I'm sure it's just a coincidence the Pentagon is pulling this shit right after the massive Russian cyberattacks. Gotta let Russia get their money's worth before Trump is out.

my gawd Keef surely
threw off them Shackles

Keith Richards’ Wildest Escapades: 19 Insane Tales From a Legendary Life
Amazing moments of excess, abandon and infinite good luck from a life well lived

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/keith-richards-wildest-escapades-19-insane-tales-from-a-legendary-life-169242/

Happy Birfday, Mr. Richards!
here's to another (ohmygawd?) Seventy fucking Seven
you've Earned 'em.

There are few pine trees because this isn't eastern Washington. On this side she mainly grow firs, helmlocks, cedars, and spruces. The word you were looking for is conifer. Here's a little ditty to help you remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FijQbZeTGNc

Trump promised Putin free reign inside the US until January 20, 2021, and by dang he's going to deliver it to them!

Oh, by the way, the Russians fully penetrated both Texas and California, and parts of even our state.

Merry no-vaccine-still-sitting-on-Pfizer-shelf Christmas!

Charles, you are right about homeless service providers wasting cash. I have said before we should just cut the middle-man and literally just start handing out all that money instead of funneling it through LEHI, SHARE, etc.
It's often criticized that we spend about $100k per unhoused person per year on service provider non-profits. If we gave that $100k out to an individual over the course of 12 months, they could rent an actual apartment of their own choice (not be told where they get to stay by LIHI or the city), get their shit together and work toward a new career or education or skill or hobby, save money for the next year when they will no longer receive a free $100k. Shit, they could even move somewhere like the Midwest and straight-up buy a house and not be constantly on the brink of poverty in one of the most expensive regions to live.
Of course, if you did this it would be hard to ensure people from all over the country didn't start moving here just for a chance at a free salary for a year.
A plan like that would run afoul of all those powerful special interest groups on that homeless services dole.

No, let's not give Inslee an amen.

"Mike Pence has pretty much been the president since his boss lost the election in early November."

Covid Czar Mike's been so Busy keepin' that damn Pandemic stirred up he's barely had Time to stripmine the Citizenry but at least he did get Vaccinated, so Kudos to the Czar I suppose.

From the Rolling Stone: Oh, Canada (1977)

By the mid-Seventies, Keith Richards was a drug-bust veteran, but this one topped them all and threatened to derail the Rolling Stones at their peak.

In February 1977, Canadian cops found roughly an ounce of heroin in Richards' hotel room. Charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking, and looking at a potentially lengthy prison term, Richards posted bond and wangled a special visa permitting him to undergo an experimental addiction cure in the U.S.

By the time his case came up, in October '78, "there were five to six hundred people outside every time I turned up in court, chanting, 'Free Keith, free Keith,'" the guitarist recalled. Between this avid fandom, a halfhearted prosecution and a muscular defense, Keith was found guilty but walked anyway. (While out on bail, he even partied with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's frisky young wife, Margaret, who was hanging out with the band.)

His community-service sentence: to play a benefit concert for the blind — a nod to Rita, the devoted, sightless Stones fan who buttonholed the judge and pleaded on Keith's behalf. "She hitchhiked to our shows. The chick was absolutely fearless," Richards wrote in his 2010 memoir, Life. "The love and devotion of [fans] like Rita is something that still amazes me."

Dude.

Although I'm supposed to be focused on the leash, I can only look at the gloves. It clearly isn't cold out. And getting gloves on a toddler is not easy. So why?

I'm all in on giving money to the homeless. Or hell, all of the poor. Guaranteed minimum income, and all of that. And I believe it helps in all kinds of not-measurable ways. But I take the results mentioned with a grain of salt. Without building more housing, you're probably allowing those homeless to out-bid someone else on the very cheapest rent in the city. What happens to those that just got outbid?

So I wake up this morning and the first things I read are:
McConnell is holding up the stimulus package (which sucks and has no real help in it) because NOW (never mentioned before) it MUST include "the Fed cannot help Biden while he's president."
????
Pence got his vaccination shot. Yes, Pence, the head of the "task force" that has done nothing other than let 320,000 and counting people die, tens of millions get sick, use PPE and other equipment as a "Hunger Games" type incentive between states, and is currently hoarding vaccinations in warehouses, refusing to ship them out to the 50 states of this country (reducing the amount of the vaccination states are getting by 40% or more).
?????
The Pentagon, RIGHT AFTER THE LARGEST CYBERSECURITY HACK OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BY RUSSIA has decided to stop briefing Biden, "take a knee" (their words) and go on vacation for two weeks.
?????
And Trump is still pressuring Republicans to steal the election for him and we actually have people in Congress standing up ready to do this for him.

WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY???? NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL. NONE OF IT. EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN AND EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AND IN EVERY LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING THIS TREASON, ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THIS TREASON, THEY ALL NEED TO BE ROUNDED UP AND IMPRISONED. NO MORE BULLSHIT. NO WAITING FOR ANOTHER ELECTION. NO MORE "WE NEED TO UNIFY THE COUNTRY." TRUMP HAS SOLD THIS COUNTRY TO RUSSIAN WHOLESALE AND THE REPUBLICANS ARE ALL IN. 100%. ENOUGH.

