Seattle

Pimpin’ Street Czar

Posted on by backuphill

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If all the stuff over the summer wasn’t enough to convince you that the city of Seattle was a place run by idiots and Communists, you have to take a look at this. This should be enough to convince you that spending money that this city, as a tourist or resident, is literally a waste of your resources.

This should be the last straw for anyone living in Seattle. But, it won’t be. Somehow they will still justify it. The city tries so hard to be “progressive” it is actually regressing. This only offers further proof. The city and the counsel and the mayor or anything but “woke.”

The city hired a “former” pimp to be a “street czar” so it could have street cred and to be a liaison between the people and the police.

I’m not kidding. I wish I was, but it’s true.

Who comes up with these ideas? The city counsel overrode the mayor’s veto of the proposed budget (the counsel wrote and approved) that literally defunds the police department – the the tune of actually losing policing ability. 100 officers positions will be eliminated.

Wanna feel unsafe in Seattle? Now you know what it will feel like. Doesn’t matter what color, sex, religion you are. The loss will be felt by all.

Oh, but we better make sure some lowlife, exploiter of women and criminal history with no experience or training get paid large amounts of money to do a job with no job description, defined desired performance goals, or oversight. That’s an effective way to solve problem.

I am starting to wonder if some cities in the US are actually competing to run themselves into the ground fastest. People must be waking up each morning and thinking, “What can I do today to make things worse around here?” That can be the only explanation. Really.

I am avoiding Seattle. I hope you will too.

Seattle

Posted on by backuphill

aerial view of city buildings

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I don’t recommend you visit.

It’s irritating to watch from a city nearby and see all the garbage that is going on down there.

The City and County Councils have gone off the rails. The mayor is a failure. Chaos in the streets (continues) and chaos in the government.

Homelessness is rampant. Drug use is up, even to the point that the city is providing space to allow and encourage it. Mismanagement of funds. Sheltering illegal immigrants.

“Handcuffing” cops so they can’t deal with unruly “protesters,” but just making them stand there to watch the lawlessness or take the physical and verbal abuse.

CHAZ and then CHOP.

Defund the Seattle PD by 50%, which is causing a mass exodus of officers to other communities.

Close the King County Jail within the next several years and completely stop youth incarceration. They want to take the position of the sheriff from being one voted on and into the position to one of being appointed.

They are trying to tax big businesses in the city and county to ungodly levels, which will eventually drive them out, not only from the city and county but very likely even the state (Bezos is public enemy #1 instead of the rioters destroying the city and holding parts of it hostage).

Make any sense? Any of it?

None. Not one bit of it.

Unless, your playbook was written by Marx. And Lenin. And Stalin. And Mao.

Ah, suddenly a picture comes into focus.

Don’t visit Seattle. Don’t be a tourist. Certainly don’t even think about moving there. Stay away from it. I have decided that I will avoid it as much as possible. No more visiting (it’s not safe). No more sports teams (can’t guarantee getting to the stadium will be safe). No more exploring. No more spending. No more.

Don’t visit Seattle.

“News to me”

Posted on by backuphill

Uh, excuse me?

This is national news. It has been national news for days. It’s been BIG news in WA for days.

So, the governor says it’s “news to me”? It would appear he REALLY IS AS CLUELESS as he has come across in the past.

OMG!! This guy is the epitome of stupid and his response baffles everyone.

He has already proved he doesn’t actually govern a state so much as dictate over it. His agenda has been busted wide open by his own admission. He has been wrong nearly this entire time when it has come to Covid-19 and how the state operates, and he won’t relent and open the state up for business and livelihoods to recover from his crappy leadership.

Maybe I’ll adopt his response when it comes to following the rules he set.

Wear a mask? “News to me.”

Stay home? “News to me.”

Can’t go to work? “News to me.”

Not supposed to go to certain businesses? “News to me.”

Listen, gov, your feckless leadership should result in an immediate resignation from your office. THAT news would be greeted with exultation by nearly everyone in the state. How about you make that kind of headline?

Power(less)

Posted on by backuphill

people wall blur inside

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Traveling in the electronic age is rather interesting, or frustrating, depending on your point of view and experience.

On my vacation last week, I had the opportunity to visit four different airport concourses. All were Southwest Airlines concourses, but I am not actually sure who is responsible for setting them up. Obviously the airport maintains them (cleaning, etc.), but as far as designing and then implementing the design, as I understand, that is up to the airline.

The interesting thing is that all four airports had vastly different designs and amenities. Seattle’s hub, surprisingly, was the most comfortable and there were AMPLE places to plug in the electronic devices. Between a bar looking setup with plugs to all the chairs having plugs and USB ports, there was no fighting over access. As such, there was no possibility of running short on power, but I was just starting my trip so everything was fully powered already.

San Jose’s Southwest concourse was rather dinky and probably the least comfortable of all four, but again the chairs all had plugs and USB ports available so now finding a place to top off the devices wasn’t difficult. Find an open seat (maybe more difficult since it was a small place) and plug in.

Phoenix’s Southwest concourse was actually comfortable, but access to power was rather sparse. Again, I was fully charged so I didn’t need a place to power-up, but if I had there seemed to be a few “bar” looking places spaced throughout the concourse, but the plugs available at these were limited. The seating had no charging capability at all, at least not at the gate I was at and it didn’t look any different any place else.

Finally, Southwest’s Sacramento concourse was a decent size but again the power options were really limited. Again, there were a few of those “bar” options, but again nothing in the chairs. Fortunately, there wasn’t anything that needed topped off for me at this point in my trip. I was conserving power fairly well.

