Author: Don Smith

It costs about $38,000 a year to incarcerate a person for one year in Washington State (FY2019 Cost per Incarcerated Individual per Day — All Facility Costs). According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse, The substantial prison population in the United States is strongly connected to drug-related offenses. While the exact rates of inmates…

Some progressive writers have claimed that it’s a myth that Ralph Nader caused Al Gore to lose the 2000 presidential election to Bush. They say there were other reasons for the loss: the Supreme Court, bad ballots in Florida, Gore’s losing in his home state, etc.  They fail to realize two things. First, events can…

The Washington State Voters’ Pamphlet for the presidential primary election barely mentions the costs of wars and military spending. Tulsi Gabbard’s statement says the most about the topic. “Let us enter into a new century free from the fear of nuclear war, a world where there is real peace….” In the next paragraph she says,…

I often see him in downtown Seattle in the morning when I arrive. There were two other homeless guys nearby: one sleeping on a metal bench (like the one you see on the right above), the other sleeping in a doorway. Amazon.com’s headquarters are a few blocks away. The two richest men in the world…

Update: I heard from Rep. Nicole Macri’s office that while HB 2907 is dead for the session, the similar bill HB 2948 is still alive. It too contains exemptions for liquor and motor fuel manufacturers. The exemptions are there for consistency with municipal law related to RCW 35.102.130  (“Allocation and apportionment of income”) in the…

Rep. Tana Senn said she’d start with a “light” topic: taxes. There was a recent encouraging news: high revenue for the state.  Someone in the audience asked if the legislature would return some money to the citizens. Senn said it’s unlikely, because the money won’t be available til next year, it may be a one-time…

A former colleague wrote about his conversion from Mormon to atheist and from Republican to Democrat. I realized a few years back that my religion was a bunch of made-up nonsense, and my wife and I left the Mormon church in 2016. I’m an atheist now and happier than before I think, but I do…

On Jan 25 in Tukwila, Rep. Adam Smith gave a town hall to discuss the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act.  The NDAA has been widely criticized by anti-war and progressive groups for compromising away too many progressive amendments and for raising Pentagon spending to $738 billion. As Chair of the House Armed Services Committee,…