Washington Liberals

In an essay Are We Doomed? from The Atlantic in January of 2022, George Packer warned of the dangers to our democracy from Republican extremism, in particular with regards to elections.  His prescription for stopping Republican extremism is that a coalition of Democrats, Independents, and moderate Republicans should overlook minor areas of disagreement.  He says…

On April 21, 2022 Rep. Adam Smith held his first in-person town hall meeting in two years. The location was an elementary school in SeaTac, WA, a working class and multi-ethnic suburb to the southeast of Seattle. After presenting Congressional art awards to three local K12 students, Rep. Smith spent fifteen minutes giving an overview…

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church is a progressive church that has a facebook page that I subscribe to. They often share inspiring, progressive memes about social, religious, and political issues. Recently they shared the following meme image with me: I liked the image and so tried to share with others. When I did that, a warning…

I suspect that many antiwar activists are upset not just about the outbreak of war in Ukraine but also by the fact that Putin’s stupid and evil invasion makes U.S. aggressive policies seem reasonable. Putin has managed to unite the world behind U.S. militarism, and U.S. public opinion seems solidly against Putin, as it should…

Mickey Huff, the third director of Project Censored, interviews American University historian Peter Kuznick, co-author with Oliver Stone of The Untold History of the United States. They discuss the current U.S. and NATO confrontation with Russia over Ukraine; summarize the recent history of Ukraine and U.S. relations, while placing current affairs in Cold War context; and emphasize the…

The Quincy Institute video Who’s Afraid of the Military Industrial Complex? – YouTube  (embedded below) that Coleen shared has gotten 424 views and 37 likes.  A music video or a cat video often gets millions of views.  Apparently not many people are afraid of the MiC, maybe because they think the topic is BORING. Well,…

I’m watching an online meeting/protest about the possible war with Ukraine. There are dozens of speakers, of various races, including Margaret Flowers, David Swanson., Bruce Cagnon, and Gerry Condon. “This is a United States government provocation.  Every Russian troop is within Russia’s borders. The U.S. has its troops in dozens of countries. We need to…

According to the Guttmacher Institute, forty-four states prohibit abortion after some point in pregnancy. California, New York, and Washington prohibit abortion after fetal viability.  Massachusetts prohibits abortion after twenty-four weeks. As the Guttmacher Institute says (ibid), “The current U.S. Supreme Court standard holds that states may prohibit abortion after fetal viability as long as there…

A trio of informative, well-written articles has piqued my interest in the future of Bellevue and, specifically, in the questions of who will control the process and who will benefit. None of the articles significantly addressed the role of Kemper Freeman. In addition to addressing his role, this essay discusses further desiderata for making Bellevue…