Wow, California voted for a Democrat. Sounds suspicious. Better start doing the deep math "analysis" using all sorts of fancy sounding words to prove that only election fraud could cause a state that is 60% Democratic to vote for a Democrat by a 60% margin.

Huge relief over the failed California recall and what it would have meant for the Left Coast. We dodged an insane asylum-worthy, flaming GOPnazi train on that one. May the California Republinazi party finally implode after its well-deserved death spiral.

Now praying that Canada City keeps JTru and tells Airhead The’Toole to piss off.

2: The wife of the jogger she killed wants to try her as an adult. Totally reasonable request.

@1:

I hear Cyber Ninjas is looking for another state GQP party to fleece - er, contract with for a six month long review of ballots that in the end everyone (except the GQP) will agree is a complete and utter farce. I mean, it's not like the CA GQP has anything better to do with all that sweet, sweet cabbage THEY fleeced - er, received as donations from credulous, slack-jawed rubes - er, loyal party members to finance this travesty of democracy - er, absolutely necessary recall election.

The California recall might have been overhyped, and the state might need to revise the process for determining the winner when the incumbent draws less than 50 percent, but the recall was not a waste of time. Apart from encouraging direct democracy, the Republicans took a huge, embarrassing defeat. Good. The recall will help the Democrats nationally. This is as good an outcome as could have happened. It's arguably not a game-changer, but it's certainly a plus rather than a minus. And Newsom ran an intelligent, vigorous campaign. I'm sighing with relief--and even smiling. How do the rigged election lies sound now? Good job by the Democrats in this one.

@8: Yeah, but in 2016 the smug mainstream media had a wake up call. I caution downplaying "anything can happen" in American politics.

Commenter 10 has Commenter 9 blocked with some Rube Goldberg Javascript and is oblivious to the echo.

That fat girl's full of crap. Instagram is full of skinny girls trying to get attention by whining over how they got booted from a flight because they just had to show up wearing workout underwear or some other not-clothing nonsense and posting 30 thirst pics about how totally fine their outfit was (deniz saypinar springs to mind), so now the fat instagram girl desperate for attention is copying them.

It was pathetic attention-whoring when the skinny girls did it, and it's just as pathetic and attention-whoring when the fat girls do it. Wear actual clothes on the plane.

@4,

It's an understandable request--they're sad and furious--but it's not a reasonable request.

She's a child, not an adult. She should be treated, and prosecuted, as a child.

17: - Yes, you're right. (sigh)

19: No, I believe you're wrong on that. There are wonderful parents who have nasty children, it's not all nurture.

@10 despite the rhetoric we are in no danger of the recall provision being abused (at least here in WA). It's not like someone can be recalled just because they make controversial decisions or are universally unliked (see Durkan, Jenny). No, the charges for recall have to reasonably sufficient to warrant such an action and in the case of Sawant there is no doubt she abused her office and violated the law. You can debate whether such action warrants her being recalled from office but that of course is what the vote is about. There is no debate she actually did these things (she paid a fine and finally grudgingly admitted to one of them). The recall is enshrined in our constitution for this very reason.

and trying to discredit AD because she switched party's last year is humorous at best. Especially when her opponent is running on a platform of subverting the judicial system and making herself a one woman arbitrar of justice. The choice here is whether you want a city attorney who will actually support public safety and use the legal system to promote justice for victims of crime or you want someone who is going to (in her own words) "gut the prosecutor's office" and let everyone have a pass in the name of equity with no alternatives in place while pursuing idealogical visions (tax the rich, apartments everywhere) that her office has no ability to influence.

So...a 15-year-old girl, who shouldn't have been driving in the first place, with a 14-year-old passenger just "wanted to scare" a middle-aged jogger with a 3,500 lb. car going 50 mph. Well, she's not going to be winning any spelling bees, is she? All sympathies to the family. I know this could be an isolated case, but whenever I hear something like this or about a story of a missing young mother who appearantly had lots of time to make duck-mouthed selfies (Did your mother? Mine didn't.), I worry about the values and pathologies of the next generation. It's sad, and it seems we are missing something pretty important.

Not a good idea to remove your shirt or blouse on an airplane - bra or no bra (and duh) - whether you weigh 95 or 600 lbs. Or your shoes/socks for that matter. Why? Well, kiddies, there's kind of a social contract (that gets breached more and more lately) when a certain number of people are trapped on a plane at an altitude of 30,000 feet. There is nowhere to go to get away from you being you. It requires your best behavior. And it you are the type that gets a little rowdy after a cocktail or two, go with the ginger ale. But by all means, please use your inside voice and please keep your clothes on...because when I start feeling airsick nothing works like stripping down to my knit boxers?

