Something tells me that Hannah has either never read the Northwest Asian Weekly or reads it with scorn and derision. I suppose Hannah, Matt, Rich, and Chas enjoy pulling bongs while laughing at the vile business owners and their concerns.

From an article in the current edition about graffiti.

"SPU says that the CID is no different than other parts of the city. Every place has graffiti. In fact, a spokesperson said, the CID got only 2% of second notices sent to businesses threatening fines up to $5,000.

But the context is different. The CID has 18 homeless shelters within a radius of one mile, bringing criminal elements into the area. Most other neighborhoods in the city and in King County have none, or at most, one (kcrha.org/regional-services-database).

The CID has been the victim of Asian hate, as well, which adds to the graffiti and vandalism.

And yet one day last month, a business owner shared with the Northwest Asian Weekly a notice of a $100 daily fine for graffiti on his building."

“It’s not our fault.”

"He cited the loss of business in the CID and the lack of public safety. Since the pandemic, and the loss of office workers, who now work from home or are too afraid to come to the crime-infested neighborhood, business has dropped 90-95%, by his count.

“And that’s not just for me, that’s for everyone,” he said. “Where there used to be 100 people coming to the CID for lunch, there are now 5 or 10.”

Instead, gangs or violent criminals roam the street at night, with impunity, he said. The police don’t stop them—they graffiti everything."

conscience.

Rest in peace Barbara Walters

Leonard Peltier's name is missing from the list of those pardoned by President Biden.

FREE Leonard Peltier

12 kids is egregious in any context.

@3 Phoebe in Wallingford: Agreed. Rest in peace, broadcast journalist and TV personality Barbara Walters, at 93. We lost another good one.

@5 dvs99: For the WIN!!! This is just as hideous as "celebrity parents" Jon and Kate Gosselin, and Natalie Denise Suleman, a.k.a. "Octomom" (whose octuplets were fathered by sperm donor David Solomon. Suleman has fourteen kids altogether). When the world's human population has exceeded 8 billion people, breeding for profit is the last thing anyone should be doing.

Griz predicts New Year's Eve is going to be more than a little batshit crazy tomorrow.
After lunch and shopping today Griz is staying home, and her beloved VW stays in seasonal hibernation.
Hannah, you, Jas, and a herd of wild horses couldn't get me to go out on the drunkest night of the year.
I can get plenty inebriated at home, where it's safer to get "Comfortably Numb"*
*I recommend this song by Pink Floyd be a featured track for a future SLOG.

Let’s have a round of applause for Stop the Sweeps attacking LIHI, shall we? The longer and uglier the cage-match between those two parasitic organizations, the better the outcome for Seattle. The Stranger’s careful obliviousness in the face of obvious reality makes for some great laughs, too:

“For one, mail theft happens in apartment buildings too.”

Especially if they have homeless encampments nearby.

“You don’t see apartment buildings throwing up their hands and ending mail service.”

No, because the apartment buildings’ owners are legally and contractually obligated to provide mail service for paying tenants. LIHI is not legally required to provide mail service to inhabitants of its shacks, and thus will no longer do so. Stop the Sweeps should complain to the city, which agreed to LIHI’s contracts.

“Second, a well-funded non-profit should be able to figure out a secure way to provide mail services in every village, regardless of how long a tenant sticks around.”

First, that’s a huge challenge when the inhabitants are themselves likely the primary cause of mail theft, and second, LIHI has raked in enormous sums of money, precisely by charging the city vast amounts for the very meager services it provides. Why should LIHI change this winning formula? Sharon Lee — and, more importantly, her six-figure salary — see no reason to do so.

@5: How so?

@9: Simple math:

(Resources of Planet Earth) - 12 x (Carbon footprint of Average American) < Acceptable

@9 - there is no problem on Earth that is not being caused or exacerbated by over population.

@11: If a society does not maintain a 2.5 fertility rate, there's an underpopulation. Not all parts of the world are overpopulated.

