A slew of new polls has come out over the weekend. Although they don’t indicate the Democrats should panic, they should be moving to yellow alert.
In deciphering the data coming out, each election cycle poses challenges when reading between the lines. In 2016, pollsters missed the divide between white non-college-educated and white college-educated males, with the latter making up a significant portion of Trump’s base. Although many are quick to dismiss the pollsters are egregiously wrong in 2016, the reality is most pollsters came within the margin of error. In the four key states that gave Trump the win, the margin of victory was narrow.
The so-called firewall state for Biden shifted back to Nevada over the weekend, while it has remained South Carolina for Trump. We consider a firewall state a state where there is a 90% or better chance that the state will go to a particular candidate. Any state “left” or “right” of that state (depending on the political leanings) is a lock unless something incredible and unforeseen happens.
Although several bad polls out of Texas battered Trump, and early voting numbers there are massive and giving Biden a considerable advantage, the latest Sienna/NYT poll has Trump up by 4 this morning. Trump grew his tenuous leads in Iowa, Georgia, and Ohio over the weekend.
For Biden, the leads he is holding in North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania contracted. If there is a repeat of 2016 polling errors, all three of these states would be won by Trump. A couple of polls out of Arizona show a wild swing in the Kelly(D) vs. McSally (R-I) race. I would consider these numbers suspect as a 13-point swing is hard to process with no apparent event in the race to support it.
Another point of concern with Democratic strategists is the Biden team is turning their focus to Texas and Georgia, believing they can flip these states. Some see this as a repeat of 2016 and want the Biden campaign to prioritize defending the lead in the rust belt states and Pennsylvania while working on flipping Iowa and Ohio.
For Biden supporters, they shouldn’t be hitting the panic button – yet. Biden holds an aggregate national lead of 8-1/2% to 10%, which is significantly larger than Clinton at this same point in 2016 (5.6%) and well outside the margin of error. Additionally, one factor that pollsters may not be correcting enough for is the dwindling number of likely voters who are willing to respond to a poll and haven’t voted yet. Some models predict 100 million Americas will have voted before election day, which is close to 80% of all the votes case in 2016. Are the polls over counting the people who haven’t voted yet, leaning more toward Trump? Pollsters are undoubtedly aware of this and adjusting their models, but do they have a reliable baseline to use?
Regardless of your political affiliation, the most critical thing you can do is vote and vote early. With officials concerned about election day violence, voter intimidation, and ballot boxes burned in numerous cities, there is sure to be manufactured chaos on election day. If you want your vote to count, then do it early this week if possible.
The Say Their Names Memorial highlights the memory of over 240 Black individuals who have died due to police violence and institutional racism. The memorial will be in Kirkland through November 30, 2020, and can be viewed at six area churches in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.
Bobby Jones is a 13-year old teen who loves soccer. He is also transgender. The Puget Sound Premier League would allow Bobby to practice with his team, the Titans, but not play. On October 21, 2020, the league granted a one season waiver to Bobby but has not changed their policies. We talk with Eleanor Jones and her family’s story in their quest to let bobby play. #letbobbyplay
Last spring, before COVID, before George Floyd, before the recession, my wife and I took our annual photography trip to the Palouse of eastern Washington. Littered with dying rural towns, southeast Washington is one of my favorite places for photography. I love wide-open spaces, rusty objects, and abandoned buildings as subjects. This region is an area of expanding food and banking deserts and still impacted by data deserts.
The issue of food deserts and banking deserts in America was a dominant topic up until the events of the last six months. A food or banking desert is where the nearest grocery store and or bank is a mile away in an urban and suburban setting and 10 miles away in a rural setting. According to the National Institutes of Health, there is a direct correlation between obesity and food deserts.
The Pioneer General Store appears to have closed decades ago. If you want fresh produce or meat in town, you have to go to the gas station with a slim selection in a back room.
The issue of banking deserts is a more recent trend. As I write this, 25% of American households are unbanked or underbanked. Banking deserts create a significant issue for those who don’t have ready access to online banking, burying them in fees. Since 2015, only one state, Rhode Island, has seen the number of in-person banking locations increase.
The rural town of Itta Bena, Mississippi, is a textbook example of a banking desert. The town has no bank and four ATMs. One offers no-fee withdrawals but is chronically out of cash. The other three machines have fees from $5.00 to $7.50. On the worst days, all four ATMs are out of service because they are empty.
