by Valerie Tarico, originally published at Valerietarico.com When Donald Trump was elected, demand for long-acting birth control soared. Planned Parenthood scrambled to schedule appointments. One woman made a sign that said, “My IUD will outlast your presidency!†Others posted the image to social media. Thanks to a determined nonprofit, those defiant IUD purchases in the…
In an interview with Financial Times Vladimir Putin says liberalism has ‘become obsolete’. The Russian leader made the statement before he left for the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. He claimed that liberalism is in conflict with “the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population…” According to BBC News, Premier Putin also stated that multiculturalism is “no…
BAD BLUES: Some of the House Democrats Who Deserve to Be ‘Primaried’ “Now representing a Democratic, largely working-class district that includes the Olympic Peninsula and most of Tacoma, 45-year-old Derek Kilmer has been an elected lawmaker for most of his adult life. Currently in his seventh year in Congress after eight years in Washington’s state…
At the June 8th Town Hall meeting of Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA 9th CD) in Crossroads, Bellevue, Rep Adam Smith gave progressive answers to almost every question he was asked: on immigration, on the environment, on low-yield nuclear weapons, on convening impeachment hearings for Trump (he mostly supports it), on taxation, on peace, etc. One…
In the 1960s, anti-war music, rock music, and folk music transformed culture and helped bring an end to the Vietnam War. Nowadays, there seems to be too little popular music about social justice and peace. The costs of war are largely hidden from people. Films cover war mostly as entertainment. Soldiers are treated as heroes…
Republicans are using the topics of homelessness, drugs, and crime as bludgeons to scare suburban and exurban voters away from the Democratic Party. The tactic is likely to work, to some extent. The film “Seattle is Dying” makes a powerful case that, at least for the minority of low-functioning, high-crime homeless people highlighted in the…
Rep. Adam Smith spoke at a meeting of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about arms control, nuclear arms non-proliferation, and President Trump’s withdrawal from international treaties. Smith said we need to modernize our nuclear weapons, but we should not intend to use them tactically, as some people do  Perhaps one leg of the…
I downloaded from leg.wa.gov detailed data about bills before the legislature this session, including roll calls. There were 2668 bills listed; 797 of them were voted upon. Only 100 of them were sent on to the governor, according to the data. The tables below — first for the state Senate, then for the State House…