@10: That's some junk science there tensor, has nothing to do with math.

@11 - i see zero problem with “under population”.

@4 Peltier is a murderer and will die in prison.

@10, That is 12 hands to produce batteries to replace oil. 12 hands to produce taxable wages to keep pay as you go retirement systems like Social Security paying their full benefits. 12 brains, some of which will likely become researchers, to invent the next Catalytic Converter, or similar pollution saving devise. You are only looking at one side of the coin.

@11, There are many problems on earth being caused by shortages of qualified labor, researchers, inventors, and entrepreneurs.

Finally, an accurate headline:

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/12/30/study-finds-racial-disparity-in-portland-arrests-but-no-pattern-of-racial-profiling/

Locally, Sound Transit used to put fare enforcement onto a light rail car. They would go from one end to the other, demanding proof of payment from every rider. First time offenders were required to produce I.D. and got a warning. Second time offenders got tickets. No exceptions or officer discretion. Race neutral enforcement.

Yet here, the headlines and news copy, described the outcome as the result of racism, when all races were treated identically. It is probable to have disparate racial outcomes, without racist behavior.

Why? Race is a proxy for socioeconomic disadvantage. If you come from a household with less wealth, higher rates of nuclear family disruption, etc., you are more likely not to be able to pay the fare. You are more likely to be cited, even if you were not treated differently by Sound Transit because of your race. Sound Transit inherits the consequence of prior racism. They are not the perpetrators of it. Yet Sound Transit is accused of perpetuating racism.

Fares, to make bond payments on the bonds that finance the build-out of needed transit, drop from 37% of revenue to the high single-digits, as fare enforcement is abandoned, to avoid the false charge of racism by the agency.

That effort does nothing to resolve the issues for households of color. The legacy of past racism, and a lack of transit, gets visited on the next generation of POC. Great job The Stranger, and other media.

Senator Corey Booker's Baby Bond Bill anyone? https://www.crfb.org/blogs/cory-bookers-baby-bonds-plan It's time for a real solution.

Happy New Year everyone!

@15: The United States can easily import a dozen already-skilled individuals to perform any one of those roles, all 24 of whose hands will go toward producing taxable wages, etc. This adds no mouths to feed on the earth, adds no burden to our own educational systems, and (don’t tell raindrop!) brings in fresh blood to compensate for Americans’ own reproductive rate having remained below replacement rate for decades now:

‘"The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and has consistently been below replacement since 2007," according to the agency, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.‘ (https://www.npr.org/2021/05/05/993817146/u-s-birth-rate-fell-by-4-in-2020-hitting-another-record-low)

So, exactly what advantage do we derive from having one overly-entitled fuckwit breed like the studly farm animal he clearly isn’t?

"So, exactly what advantage do we derive from having one overly-entitled fuckwit breed like the studly farm animal he clearly isn’t?"

The offspring of overly-entitled f**kwit breeds are balanced in your malleable math by selfish jaded childless woke couples who would make lousy parents anyway.

@18: Happy New Year to you as well, raindrop! May basic reading comprehension and an understanding of our shared global environment not continue to evade you with such effective zeal as they have in this past year.

(Oh, and I’m still waiting on my answer to why a dozen already-educated, happy-to-be-new-Americans, each getting right to work shortly after arrival, are — in any way, shape or form — less desirable than the dozen attention-starved offspring of one overly-entitled fuckwit.)

@11 dvs99 For the WIN!!!

@12: raindrop, dear, the world's human population has reached 8 billion people. The Earth is fragile and cannot possibly sustain so many human lives, no matter how sparsely populated some corners of the globe are.
I, for one, am grateful not to have had children, what with human-made climate change, flooding, Arctic blasts, and quite possible major earthquakes in the foreseeable future. What future will the most recent of newborns have, and how will they survive the drastic consequences of human overpopulation? Certainly not what I and others from my generation enjoyed. My reasons for remaining childless have very little to do with whether or not I might have been a lousy parent.