A check on Yelp indicates that Planters Bank is still in Itta Bena. However, the Planters Bank and Regions Bank websites indicate there is no such branch (Regions acquired Planters in 2004). In Itta Bena, like other rural towns, cash is king. The remaining businesses don’t have enough credit to accept credit cards, don’t want to deal with fraud, or don’t have the margin to pay the transaction fees.
Why are grocery stores and banks closing in such dissimilar areas – inner-cities and rural towns? Profit. In Itta Bena, Mississippi, it cost Planters about $200,000 a year to operate the small branch, which ran at a loss. The decision to close the branch in 2015 was to save money.
Whitman Bank collapsed in 2011, leaving some rural Washington communities unbanked.
After nearly a decade of decline, the population in rural areas started to grow again – barely. In the 2016-2017 period, the rural population in the United States increased by 33,000 people. However, the raw numbers only paint part of the picture. When you look at ethnicity, almost all of that population growth has come from Indigenous and Hispanic peoples. The Caucasian population continues to crash while the Black community has had a smaller decline.
Just like in the inner-cities, where banking and food deserts are well documented, corporate America is abandoning rural America. In some areas where Walmart crushed regional Main Streets in surrounding towns two-decades ago, Walmart is now closing (it is worth noting that Walmart has also permanently closed suburban and urban locations). When Walmart became too expensive for the local population, Dollar General or Family Dollar moved in.
It’s easy to dismiss this as “This is just competition! Why do you hate capitalism!” I don’t, but I do hate capitalism run amok. When Dollar General came to Mowville, Iowa, it opened right next door to the only grocery store within a 30-minute drive. Business at the store dropped 20%, and with margins thin in grocery, they boarded up with no replacement. Want a head of lettuce? An onion? An apple? You’re now going to need to drive to Sioux City, Iowa, and lose an hour of your life on the road. Being poor in America is expensive and time-consuming.
The Pioneer General Store is gone, but the need for fresh meat, produce, and grocery items remain.
Does Dollar General and Family Dollar sell food?
Yes.
Do they sell a variety of food and options that aren’t heavily processed? Barely. We know this dance music; the local stores close, jobs are lost, minimum wage jobs replace them, product selection decreases. In the heart of Iowa, you have to drive 30 minutes to buy lettuce – take all the time you need to unpack that.
Now we go back to the Palouse, which is another part of the American breadbasket where wheat fields dot the landscape as far as the eye can see. On the edge of that Washington wheat belt sits the town of Washtucna, a dot on the map about 28 miles south of Ritzville. One year when a nervous farmer drove out to ask what we were doing, he told us they grew four kinds of things out there, “wheat, wheat, wheat, and wheat.”
A no trespassing sign is posted on a building with no contents and no value.
Wastucna got the first Post Office in Adams County in 1882, and the railroad arrived in 1886. The town prospered until the end of the 20th Century when wheat prices dropped, the harvest was poor, and the dotcom recession rippled across America. The town population has plummeted to just 208 people. The per capita income is $17,487, and the median household income is $34,688. For comparison sake, the median household income in Mississippi is $43,000 per year.
The town once had a grocery store, bank, and even a Chevrolet dealership. Now Main Street is boarded up. The last vestige of employment, a restaurant that was well known for great food, had a fire in 2018 under questionable circumstances and remains closed. Groceries? A local gas station has a small offering in a back room, take-out food, and a coffee stand. Bank? The same gas station has an ATM.
Washtucuna wasn’t always a food, banking, and job desert. The abandoned Main Street tells a story of former glory lost in changing times.
The nearest grocery store is 28 miles away, and the nearest bank is in Connell, 33 miles away. Unemployment in Adams County was already almost double Washington state before COVID struck. To inner-city America, they already know this dance music.
“Just sell your home and move!“
Sell your home to whom? At how much of a loss? To sell something, you need a buyer, and relocating closer to Yakima, the Tri-Cities, Spokane, or Puget Sound requires capital. For the 200 plus that still calls Washtunca home, they are trapped.
America’s inner-city communities might be reading this and thinking, “Crying me a river; that’s been our reality for decades.” Now we get to the punchline. Rural America is frightened because of the changes happening outside of their control. The population is aging, and the groups that are keeping the population in check are minorities. The mills, the factories, the rail depots closed decades ago. Small farms continue to collapse, inhaled by corporate farms or sit fallow, for sale, and under bank control.
