(update 2020-07-10) Rep. Adam Smith (D -CD09 WA), Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, is continuing his mostly hawkish management of the Pentagon with the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA raises the base Pentagon budget to $740.5 billion (versus $738 this for the 2020 budget). It restricts President Trump’s ability to withdraw troops…

George Washington was a slave owner. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery but rose to be a great orator, educator and statesman. It is fitting, in this era of Black Lives Matter, that Washington State officially change its seal to include Booker T.’s face, not George’s.

Early this morning Seattle police entered the CHOP zone pushing people out of the area with batons and using pepper spray which has been banned by the city council. (Apparently that doesn’t mean anything to SPD who do pretty much whatever they want while thumbing their nose at the courts and the council’s oversight, much…

The following youtube video by the U.S. military documents the training exercises of the US and Philippines militaries in preparation for war with China, regarding contested islands claimed by both China and Philippines.  The film has rousing martial music, with beating drums. It shows military equipment and soldiers landing on islands — reminiscent of…

Rep. Adam Smith said in a town hall meeting with Indivisible Saturday (June 19) that 15% of federal spending goes to the military. I looked at the CBO’s data on federal spending at The Federal Budget in 2019: An Infographic.  For 2019 it says that $676 billion was spent on “Defense” and that total federal…

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…