everything that’s going on in the Middle East on the Abrahamic religions.
On the subject of Cory Booker, I did like that he was among the first to voice concern about Biden’s cognitive issues, a difficult subject and a courageous stance for someone in his position.
@34 – Completely agree. The only thing worse than any given religion is all the others. And vice versa. We’re all going to get killed over someone else’s mythological beliefs one of these days. Wait until Fat Donald gets elected again and his Evangelical buddies decide to bring about the End Times.
@23 – they’d rather have a dictator who is essentially the same age? Fucking geniuses.
@38,
He’s not bilingual, an admission he called “an embarrassment” upon launching an initiative to promote second language instruction in early childhood education.