The inside of a long-abandoned home on the outskirts of Washtucuna. As a photographer, finding an open abandoned home not filled with graffiti and vandalism is a rare find, even in rural America.
The evidence is clear that as a whole, rural America is dying. There are pockets of rural success, such as DeWitt Arkansas. Still, for each DeWitt, there are a dozen Washtucnas. With each gasp from rural America, the rage increases. Corporate America interests have their knee on rural America’s neck. Instead of saying, “I can’t breathe,” rural America seems to be saying, “More weight.“
There is an old saying; a rising tide lifts all ships. Rural America needs to consider that the fight for equality by Black Lives Matter is a fight they should support. The same playbook that subjugated the inner-cities and with it a wide swath of BIPOC America is in use against rural America.
The same playbook – predatory banking, high fees, no access to healthy food, limited healthcare that is low quality, the marketing machines of corporate America telling you to spend your money on slow suicide. Corporate interests have crushed the mills, farms, factories, and small businesses that were your economic engines. Your students learn in low-quality schools lacking educational basics like high-speed internet access and STEM resources. They can’t compete in a college environment. The jobs? They aren’t coming back.
A sign for Fuel rises above the skyline in Washtucuna. The off-brand gas station is also a sandwich shop, coffee shop, general store, and provides limited groceries to the area. If you’re planning to order from Amazon don’t use your phone, there is no LTE service.
The warning bells of the decline of rural America have been clanging for decades in pop culture and music. From Randy Newman’s Baltimore, The Pretenders’ Ohio, and Bruce Springsteen’s Death To My Hometown. In parallel, Black musical artists have sounded the alarm through music since Edison created the phonograph. In more modern times, this includes Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece album, What’s Going On, NWA’s Straight Outta Compton, and Ghetto by Akon.
History has shown that when changes are made to support BIPOC people, all races improve. Without change, food, banking, and data deserts will continue to grow in rural America. Washington D.C. nor corporate America are coming to save you. On the contrary, they are bleeding you dry.
I want to start this with the direct statement that Black lives matter.
The thoughts and observations here are my own. As an individual who is a BIPOC ally and motivated to take bold action after witnessing SPDs repeated treatment of peaceful protesters, I have spent long hours in CHOP.
I’ve had rubber bullets shot at me, teargas and pepper spray in my eyes and lungs, and dodge flash-bang grenades. I have carried the wounded from advancing SPD treating peaceful protesters as a free-fire zone. I have watched SPD repeatedly lie despite undeniable video evidence from every imaginable angle. I have been threatened online and in-person for documenting history.
I have received only a small taste of what the BIPOC community goes through daily and find it mentally exhausting. How can anyone live like this? The nation’s maltreatment of BIPOC peoples has gone on for four centuries, that is four centuries too long. We have to admit our past, to acknowledge our ugly history, and demand an end to institutional racism.
Black lives matter.
Since May 31, 2020, CHOP’s (CHAZ) message is becoming lost due to the deteriorating security situation and the actions of some who are overtaking the space. Change is never a straight line, and change can be frightening and painful. There are people deeply invested in the current system, from all sides, who don’t want to see change. Others are looking at change as if it were a transaction, and preying on the opportunity to profit from it. Others want to see violent change, to serve as proof that the status quo must be maintained.
CHOP is a mustard seed trying to grow in a harsh desert. The fractures we see in our nation, and the support for Black lives matter around the world, are screaming in a loud voice, we need to change.
As I write this, I am well aware that Mayor Durkan has a press conference planned at 4 PM. We may well be seeing the end of CHOP. At the minimum, we will likely see the beginning of the political will to end CHOP. I appeal to the organizers that they should not let this happen, and have the message of Black lives matter fade with it. But clearly, there is a need for change within CHOP.
End support for a homeless encampment within CHOP
The Seattle Police Department has been actively rounding up some of the most troubled souls afflicted by drug addiction, alcoholism, and chronic homelessness and dropping them off at CHOP. As someone who was highly engaged in Occupy and an individual who visited multiple cities to help with their efforts, I saw this same tactic employed across the United States. Embracing the chronically homeless with addiction and or mental health issues is altruistic. It appeals to the aspiration of equality, hope, and is symbolic of the best of humanity. A tent encampment is not a valid replacement for the proper support services of the homeless.