The return trip home was rather eye-opening. I fully expected that what I had available to me on my trip down would be available to me on the way home. That was not the case. I was a little surprised that the airline didn’t have the same amenities available in all of it’s concourses, at least as far as access to power goes. Yes, I know size of the airport and what other comforts available depend highly on the design of the building, but the easiest and most effective way to offer power options to your flyers is to add the chairs with power access right in them. The last two airports, not so much.

So, if you haven’t flown in a while, be prepared to be “powerless” on some legs of your trip. You may have to supply your own as the battle for outlets continues to increase in our electronics driven lives.

Becoming rather taxing

Posted on by backuphill

accounting analytics balance black and white

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The state I live in, Washington, has no income tax. It’s against the law.

What you’ll read in this article is that our legislature is trying apply a tax on businesses with employees who are paid more than $150k a year. All in the name of battling homelessness.

Sounds great does’t it? Not so fast.

The Seattle City Counsel passed a “head tax” on Seattle business last year (you’ll also read that in the article too). That tax was aimed at large corporations whom they feel are exploiting workers and causing the housing costs to go up. So, they would tax these companies X number of dollars per employee, over a certain number of employees. If I remember correctly, it was $550/per employee for really large corporations and $250/per employee for smaller ones. Small business were exempt, supposedly. The counsel soon rescinded that because they did it illegally by holding secret meetings, behind closed doors, etc etc etc.

Now, instead of the local group trying to unfairly tax corporations, the state legislature is taking up the issue and calling it an “excise tax”. As one person interviewed in the article calls it, “New coat of paint on a bad idea.”

The City of Seattle, King County, and others have tried to pass an income tax on high earners ($400K+) several different times.  It has consistently been voted down by citizens and the courts as illegal and against the state constitution.

This new effort by the state legislature is essentially moving the high income earners tax from the earner to the employer. Thus, it is an income tax, they have just prettied of the terminology to try and disguise what it actually is.

Our Democrat friends, who constantly like to have their hands in our pockets are at it again. Our Democrat friends are now also playing a different game at every level of politics – if you don’t like the definition of a word, give it a different one and shame everyone who disagrees with you. (I use the word “friend” very loosely.)

This issue is no different. They want their hands in our pockets again….and they don’t like the definition of “income tax” so they just keep renaming it in the hope that no one is paying attention.

 

 

Tax revolt

Posted on by backuphill

money finance bills bank notes

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Once again, in WA state, there has been a tax revolt.

People are tired of paying unnecessarily high taxes on things like car registration tabs.

We have had two initiatives in this state in the last several decades where the people have clearly said, “ENOUGH!” Twice the citizens of the state (not just one city and county) have said, “$30 – no more, no less.” This is one of the very few times that the rest of the state has told Seattle and King County what it wants versus the other way around, where the population of Seattle and King County out vote the rest of the state to dictate what happens in areas around the state.

So, the latest version passed of the car tabs issue passed on Tuesday, again.

And for what will be the second time, the government is going to sue (yes, you read that right, the government) to get their taxes back. Let that sink in. The government is going to sue to stop the will of the people, who used the democratic process and voted on it, just so they can get their funding back.

If that doesn’t smack of government abuse and overreach, I don’t know what does.

It just goes to show you, once you give the government the ability to oversee your rights, freedom, and money…

…you’ll lose all three.

 

Non-competitive

Posted on by backuphill

white baseball ball on brown leather baseball mitt

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So, up here in the Seattle region, there have been a lot of years where our professional sports teams haven’t been competitive.

We once had the Sonics who won the world championship way back in the last 70’s. They don’t even exist any longer. We have had the Seahawks really step things up over the last 7 or 8 years with a playoff team and two trips in a row to the Superbowl, even winning the first. There is the Storm and they have won several championships, but there aren’t really that many people who pay attention to them. We also have the Sounders and they have won some a title or two as well, and for the “most popular sport in the world” they do draw huge crowds of rabid fans here. Finally, there are the Mariners…40+ years of mostly irrelevant baseball.

The Mariners have been a modern demonstration of Sisyphus. Yes, there have been a couple seasons where it seemed they might actually break through, only to have them end with a mighty crash and burn. As fans, we actually go into every season with hope for the boys of summer but actually know it is just a practice in futility. This season is no better.

It’s “rebuild” season again…and they’re bad. Competitive in two seasons? Yeah, not likely.

Good thing I just love baseball or I would have stopped paying attention a long time ago.

Abnormally large litter

Posted on by backuphill

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There are these companies in Seattle that put out these bikes so people can ride them whenever and wherever they want. Great concept, but execution sucks hardcore.

img_4823.jpgNow, when you are in and around Seattle, you see these stupid unattended bikes littering street corners, parks, lakes, alleys, rivers, etc. all over the city. I have even seen on the news that they are getting tossed off bridges and getting destroyed. Obviously there are others who don’t like them too.

Do people really ride these things? I haven’t seen anyone, have you? But I sure see them left everywhere. Yesterday, in a short four block walk, I saw about 70 bikes in various states of rest. I only captured four on camera because I could have spent an hour trying to take a picture of all of them. I just don’t see how this improves anything. We might as well buy a fleet of Tesla cars, charge them, and then leave them unlocked and pay-walled around the city. At least then they would be parked and not just left willy-nilly everywhere.

Like I said, concept may be good, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Are we so desperate for transportation in the city that we have to put up with abnormally large litter?


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