I would very much simply like to cross over to a parallel (better, let's not forget better) parallel universe and/or another timeline because this shit show is so incomprehensible to me I just can't anymore. I just can't.

@3 -- Cool video, thanks. It is also worth mentioning that trees will only keep you dry for a while. Eventually they get saturated, and you get a drip, drip, drip, which is especially noticeable if you pitched your tent underneath it.

RE: giving homeless people cash

Couple problems with that:

First, conservatives prefer to spend MORE in order to give them a smug feeling of superiority. If you gave them two offers: It'll cost you $50 to solve the homeless problem, but you won't see them out on the street anymore, or $100 to institute a series of religious based drug treatment programs, regardless of whether they're addicts or not, which won't be very effective so you'll still have them out on the streets, they'll fork out in favor of that $100 option in a heartbeat. Conservatives LOVE to look down on and shame others and talk about how better they are than everyone else.

Second, the wealthy would never go in for something that solves homelessness. Wealthy people NEED homeless people out there to fuel the poor fighting with the poor and distract everyone away from the fact that the wealthy are the true problem.

So... great idea that'll never happen.

what might it cost Bezos to end Homelessness in Seattle in six months and use it a model for other Billionaires/Multi-Multi Millionaires?

a Billion? two?
and he has Personal Wealth worth (they
say) more than ONE HUNDRED BILLION.

Most Americans pay taxes on their Largest Asset -- their Home. Whilst Bezos' largest Assets just Lazily sets there, Loafing away, doing NO One any Good. unless he swims in it. then maybe okay but it must be a Tremendous fucking Pool the size of what, Texas?

Let's Properly (Property) Tax THAT.

Toomy is the hold up. The beef is restraining the Fed from emergency powers to help the economy. Toomy and a few others want that baked into law so the executive will have to get Congress to back any Fed relief.

The unemployment extension is down to 10 weeks so checks can be sent to nearly everyone. At least a new administration will be in charge when it runs out. Meanwhile everyone who had their job sacrificed gives up another couple of months security so people that don’t need it get some cash.

In Deciduous v Conifer, it was wrongly argued that Pine was of more value to the pedestrian than the leaf shedding variety. First, Pine is not a native species but for this argument we'll just assume that it is a stand in for all conifers. Deciduous leafy trees serve better as shade trees in summer and shed their leaves which allows the sun's heat through in winter. Granted, we see little sun in winter but with climate change that may not always be the case.
Conifers also shed needles all year along with sticky sap making a mess underneath where nothing can grow. Leaves fall almost entirely in just one season making cleanup relatively easy and providing a good source of compost and nutrients for the soil below.
From a landscaping perspective they each have a purpose. Conifers are a good year round visual screen and can serve as a wind block in certain applications. Deciduous trees provide shade in summer without blocking light in winter.

Charles, you didn't bother to mention:
The Vancouver study you're referring to excluded participants who suffered from either drug addiction or mental illness. Because a majority of the homeless suffer from one or both conditions, this plan would only help a limited number of people.

Keif outlived Jim Fixx. Worth pointing that out.

@15 LIHI/SHARE had a "success rate" of transitioning people of 13% before the city instituted penalties (reduced funding) for not hitting certain benchmarks. Within a year of instituting those penalties, they are now around 45% success rate, apparently.
That information tells me they weren't really trying very hard to improve the lives of people and that a good portion of the monies they were given during the time where success rate was 13% or lower was wasted.
But keep doing you, you have no ideas all you do is criticize anyone who dare criticize the status-quo around here which allows our "most vulnerable" to languish in constant poverty with band-aid solutions like tiny homes and free ORCA cards. Heaven forbid we ask that our monies intended to help people actually fucking help people. I don't give a fuck Sharon Lee makes $200k salary, that's about what her performance as a CEO is worth.

@22,

That's not actually true. Though the homeless exhibit higher proportions of substance use and mental illness than the non-homeless, the majority of homeless people are neither drug addicts nor mentally ill.

Money for people without jobs: BAD!
Subsidies for corporations that cut jobs: GOOD!

While it definitely is the most Seattle thing possible to hear a study proves giving money to the homeless improves their outcome and then start carpet bombing homeless camps with stacks of 20s, it is important to read the fine print. Charles certainly won't tell you about it.

First, the participants were newly homeless, less than 6 months. Second, they were screened for mental illness and addiction. Lastly, by one year, both the control group who didn't receive money and those who did were spending an identical percentage of their days homeless, about 20%. The group that received money did get into housing faster, but within a year, this advantage had disappeared and they had the exact same outcomes.

This is certainly a way to help out those who are staying with relatives or couch surfing. This isn't going to help out the guy living in the park and stealing catalytic converters to fund his meth addiction. It is a huge exaggeration to say "This little experiment showed how easy it is to solve the homeless crisis." It does not.

@23- true that. And William Burroughs lived a lot longer than James Atkins.
Heroin- the key to vitality and longevity!

I wonder if the thief dressed like an Amazon delivery driver got the idea from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Dress up like the good guy, and then if Cindy-Lou Who asks what you are doing, say there was a mistake with the delivery.