The Puget Sound Business Journal estimates King County spends $100K a year per homeless person in the county. This isn’t a failure of CHOP; this is a failure of Seattle and King County. Bluntly put, an outdoor park is no substitute for mental health beds, drug addiction treatment, social workers, and transitional housing. I appeal to the organizers to dissolve the homeless encampment within CHOP, and not allow SPD to make society’s failure, CHOP’s failure. Continued access to CHOP for shelter also perpetuates homelessness, by detaching those in need from available services.
Organizers should meet with the city of Seattle and King County to create a transitional plan for the homeless there for shelter in cooperation. We did this in Everett, Washington, during Occupy and were able to negotiate and secure housing for every homeless person there.
Create a council of leaders with no appointed head, and a visible acknowledgment of who those people are
History has taught us that leaders within a movement become targets for those who don’t want change. From Malcolm X to Robert Finicum, representing both ends of the political spectrum, our history cannot be denied. But CHOPs very loose organization creates confusion and different messages to the world. Having a “we are all leaders” policy is no longer benefiting the movement or the core message of Black lives matter.
I appeal that CHOP creates a more formal leadership structure akin to a council, with no appointed leader, making it harder to discredit and eliminate. I am aware of the Occupy-style daily councils, but history has shown this can’t scale. Further, at Occupy Seattle, those with political agendas would bring their supporters to the council to vote in a block counter-productive measures. These actions pushed out many supporters, and the message became lost. Please learn from this history.
Improve security during nighttime hours
The organizers of CHOP want to prove to the world against impossible odds that they can create change without militarized police interaction. The Seattle Police Department and Seattle Fire Department hide behind, “policy,” and, “protocol,” which only escalate situations. Not only is this happening in CHOP, but documented at Judkins Park on Juneteenth. The security situation at CHOP changes dramatically from 11 PM to 6 AM.
The security situation needs to be addressed to assure safety not just for CHOP, but the residents who live within the boundaries. Remember, these people did not choose, and most represent peoples sympathetic to the cause (most, not all). The history of revolution and change carries the same message if you want to achieve your goals, “hearts and minds.” You have to win hearts and minds, and that starts with the residents and businesses within CHOP.
Create quiet hours so everyone can get some proper sleep
CHOP organizers should create quiet hours in alignment with the state of Seattle, King County, and Washington. Everyone, from those protecting CHOP, the medic teams, those maintaining the occupation, and the residents within not only deserve good sleep but also require it. Sleep-deprived individuals are more prone to anger, lower cognitive ability, and irritability. It is a volatile mix contributing to the issues. I repeat the words, “hearts and minds,” and I’ll echo the words I have heard repeated, “this isn’t Coachella.”
At Occupy in Seattle, Seattle Police used sleep deprivation techniques of loud music, sirens, and running through the encampment to dissolve the will of those staying there. Please stop making SPD’s job easier.
Just like medical teams, armed security should be recognizable
I appeal to the security team to adopt something that makes them recognizable as security. Some security volunteers wear shirts that say security; other’s don’t. For the community, it makes it impossible to determine when someone is open carrying if they are part of security, making a show of force, or have bad intentions. Designated security should be more recognizable, especially armed security.
Move some barricades to improve safety, even if it is against the will of the city of Seattle
The events of the last 72 hours have shown that moving the barricades back by 10th and East Pine created a serious security risk. I appeal to CHOP organizers to move the barriers whether the city supports this or not, and eliminate drive-through access from 10th to East Pine.
Stop censorship within CHOP
There has been growing hostility toward the live stream, photography, blogger, and mainstream media community. When an organization tries to control the narrative, that organization’s reputation is tarnished. Citizens have every right to say I don’t want to be on video or photographed. Threatening and assaulting individuals, many who are there with the singular purpose of communicating the message Black Lives Matter goes against everything Black lives matter stands for.
If you don’t allow the documentation of the real story, you become no better than the system you are fighting. You can’t say you have a right to protest and assembly, and then ignore the other parts of the First Amendment. The confiscation of camera equipment and the assault of those peacefully recording history should not be acceptable in any society and should have no place in CHOP.
