My favorite corner of campus, before it honored O'Brien, it honored Public Health

Thinking about the capitol campus and its Public Lands-Social Security and Public Health buildings, monuments to collective achievements, being renamed for individual men.

Poverty Is a Policy Choice Your tax breakdown: $2,300 for the military and weapons; $10 for homelessness assistance programs.

"The taxes we pay can affirm life, care for our elders, feed the hungry, house the poor, and care for creation. Taxes can also underwrite a bloated military budget that takes life and incentivizes war."
sojo.net/magazine/apr...

So the big studios are abandoning the US and turning the staff workers into contractors to get out paying for healthcare.

The United States is losing one of its defining industries because of not having universal healthcare and the people are going to be even more vulnerable to the industry.

Leo: "Democracy remains healthy, however, only when rooted in the moral law and a true vision of the human person. Lacking this foundation, it risks becoming either a majoritarian tyranny or a mask for the dominance of economic and technological elites."

FC St. Pauli | FC St. Pauli awards Peace Prize – supporting civil… FC St. Pauli has presented the Peace Prize for the first time. With this award, the club honors individuals and initiatives that actively stand for…

FC St. Pauli presents the Peace Prize in the US for the first time. The award honors individuals and initiatives that stand for solidarity, participation, and respectful coexistence. The first recipient is Wes Burdine, owner of the Black Hart of Saint Paul in Minnesota.

#fcsp

Great photo. We were just there yesterday. Site is a bit hurt by the park allowing for cars and trucks to drive on the beach right next to the shipwreck. Felt like the space merited more solemnity.

Some Marines graduate without their parents' presence amid ICE fears News that ICE would be stationed outside Marine Corps graduation events upended family plans, elicited national reaction and drew out protesters, including Marine veterans.

“They were going to come. It was going to be a big thing. We were going to go to the beach right after. All those plans had to go out the window because they said ICE would be here."

Surge in ICE Arrests of Farmworkers Worries WA Farmers As Busy Season Approaches Save Family Farming Executive Director Ben Tindall issued the following statement regarding a notable increase in federal agents’ enforcement activity impacting farmworkers and the farming community. ...

Fear and uncertainty don’t grow food—farmworkers do.

America needs an immigration system that protects people AND our food supply. Target criminals, not the workforce that sustains our farms.

#Congress: fix it.

savefamilyfarming.org/surge-in-ice...

#WALeg #ProtectFarmworkers #PNW #Harvest

Text from a Rick Steves post on Facebook: "A Millionaires Tax? Let’s Try Shared Prosperity! A new tax on fat paychecks like mine was just signed into law in my home state — and I like it. In 2029, Washington state will start collecting a 9.9% tax on income over $1 million. The 8,000,000 Washingtonians whose households make less than a million dollars a year will pay zero under this new tax and enjoy all the benefits of a better-funded state. And for the wealthy (like me and an estimated 30,000 others), every million dollars in taxable income that our households earn after the first million will cost us about $100,000. It takes a lot of money to run a state that’s as livable as ours. Yet Washington is one of only nine states that don’t currently levy a traditional income tax. Our state is still funded by consumption taxes, such as sales and excise taxes, giving us the second-most regressive tax code in the country. (Only Florida has us beat.) And it’s time for Washington millionaires to pay our fair share. Right about now, Republicans reading this are queuing up in the comments to holler their well-worn excuses: A state income tax will penalize, and therefore demoralize, Washington state’s job creators! Letting the rich get richer results in more wealth trickling down! Wealthy people will flee your state for those with more regressive taxation! (Since California and Oregon already have a comparable tax, that would be distant lands like Texas, Tennessee, and Nevada.) As a wealthy person myself, I see this tax as essentially free money for all Washingtonians. Everybody in my state gains. And speaking from personal experience, I know that anyone who earns enough to be subject to this tax is beyond the point where consuming more adds to their security, their well-being, or even, arguably, their happiness — meaning there will be basically zero human cost."

Text from Rick Steves Facebook post: "If you disagree, consider the minuscule impact this tax will have on my state’s millionaires. Now, contrast that with the value of close to $4 billion a year in tax revenue once it’s smartly invested in programs that will help the roughly one-third of Washington households living paycheck to paycheck. For those who still aren’t convinced, here’s a lesson I’ve learned in my travels: Even if you’re motivated only by greed, if you know what’s good for you, you don’t want to be filthy rich in a society with a huge gap between rich and poor. It’s just not a nice place to raise your kids. And remember: Shrouds have no pockets…especially if you’re a multimillionaire with no heart for your neighbors. Plus, helping build a better community for you and your neighbors just…feels good. I learned this firsthand back in 2011, when — after years of receiving a Bush-era tax break for the wealthy that I didn’t need — I noticed that to pay for that tax cut, public funding for community programs and institutions was being decimated. Recognizing the practical value of investing my tax savings in my community, I’ve donated $100,000 a year to our local arts center and symphony ever since, covering concert hall rental costs for our volunteer orchestra and much more. Paying a “self-imposed wealth tax” and knowing I’m helping my entire community has brought me great joy for 15 years and counting. It’s far from heroic…but it is a little lonely."