I'm getting over it, but I'm still a little furious that my state just blew $300M on an election that was never going anywhere. I mean, if you don't like Gov. Newsom, there's a real election next June. Infuriating. Gavin is pretty popular down here - and IMHO for good reason. All that money could have gone to get us some water, to help people stay in their homes, to keep the lights on, or to help the homeless situation which here in Los Angeles is on the brink of something catastrophic. You can't walk three blocks - even in the "good" neighborhoods without encountering a Hooverville - tents and boxes blocking the sidewalk, feces, used syringes, aggression, some in need of mental healthcare, some in need of a roof over their heads - it's all there and it's a crime that needs money and attention. So, yeah, I'm a little pissed that we spent needed state funds because the Trumpers, the John Birchers, the neo-Nazis wanted a last hurrah.

Oh so people are outraged by a teenager using a car to run over another human being and kill them? Interesting given the number of human beings murdered by guns (something that exists solely to kill) and the number of human beings being killed by COVID. Can't imagine why a child would have a depraved indifference to life. Where on earth could they have possibly gotten the idea that life is meaningless and who cares if I take one with my car? The fucking hypocrisy is truly infinite.

@8- Don’t forget to thousand 13. California was equally democratic then, and a reasonable but somewhat boring Democratic governor was tossed out of office because a bunch of whining petulant bratty children didn’t wanna pay their car tabs. Thankfully Arnold Schwarzenegger turned out to be not all that much of a Republican.

That’s “2013”

Dammit. “2003.”

That kids parents sound like they stepped right up and turned her in which was exactly right. The kid herself sounds like a real gem. Maybe she’s salvageable. Maybe not. And her friends need a good spanking too.

@19,
I wouldn't prosecute the parents with criminal charges, but they should be able to be sued for civil damages on behalf of their daughter.

It sucks if they're great people, but when you have kids, you're accepting the responsibility that goes along with it.

This ludicrous recall dovetails with the idiotic Sawant recall.

Hopefully Sawant will run for Mayor next time so we can get a socialist with some hair on their nuts in there who can address social decay like street camping, which is actually collateral damage from unbridled capitalism.

Let the voters decide who holds office, and no it's not the Deep State or Deep Throat or one of the characters in the Dick Tracy movie like the Diddler or the Joker.

This is democracy and the people have spoken. Let Governor Newsom serve his term and if the voters don't like his performance they can "throw the bastard out".

This is like the idiotic "Impeach Biden" movement that would never get off the ground because you don't have the votes.

Let democracy do her thing with citizen plebiscite.

Sorry to hear about the murder charge against that teenage driver.

There was a similar, dreadful situation like that in Auburn some years back where an inebriated teen took out an entire family of children.

Those D.A.R.E. drug education programs in schools are really good, but not everyone gets the message, even more so if "the other kids are doing it" and or the parents have alcohol or drug issues and set a bad example for the kids.

Everyone should be required to get a vaccine, especially those who interface with the public like airport employees, and no, it won't shrink your testicles or make your Johnson look like Trump's mushroom-shaped weenie.

@28: Only the rare upper-Eastside yuppie/academic uses logic and decision analysis when it's time to fuck. Yeah, you're right about parents' responsibility to their kid and to others, but arguments like that don't seem to deter many. It's like ...why are you having so many children when the environment is screaming, "Stop! I can't handle it!" Or, having children that you can't afford to feed and clothe. Or having children when you KNOW you lack the ability to bond. Logic and reason just doesn't work in this case.

@27 "stepped right up"? " um, "out for a jog back in July" I don't know when the person turned themselves in, but it is news in September. I believe one has to be 18 to be the legal owner of an automobile, so someone else was looking at a whole lot of trouble and threw the kid under the bus figuring at 15 she looking a max of three years in juvi. However I doubt that will get them off hook in the civil case and I'm not sure it completely protects them from criminal charges, harboring a fugitive for a month is still harboring isn't it?

The Mooncake article intrigued me, so I bought a box of mooncakes at Uwajimaya. They are expensive ($30 for 4 cakes), a little spicy, nutty and delicious! They're rich too, so a half a cake is good, or split a whole cake with someone unless you're really hungry.

Happy Autumn Festival!

@17 is right. Sad that teens are doing that, but there's a reason why we have separate justice systems for them.

With AD and NTK, voters are stuck between voting for an abolitionist and a Republican, and the vast majority of Dems do not know what to do... I wouldn't be surprised to see many voters leave it blank and shed responsibility for electing either candidate.

Which only points out once again that our entire political system is stuck in the 18th century.