Focus energy on Black lives matter
Finally, I ask that when a council is created, they focus on the real matters at hand—Black lives matter. Activities, actions, and people that aren’t committed to this movement should not be part of the movement. You can achieve this by having more structure and planning while not working to control every second. If an activity that doesn’t focus on equality, Black lives matter, justice, or police reform is planned, we should be asking, “why are we doing this?” There should be time for celebration, reflection, and to enjoy each other in brotherhood, but distractions from the core message need to be reduced. Please end the hijacking of CHOP and Black lives matter. As an example, no one should be profiting off of the misery of the Black community by selling $30 Black Lives Matter t-shirts within CHOP.
When George Floyd was a child, he wanted to be a supreme court justice. In Houston, he was known as a man of God, a man who learned from his past and trying to show others a better way. I am not a religious man and have my sincere doubts about Heaven and Hell. If there is a place after this, it is incumbent upon all BIPOC allies to not let this catalyst of change disappear in a cloud. We can continue on the path Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. started over 50 years ago. A journey rekindled in the American spirit through George’s Floyd’s dying words. Black lives matter. No one should ever again declare, “I can’t breathe,” as their essence is squeezed out by the very people who are supposed to protect and serve.
I believe that CHOP can survive the events of the last 72 hours, but all of us who are allies must take swift action. It is incumbent upon those who support equality, an end to institutional racism, and an end to police brutality to make the required adjustments to keep this movement going.
Do you wake up in the morning with a song playing in your head? Am I the only person? Every day, a different song. This morning it was Song of the South, by Alabama.
I lived in southeast Texas for almost eight years. Most of that time was spent on the western fringes of Houston or just across the Brazos in Fort Bend County. My parents had retired to the Big Piney Woods along the shores of Lake Livingston. A million acres of low pines, swamps, shallow rivers, and lakes. Timber was a significant industry with Temple Inland sawmills dotting the area.
This video was done in 1990 and was targeting a country music audience
When I arrived in Texas, it was during what I call the Golden Era of Country Music. The AM radio of Dolly, Kenny, and Ronnie, had faded away to this fantastic blending of southern rock, rockabilly, and blues, while still grounded in traditional country roots. Early arrivers to this renaissance, such as Alabama, The Judds, Keith Whitley, and John Anderson, paved the way for an explosion of talent. This Massachusetts Yankee bought boots, a hat, became a two-stepping fool, and devoured music by Travis Tritt, Garth Brooks, Suzy Boggus, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, and Brooks & Dunn. Garth Brooks did this Chris Gaine thing, Shania Twain showed up, country music went pop, and I went alternative rock with Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Green Day, and Live. That’s another story, but I still have the hat.
Then country music took a hard right turn after 9/11. Alan Jackson gave us Where Were You and Toby Keith gave us Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue. If you missed the Golden Age of Country Music – you missed when Country Music had a conscience, and issues such as the environment, equality, and domestic violence were themes.
The official video for Feed Jake is likely a victim of legal agreements, but I found this mashup that has added a live performance to the visuals, likely to work around copyright laws.
Feed Jake – Pirates of the Mississippi
Seminole Wind – John Anderson
Pass it on Down – Alabama
Little Rock – Collin Raye
The Thunder Rolls – Garth Brooks (studio cut)
Wolves – Garth Brooks
Cafe on the Corner – Sawyer Brown
Independence Day – Martina McBride
Is There Life Out There – Reba McEntire
I rattled that list off without thinking, and if I spent some time noodling on this, I could come up with a lot more. Alabama graces that list – with the environmental anthem of Pass it on Down. With exceptions to Garth Brooks’ Wolves, all of these songs were significant hits with massive airplay and videos on CMT.
The ending of the Little Rock video used to have an 800 number to call if you were suffering from addiction, it has since been removed
However, this morning, Song of the South was playing in my head. I never really listened to the lyrics carefully. Still, I could tell you it was about the period from around the 1920s to 1940, the Great Depression, the establishment of the TVA, urbanization, and a lifestyle that vanished into the haze.
Bob McDill wrote the song, and several artists released it through the 1980s. Alabama’s cover in 1988 rocketed to number one. Bob McDill wrote one song a week for over 30 years, creating an impressive list of credits. This includes the haunting Don’t Close Your Eyes, which became Keith Whitley’s signature song, Gone Country, which might be autobiographical, and Song of the South.
Song, song of the south Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Bob McGill – Song of the South
The term Song of the South can be traced back to 1881, and the Joel Chandler Harris book, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings. Disney started to negotiate with the Harris family in 1939 to make the movie Song of the South based on his writings. It was released to theaters in 1946 and Zip-a-dee-doo-dah went on to win the Oscar for best song in 1948. Actor James Baskett won an honorary Academy Award for his portrayal of Uncle Remus.