Text from Rick Steves Facebook post: "The “millionaires tax” that Governor Bob Ferguson signed into law today will make our state better than ever — not just for the working class and poor, but for everyone who values a healthy and sustainable future. And for us millionaires who are enlightened enough to realize that we’ve reached a point where consuming more won’t make us genuinely happier, it just feels right to pay a little extra. For me, it’s biblical (“To whom much is given, much will be required”)… It’s European (after all, societies that are equitably funded are much more “content” than ours)… And — for those of us with a heart for the public good — it’s simply common sense. Sign me up!"

Travel writer Rick Steves on Washington's newly signed "Millionaires Tax"

From a business perspective, I imagine airlines and airports are not thrilled with this. Ticket prices are up because oil prices are up. And now fear of being deported … or worse will cause people to not fly.

Yet another way to crash the economy.

Nothing like the promise of masked immigration agents at every airport to make wary international tourists rethink their plans. Another W for the US economy.

Not sure this is the highest priority, but I've seen Millionaires Tax, Millionaire's Tax (it can't be!), and Millionaires' Tax (Gov Ferguson media release). All the while I thought it was just the millionaire tax, not even worthy of capitalization or possessive. So what's the right call here? #waleg

Ah yes - both can be reasonable. I didn't hear much from Rep Barkis this debate - several amends from Griffey and Burnett (ex Chelan County sheriff).

Griffey

Leagues Cup final performance plus 5 goals in preseason. I'm in the camp of giving him a shot, but I think one more meh game and we should switch it up.

Yes, ICE can trick people into opening the door by pretending to be police looking for a missing child.

But then people won't open the door when the real police come looking for a missing child.

SB 6045, the WA farmworker collective bargaining bill, did not make it past floor cutoff yesterday. Message from the Senate is hard to miss: after 90 years of exclusion and inequity, what's one more? #waleg

YES. I've been begging for this. They are running illegal detention facilities in office buildings. Municipalities shut down businesses all the time for health code or zoning violations far less severe than ICE's. Pressure your cities!

Seattle lawmaker wants to ban new detention centers, jails The unsaid context is clearly the federal government’s push to expand immigration enforcement — and Seattle’s near-unanimous opposition to that effort.

Seattle lawmaker Alexis Mercedes Rinck wants to ban new detention centers, jails

Contact your state Senator to support farmworker collective bargaining in WA (SB 6045). Farmworkers have been excluded from protections under the National Labor Relations Act for 90 years. It's past time to put an end to that injustice. #waleg

foodjustice.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/mail...

A photo of a giant chandelier in the rotunda of the Washington State Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington. It weighs 5 tons, is made of bronze, and is lit with 200 lights. It was custom made by Tiffany of New York. Transported across the entire US by train, then installed in 1928.

I rarely do this one, but here goes!
#AllAglow I present you with the 5 Ton Bronze chandelier in the Washington State Legislative Building in Olympia! It's lit with 200 lights and was made by Tiffany of New York. Installed in 1928.
#UrbanGaze #PalacesAndGardens #Photography #EastCoastKin #📷

No children should be in ICE detention.

To reject the US as a fundamentally American country with a deep shared history and commonality with the rest of the Americas, including that Spanish has long been our de facto national second language, is on a deep level anti-American. It's hating actual American culture and history and tradition.

This bill would be a big setback to  the progress criminal legal reform advocates have made toward undoing the harms of fines and fees on people who can’t pay their court debt. Sign in CON now! #WaLeg #NoPriceOnJustice @acluwa.bsky.social #CivilSurvival

Link in the bio.

Fact-checking the farmworker union debate Plus surveillance, législative records, lobbyist photographs, and the quote of the week

On the historic push in WA to address the 90-year exemption of farmworkers from the NLRA:

washingtonobserver.substack.com/p/fact-check...

#waleg

English translation of statement from Ecuadorian Consulate regarding ICE’s attempt to enter their building in Minneapolis today:

The Supreme Court’s “History and Tradition” Test Just Ran Into America’s History and Tradition of Anti-Black Racism Requiring "historical analogues" for modern gun laws eventually turns up some history that makes even the conservative justices uncomfortable.

I wrote about Justice Neil Gorsuch Pikachu-facing throughout oral argument in Wolford v. Lopez today bc the Court told states that modern gun laws must have "historical analogues" and, as it turns out, a lot of historical laws are racist

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/wolfo...