And, as we close out the year, I’d like to give thanks to Ms. Krieg and the Stranger for this delightful image:

“You don’t see apartment buildings throwing up their hands and ending mail service.”

Indeed, seeing any apartment building throw up its hands, for any reason, has become such a rare treat nowadays. Why, I remember wh— [loud snoring]”

@19: I think we're both using stereotypes to make arguments that bolster our own self-serving rhetorical questions or observations. We can both do better in the new year. Happy New Year.

@20: Happy New Year auntie. I suggest a Pinot Noir.

It's "in good conscience", my dear Hannah. As in, "How can journalists, in good conscience, post material without proofreading it first? Are they not conscious?"

https://youtu.be/KdsbuJfMpr0

@22: Happy New Year, raindrop. Thank you for the Pinot Noir recommendation. It sounds like a healthier choice of the red variety, and lower in sugar. Cabernet Sauvignon is my favorite, and I drink it in moderation, usually with food and ice water.

@22: Please speak only for yourself. Your description exactly fits your own (@18) bizarre castigation of a working couple who pay taxes towards the education of other people’s children as “selfish”. (And if they truly “would make lousy parents anyway,” shouldn’t you be praising them for their restraint in not having children?) It does not apply to the concern, voiced by several of us here, that mindlessly breeding modern American children like some mythical Old Testament patriarch has no place in our modern world of finite resources.

@26: But of course you're not one of those "mindless breeders" are you? What makes your fatherhood different?

@27: One & Done. (You know, as in well below replacement level.)

Thanks for not answering my previous questions, thus confirming they have no answers. There is no reason for native-born Americans to breed by the litterful, when we can do better, faster, and cheaper via immigration.

@28: There are couples who will gladly adopt children. As my sister/BIL did after their first kid. Nevertheless, large families are a desire for some, but not everyone. Blame me for having a more optimistic view of humanity than you do, but it doesn't bother me if people have options on family planning and size.

Of course, you're not advocating for state control of these matters. We at least share that premise.

The graffiti problem needs a solution. And if that means fining property owners who don't clean it up, so be it.

I hope they go after The Edgewater Inn for those orcas. They were painted over once but now they are back. On the other hand, who's to say that owners of Seattle businesses didn't commission those tags just to gain some hip credibility.

@29: What has optimism, let alone your entirely groundless speculation on a difference between our levels of it, have to do with anything? This is a matter of simple economics. Raising a child in the United States will likely cost the planet far more in resources than raising a child in almost any other place. So the earth will be better off if we Americans import twelve already-raised no-longer-children than if we create them. You have yet to post anything here which even implies otherwise. You’ve just lashed out at us who’ve noted this obvious fact, and especially after we based upon it a judgement you apparently do not like.

Yes, “people [should] have options on family planning and size.” You just lectured a long-time member and volunteer for Naral Pro-Choice Washington on that point. (Congratulations, I guess?) People should also exercise those options wisely, and with great consideration for all possible consequences. When someone instead chooses to confuse women’s reproductive tracts with clown cars, we’re free to issue condemnatory opinions of such foolish misjudgments. That you happen not to like such frank statements has nothing to do with their validity.

@16: "Race is a proxy for socioeconomic disadvantage. If you come from a household with less wealth, higher rates of nuclear family disruption, etc., you are more likely not to be able to pay the fare."

There is an Orca card subsidy program. Offering reduced fares on Metro buses, Link Light Rail, Seattle Streetcar, Sound Transit buses, and the Monorail. Still can't afford the reduced rates? Lobby King County to reduce them further, or offer several tiers of lower rates.

Free transit use? Not going to happen, based upon an earlier program that was discontinued when the 'free ride zone' turned into 'hobos sleep on the bus'.

Poor people (and POC) should welcome the card program as one that gives them the appearance of the more well-to-do riders as they hold their heads up and swipe their cards with the best of us.

