She doesn't want to take the COVID vaccine and is criticizing others for getting it??!?!? She's a fucking moron. I don't care about her ethnicity/religion/bagel preference. SHE'S A MORON.

Charles, the MyNorthwest.com article you referenced is primarily about the B&O tax which you instantly dismissed simply because it was used as argument against Inslee's capital gains proposal (which would be added on to the federal capital gains tax).

Interestingly, it contains this paragraph:

“If you’re a grocery store, you pay a wholesaler for the bag of chips and the produce, and then you charge your customer the retail price and your profit margin is only 1 or 2%. But in Washington, you pay tax on your whole revenue. You don’t get to deduct the cost of of your the groceries you’re selling. When national groups do studies, it really confounds them how they’re supposed to measure this,” he said.

Given your interest in economics, I thought you would have commented on that. I mean, after all, you champion our small business grocery stores and gas station wine selections. But I don't think you even read beyond the headline. The "simpler solutions" was enough for you to spin on.

You're better than that. You're intellectual curiosity level needs refreshing.

@4: An amendment for a state income tax, I assume? (which I support)

So a domestic violence investigation is enough to prevent a police hire now? That doesn't bode well for the estimated 40% of police who commit violent acts at home.

@8 the only way you can get an amendment for an income tax to pass at the ballot box would to have a provision to lower sales/property tax to make it revenue neutral. One of the reasons these proposals are DOA is the conflicting logic the pols use to try and get it passed. They talk about changing our regressive tax structure yet when it comes time to propose something they do nothing to actually change it. Instead its really about a revenue increase and most people simply do not believe that the legislature won't eventually keep lowering the threshold until most of the population is paying the income tax on top of the already high sales/property taxes.

Regarding the Edmond's police chief fiasco. Charles is flat out wrong on this one. You have one candidate who is highly qualified and was actually offered the job and then had it rescinded for a candidate who turns out has numerous red flags that essentially disqualifies them from the role. That is plain mismanagement and it seems pretty clear the initial candidate would have a case against the city for discriminating based on race. Accusing someone of racism for actually calling that out is sloppy.

Everyone who works in congress should get the vaccination. Why do people not understand this? The right and Ilhan Omar are wrong. There are people older than fucking dirt working in Congress and the so-called young and healthy can get COVID and spread it and kill people all while being asymptomatic. Getting the vaccination is the RIGHT THING, THE SMART THING, THE RESPONSIBLE THING, THE DECENT THING, THE ONLY THING TO DO. Period. Full stop. Fuck every piece of shit, including Rand Paul (who claims to be a doctor) for attacking AOC for getting the vaccine. The hard on these people have for this young woman and how they relentlessly go after her is pathetic. Who knows what Ilhan Omar's reasoning is and I really don't care. She is being irresponsible and stupid. Nancy Pelosi is how old? You would think all of the people her age and people like Mitch McConnell (who got the shot despite doing nothing else for anyone else until the shitty, too little, too late stimulus package they just passed) would be happy to know that ALL of their colleagues have been vaccinated.

This entire shit show, every last bit of it, from start to where we are now was 100% preventable.

Trump walked into the White House and from day one chose not to do his job. He couldn't be bothered, there was too much FOX news watching, tweeting, and golfing to do. He abdicated his role as leader of this country and chose to murder as many people as possible. He will go down in history as a mass murdering piece of shit. All we can hope is that he dies in prison. Of course it would be much more appropriate if the federal government charged him for his treason and put him to death, but that won't happen. New York state will do the work to get him put in prison and he will either go to prison or run and hide somewhere, tweeting out hate until the day he dies.

Meanwhile:

Jeff Bezos, Mitch McConnell and COVID capitalism

Bezos, as well as every major employer in America, can easily afford to protect their workers. And as Mitch McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans should know, the richest nation in the world can easily afford to provide every American adequate income support during this national emergency.

That they're not doing so is disgraceful.

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/20/jeff-bezos-mitch-mcconnell-and-covid-capitalism_partner/

@12 Jeff Bezos didn't get to be richer than Croesus by letting one thin dime slip through his fingers when he didn't have to.

@11: Correct. Our senators and representatives are public employees and are "on the front lines" in public settings and gatherings required to do their job.

This is why federal taxation exists and the current administration and GOP held hostage senate hoarding funds and not providing them to states is yet another instance of flat out treason and violence against the people of this country.

Congress Didn’t Include State And Local Aid In Stimulus, And The Most Vulnerable Will Suffer
Without more aid, a shredded social safety net and an unemployment crisis that lasts for years are all but guaranteed.

The bill contains no new aid for state and city governments as they face down yawning deficits and the prospect of having to slash services the public needs more desperately than ever. Virtually every state has laid off thousands of employees or slashed tens of millions of dollars in crucial services. Cities large and small are on the brink and clamoring to avoid cuts to services as basic as firefighting.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/covid-stimulus-state-local-aid_n_5fe20d94c5b6acb53454806d

Charles - I generally like to read your perspective on issues because they are often different than my own. I often learn something new and thank you for that. However, this line is a complete crock of shit.

"A good number of the people AOC represents are not white and are right to worry about a vaccine developed with support from a white supremacist president."

One of the few good things Trump actually did was push like hell for a vaccine. Somehow, the US beat every timeline provided by leading medical officials 6 months ago. But the point is, the Federal government pumped money into the vaccine which is approved by the FDA, not Trump. I don't care what color your skin is, but if you are STUPID enough to think that Trump secretly created a vaccine that only benefits white people, you should be in the BACK OF THE LINE and hopefully star in the next Darwin awards.