If there was rank choice voting, it would be Holmes vs AD, and Holmes would win. (I wanted to see Holmes go, but I wanted him to be replaced by a reasonable dem not by one of these two)

In current times, I would not vote for a Republican on principle. But there are a lot of dems who aren't as hardline about that, and they'll figure that there's not much harm (to them) that AD can do as city attorney, while what NTK is selling sounds like it can harm them (whether or not she really has much power to do much abolitionisting).

The other thing this election brings up, is that many, many dems/centrists are getting entirely fed up with the crime/homeless situation, and when voters get fed up, they start making irrational choices... a 1990's version of Giuliani doesn't sound so bad.

Someone who is going to clean up the streets. Someone who doesn't think crime is not so bad. Don't think it won't happen here. It's just a matter of time before it does.

@34 It's hilarious to me that you will argue so voraciously against someone due to their membership in a party that you deem anti American and "is a failed malignant ideology" (AD) while in another post defending someone else from being recalled from office who is a member of a party that calls for dismantling the US Constitution and has been historically proven to be a "failed malignant ideology." (Sawant). It's a great red herring fallacy on your part to distract from the real issue of public safety because we know NKT can't win based on her actual platform of your know undermining the judicial system and destroying the office she is running for.

@23: It's not hypocritical to be outraged about one particular death when thousands are dying by other causes. It's not hypocritical to be outraged over the actions of a child in comparison to overall failings of the human condition and the meaningless loss of life in disease, politics, and by guns. I don't think hypocritical is the word you're looking for.

Lots of talk here about whether the parents should be responsible for the 15 year old driver who killed a pedestrian. There is a statute in Washington that parents can be liable when their child "willfully" or "maliciously" inflicts a personal injury (RCW 4.24.190) but the damages are limited to $5,000. Some might try for negligent supervision, but the bar is quite high for that. Also, since the vehicle was taken without permission (assuming no prior knowledge of that type of activity) it is likely that the bodlily injury insurance coverage on the vehicle will be denied, denying the decedent's family of potential recovery. This is a bad situation all around, since obviously the child is judgment proof.

Shorter @47:

"I'm not a Republican, but I'll gladly vote for a Republican whenever it's convenient.
But I'm NOT a Republican..."

@42, @49: Literally all you have against AD is to yell, "Republican!" That's it. Nothing else. (And, compounding the irony, all Seattle elected offices are officially non-partisan.)

NTK's "utopian with principle" idea has already been given a five-year trial, right here in Seattle; there's no mystery as to the result. Camping on public property is illegal; shooting up heroin is illegal; cooking and consuming meth' is illegal; stealing to support all of the above is illegal; trading in stolen property is illegal. Seattle hasn't been enforcing those laws, and the result has been an unambiguous disaster. Entire public spaces have been abandoned to criminals, homeless people have died in droves, dirty needles and actual human shit are not uncommon sights in Seattle. Literally nothing good has come from any of this.

Confronted with these undeniable facts, you respond by trying to declare off-limits any attempt by citizens to change policy by voting in elections. Your love for CM Sawant also holds no mystery at all: you share her utter contempt for our democracy.

How can I complain about Gavin Newsom? Right now I'm too busy celebrating that enough California voters woke up to another RepubliKKKan scam with the overblown recall bullshit and had the good sense to reject pro-Trumpist RWNJ sock puppet, Larry Elder. I'm relieved that Newsom is still Governor of California.
Now if we could just enlighten enough voters in blood red Alaska and Idaho.

Jesus. A fifteen year old illegally joyriding in someone else's car with a friend deliberately runs over a jogger, laughing about committing vehicular homicide?!
I'm glad I'm not one of the prep's parents.

@3 Original Andrew: Agreed and seconded.

@22 Bauhaus I: $300 million was wasted on the California recall election?!
I feel your pain, and that of every other sound minded Californian voter.

@30 Urgutha Forka: "It sucks if they're great people, but when you have kids, you accept the responsibility that goes along with it." Ain't THAT the fucking truth?
I can't imagine being a parent in these present times, when the number of such senselessly violent crimes committed by kids under 18 is becoming alarmingly more commonplace.

@50:

To paraphrase the old adage: "if you act like a Republican, talk like a Republican, and vote like a Republican - you're probably a Republican."

@52: Thank you for completely validating my very first point @50. (Isn't it great, having done something useful, at last?)

Oh, and the "walk like a duck" analogy was used by the Eisenhower administration (you know, Republican) to justify overthrowing the government of Guatemala. Because any Latin American government which actually cared about citizens was as good as Communist. So, good work with your choice of cliches. Please keep it up.

@47, @53: You're both wrong. The decriminalization of abortion was the entire explanation for the crime rate falling in the mid-90s onwards. Turns out, when the government stops forcing poor women to bear unwanted children, our society produces far fewer violent criminals. (See Chapter 5 of "Freakonomics," for details.)