"Raising a child in the United States will likely cost the planet far more in resources than raising a child in almost any other place. "

Well, so what? Extremely difficult to quantify that given the global interdependency in the modern world. Think of the aid the USA has given the developing world over the decades.

"People should also exercise those options wisely, and with great consideration for all possible consequences."

Wisely huh? By whose criteria?

"When someone instead chooses to confuse women’s reproductive tracts with clown cars. we’re free to issue condemnatory opinions of such foolish misjudgments. "

I suppose so. Unless it's a Tesla.

@33: “Well, so what?”

Because it’s better to use fewer resources to obtain the same outcome.

“Wisely huh? By whose criteria?”

Because it’s wiser to use fewer resources to obtain the same outcome.

“Extremely difficult to quantify…”

Even if true, well, so what? Difficult does not equal impossible, and just because something is difficult to accomplish does not mean the value obtained is not worth the effort.

Hope all is well with Matt, his turn to do Monday's Slog AM.

@35, Maybe the payroll checks finally bounced!

I forgot, it's a New Year's holiday - even for Index Newspapers LLC.

@37, Yes, because it's in their union contract. Oh wait ... never mind.

Lol stranger writers taking a banker holiday?

@39,

I also find it hilarious that people take off a federally recognized holiday. You should find someplace with an open mic and do a stand up bit about it, some real George Carlin shit there.

get it Straight:
tS's Writers
Serve @
OUR
Plea-
sure.

Happy
2023!

and in Other news:

Brazilian Authorities
Will Revive Fraud Case
Against George Santos

A 2008 court case had been suspended because Brazilian law enforcement officials could not find Mr. Santos.

If Mr. Santos does not present a defense in the Brazilian case, he will be tried in absentia. If found guilty, Mr. Santos could receive up to five years in prison, plus a fine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/nyregion/george-santos-brazil.html

well they Found him Now.

he even promised MKkKarthy (R)
he'd Vote for him for Speaker
of the House

ah the par-tay of
the trumpfster
what could go
Wrong?

@42: Because absolutely nothing screams “Justice!!” quite like the phrase, “tried in absentia.” (Frankly, it’s astonishing that drawing and quartering are not amongst the possible sentences.)

relax
drawing
quartering
castration're
All on the Table
should "Republicans"
somehow regain POWER

and they're lying cheating
and stealing the Best they Can.

@44: Be nice now.

@44: Well, I hope the Brazilians’ trial in absentia of Mr. Santos goes better for them than did the High Sparrow’s attempt to try Queen Mother Cersei in absentia went for him. ;-)

@45: Why? RepubliKKKans, and the Orange Turd in particular---are horrible excuses for people and rightfully deserve their long overdue comeuppances now.

extradiction may not be required:

'Democrats are already calling for him to give up his seat, and members of his own party have stepped up their questions about his conduct.

That includes making up claims about his résumé, his education, his ties to Wall Street firms and his charitable endeavors — all of which have been revealed as part of a cooked-up character created as the backbone of his pitch to voters.

In addition to his background, Mr. Santos has misrepresented parts of his finances and filed incomplete or inaccurate congressional disclosures. He has also claimed that he is Jewish and the descendant of Holocaust survivors. Mr. Santos is Catholic.'

--Annie Karni and Michael Gold
Jan. 3, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/us/politics/george-santos-congress.html

covering all the Bases - silently
escaping the cameras only
to be treated like a Pariah
by his partymates joking
over which was having
the Worse day -- him
or 3-time Loser sofar
mKkK what's'isname
-arthyism* maybe

a perfect running mate
to the trumpfster.

*getchyur
WITCH Hunts
whilst they Hot

@48 kristofarian: RepubliKKKans. May they all go down together. Hell is waiting.
I'd love to see Kentucky Fried Chicken Mitch McConnell served on toast to the .00000000001%ers.