By the way, I'm sure it will all surface that a small group of predominantly white people made an insane amount of money off this vaccine .... Which leads to an interesting moral question. If 350M Americans benefit from the vaccine, does it matter if a few hundred got rich off of it?

@20: Of all people, I thought you weren't one to politicize the virus.

We're not talking about the Windsors getting vaccinated first. Getting elected isn't about extreme privilege for most of Congress by a long shot. It takes a lot of work and dedication. And yes, their work is important, like casting votes for relief bills.

@18 Even European countries suffering through the pandemic have, oh, I don't know, GIVEN A SHIT ABOUT THE PEOPLE. They have paid them CASH PAYMENTS MONTHLY. They have provided needed PPE and other medical equipment as needed by their medical institutions (unlike Trump who refused to send it to certain states and also sent a shit ton to Russia while Americans were wearing garbage bags and reusing PPE). Countries like Australia and New Zealand shut shit down so fast and so hard that their cases are next to nothing compared to the slaughter this country is experiencing. In March there was a plan to send masks to every American and Trump ACTIVELY AND PURPOSELY CHOSE NOT TO DO SO. Trump lied about the seriousness of the pandemic from the beginning, chose to do nothing, continues to do nothing (he's been in his bedroom tweeting lies about the election since he lost). YES BECAUSE OF TRUMP, TRUMP'S LACKEYS, AND MITCH MCCONNELL'S REFUSAL TO DO A GODDAMN THING ABOUT ANY OF THIS AMERICA AND THE PEOPLE IN AMERICA HAVE SUFFERED MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY AND WILL CONTINUE TO SUFFER. But hey, we're the greatest country in the world, nothing to see here. By the time it's over here there will be millions dead, but who gives a fuck right?
You are seriously deranged.

Flying while Muslim reminds me of that Chappelle's Show sketch where the Black people are behind the Muslims on the plane thinking, "hope they don't bomb this plane", white guy behind the Black people thinking, "how did these Negroes get in first class?", Native Americans behind them, and some Buffalo behind the Native Americans. Ha.

just 'cause some locales started off brilliantly and then were forced to suffer fools (like our maskless "Freedom-fighters!" cum Darwin Award strivers) does not make trumpf's INACTIONs any more palatable -- nor any less Nuremberg Trials-worthy.

all this shit WAS Avoidable
but NOT with perpetually-Failing
fake tan 'president' dipshit 'at the helm.'

when the Captain of the Ship
deliberately steers his ship (of State)
Directly INTO the fucking IceBerg is he not

ACCOUNTABLE?

Oh & he better not
Piss Off Kamala
she'll have his
balls.

It is ludicrous to say that Ilan Omar has good reasons for not getting vaccinated. It is tragic that she won’t protect herself and it sends a horrible signal to her supporters and the broader community.

Sorry, Charles, but you're allowing your contempt for Rantz (easily justified) to lead you into defending the inexcusable hiring idiocy in Edmonds. Lawless is not "overly" qualified, as the screed says, but he is well qualified. Pruit had several more problems in his background than just an isolated domestic violence "issue." And his qualifications for a town the size of Edmonds are a joke anyway.

Besides, how cool would it be to have a police chief named Lawless?

There's nothing wrong with preferring a POC for police chief, even in a snow-white town, and the sad thing is there are oodles of well qualified command-level black officers out there. It sounds as if Edmonds just took whichever black dude walked in the door first. And they're surprised it led to embarrassment?

Many command-level officers have advanced degrees, and almost all from any medium-sized jurisdiction and up have been through the FBI Academy's leadership school. In Dallas, anyone above the rank of Lieutenant has graduated that program.

That reminds me that I personally know a black and muslim command-level officer in Dallas applying for their top job right now, and he would be a fantastic choice. Now, he would be "overly" qualified for the Edmonds job.

Anyhoo, Edmonds needs to hire a formal search committee and post the opening in trade publications and websites. Many agencies are looking for POC for their police chief gigs right now, so the competition means it will take some work, but Edmonds can certainly find a black police chief just as well qualified as Lawless...but probably not with the awesome name.

Oh noes! Another troll on SLOG is pissed off because they disagree with my comment. LOL

Well that escalated quickly...

The Trump admin failed. Bigly. I’d say they threw in the towel but they didn’t even suit up for the game. Some states and locals have made questionable calls but at least they did it in the name of trying to protect people and their hearts were in the right place.

@22 is exactly right. And pushing the idea that the vaccine is some kind of white supremacist plot is going to lead to more unnecessary deaths.

There is absolutely no evidence of that. White people are getting exactly the same vaccine as people of color. Please stop pushing this idea, or giving any credence to those who do.

RE: Republicans who denied or downplayed COVID threat now getting photographed getting a vaccination first such as Marco Rubio..... “There are very, very few instances of known allergic reactions to the Covid-19 vaccine, but Marco Rubio has always thought of himself as one in a million so there's still hope,” sneered actor George Takei.

There is a huge amount of MAGA videos out now portraying protestors and the homeless as THE PROBLEM here and in other cities. Rantz is a racist and a serious white, male, privileged, ass hole who is feasting off the bodies of the disadvantaged and contributing to these lies. The lies that state that the poor and protestors are to blame for harming this city.

THEIR SIDE 44? What the f.... are you talking about? Your side has all the television channels
in this city and gigantic masses of treasure plus the police against BLM and the rest of us.
You are a disgusting LIAR.