CM--best part of my week. Well penned.

@18 -- “Except it [taxing Bezos Fairly as in he pays property tax on his largest Asset just like the Rest of US] won't end homelessness in a way that is sustainable.”

while your Expertise is certainly Welcome here
no, you are wrong. it certainly Will.

“Globally, lets take the increase in Bezos net worth since the pandemic began. Let's distribute it so that we triple the income of those living on less than $1 per day. You have now tripled their standard of living for four months. Now what do you do?”

for starters, I take it all back and spend it right here.
and then we use whatever Works of it for a
model for the Rest of US. One place at
a Time, please mr. in a Big hurry

“I am all for having the wealthy pay the same percent of income in tax as their secretaries as a matter of optics and fairness.”

fuck the Optics. damn the Fairness
how is it Fair for THREE Families to
own more Wealth than 50% of the
rest of the Entire Citizenry of OUR
Country? How can even You not
SEE that? is your Salary based on
your Obtusity?

“ The problem is it doesn't buy sufficient outcomes for the poor. The answer is economic development that raises the income and wealth of the poor.”

Well we’re gonna Home ‘em firstly.
but that IS a Good idea

“Fixing income inequality by pulling the wealthy toward the poor, makes everyone more equal, but it doesn't make the poor more wealthy.”

Is it true, they taste like Chicken?

it may be semantics but
we'll tax his Wealth
not his Income
Bezos's got
plenty Smart
Beancounters.

Banning honking your car horn was mentioned in this installment of Slog. I assume this means making it illegal, with consequences for violating the law? Coupled with the issues the city and its police force are already dealing with (including calls for fewer police) how would enforcing this "honking ban" work?

@32, I know there is no easy solution. I was responding to the article which said, "This little experiment showed how easy it is to solve the homeless crisis." I didn't build some strawman, I quoted the article and responded to it.

We don't even need to make big changes to society. Some cities have ended homelessness. Okay, not the way most people would think of it, where there aren't any more homeless, but they have meet the federal definition of ending homelessness, meaning it's temporary and somewhat uncommon, which is still better than we're doing. Cities like New Orleans, Houston, and Atlanta. They didn't do it by letting people camp in parks or having some poverty defense. They did take a housing first approach as part of their solutions but that wasn't all they did. New Orleans had 11,600 homeless in 2007 and 1,188 in 2018. They managed to do this despite Jeff Bezos' ridiculous increase in wealth. They also did it while spending less on homelessness than Seattle does. I mean, tax the Bezoses of the world if you'd like, but that is a different problem. There are quite a few cities that are making progress in tackling homelessness, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland are not among them. I'd say it's not really time to double down on what we're already doing. Instead, why not get rid of the folks who currently manage Seattle's homelessness response and subcontract it out to those who have been successful. Oh yeah, none of the cities that have done well decriminalized drugs.

@25 - Does their definition of drug addiction include the drug of alcohol? If it does, I'm not so sure about your statement.

@37 - During my entire copping career, I cannot remember ever once writing a ticket to anyone for violating the honking statute. I never saw anyone else do so, either.

@39,

Believe it or not, yes, including alcohol. Mind you, that doesn't mean they don't drink at all, just that they're not abusing it/addicted to it.

@44: Instead of libertarian methods.. you mean the tried and true method of letting them eat cake/ bootstraps method... Don't forget to throw in Jebus to help out as well. All nostrums to help solve the problem.. But wait there's more. Donald Trump.. now that is a real solution.. Throw in a little fantasy and a bunch of horeshit to finish your policy whitepaper.

@45 - That last may well be true of the 40%, but maybe not so much the remaining 60%.

thee Biggest Hack in US History
and how does FAKE 'prez'
<<<
react? by Tweeting how
his Election was so STOLEN

my Gawd
this guy

Bad
Bad
BAD for
America

I once saw a guy get pulled over for blowing his horn. he was opposite me, turning Left across the intersection at a 4-way stop and became quite Annoyed when I didn't yield to him. he laid on his horn a good 5 or 6 seconds so I raised my forearm and middle finger in Salute as I passed but otherwise ignored him and went on about my Business -- but to then see the Po-po come out of the convenience store parking lot, Blue Lights flashing in Hot pursuit of the me-FIRST-er! -- it kinda Made my day.

I wouldda like'd to've been a fly
on his windscreen when he and
the copper had their little chat....

@14: "Whilst Bezos' largest Assets just Lazily sets there, Loafing away, doing NO One any Good."

Any good like employing more than 100,000 people, delivering books and all sorts of other products. Launching rockets. Running Amazon Web Services.

Too many people learned their economics by watching Scrooge McDuck on Saturday mornings.

sure thing Sherlock
but Too many Billionaires
and multi Multi Millionaires
thought Scrooge McDuck the Ideal.

so how Large does Bezos's Pile get
before it Suffocates* all the rest of us?

*he can buy any Lawmaker or
TeeVee Network he Wants already:

so, there's just NO Limits?
with NINETY MILLION UN-
and Underinsured in the USofA
during this Panfucking Demic? gosh