Despite the two Oscars, the Disney movie was subject to criticism at its release for romanticizing plantation life, the portrayal of Blacks, and the nature of the content. Think about this, that criticism was back in 1946! The movie has never been released in any home video format in the United States, with only the three animated musical pieces released to television. This movie hasn’t been widely distributed since Baby Boomers were in diapers, to provide some perspective.
Gone, gone with the wind There ain’t nobody looking back again
Bob McGill – Song of the South
Gone with the Wind is arguably one of the greatest movies ever produced. The film is an icon of cinema and based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel. Gone with the Wind is also written in the genre of Anti-Tom books. Anti-Tom stories were literary works that showed slave ownership from the master perspective, with slaves as happy and docile. When actress Butterfly McQueen, playing house slave Prissy declares, “I don’t know nothing about birthin’ no babies Miss Scarlett,” my eyes roll back into my head. In plantation life, the female house slaves would know all about childbirth. Her portrayal in the movie wouldn’t have been offensive during the same period when Amos and Andy crackled on the airwaves. Today, it is cringeworthy.
Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch We all picked the cotton but we never got rich Daddy was a veteran, a southern democrat They oughta get a rich man to vote like that
Bob McGill – Song of the South
Alright! Now things are better! You mean this is turning into a bad episode of Adam Ruins Everything? Yes. During this era, a Southern Democrat would be for segregation, Jim Crow laws, and might be found at the evening cross burning. George Wallace, the now infamous Alabama governor? Democrat. He even ran against President Johnson in 1964 and failed. Now, a modern Republican will tell you that all these laws were put in place by Democrats. Functionally, correct, but ignores one glaring issue. In the 1970s, as the Democratic party embraced the messages of Kennedy, Johnson, and MLK, the conservatives fled. Strom Thurmond, John Connally, and Mills E. Godwin Jr all switch to the Republican party. Southern Democrats like Wallace continued to run on segregation as a platform up to 1976. By then, the Democratic party had lurched away for the racist past, and the south turned Republican red.
Well somebody told us Wall Street fell But we were so poor that we couldn’t tell Cotton was short and the weeds were tall But Mr. Roosevelt’s a gonna save us all Well momma got sick and daddy got down The county got the farm and they moved to town Pappa got a job with the TVA He bought a washing machine and then a Chevrolet
Bob McGill – Song of the South
These are the lyrics within the song I remember and was playing in my head. The TVA is the Tennessee Valley Authority, which brought hydroelectric power to Appalachia, one of the last places in the United States to get reliable electricity. Being able to buy a car and a washing machine is a nod to the arrival into the middle class. The life of picking cotton is over, and the farm, which might have an origin back in the 40 acres and a mule era, is gone. We know they aren’t sharecroppers because the county, and not a landlord, took the farm.
The radio edit to the song fades off with pipes and drums playing reminiscent of the Civil War
Life in the south from the Reconstruction Era to the end of segregation continues to be venerated. There are deep-rooted reasons for why this continues to happen. It is worth noting that Bob McGill, the writer of the song, Song of the South, was born in 1944, and likely never saw the movie Song of the South. He certainly didn’t live in this era. Growing up in the Beaumont, Texas region learning to play the viola and going on to college, he wasn’t a cotton picker. His upbringing and education influenced Song of the South (the song), which brings me to the final point.
When we engage with people who grew up in an environment where this was a 365/24/7 message and normalized, we can be more helpful if we try to walk in their shoes. There is a generation that has been raised through school textbooks, music, household discussion, religion, and politics to see the world through these filters. That life was better – for all. They’re wrong, it wasn’t, it was horrible, and no one should own another human being. I am not making excuses either, but their views have been ingrained by a system that was started in the 1880s during Reconstruction and went on at an institutional level well into the 1990s. They literally don’t know better, and that is very hard for others not raised and educated in that system to understand. It still happens today in the textbooks and language used.
Racism should have no place at the table in 2020 and here it is, reaching over to grab a roll, eating mashed potatoes from the serving spoon, and chewing with its mouth open. Song of the South should be gone with the wind, and no one should look back anymore – but look forward to a future of true equality. It is a marathon, not a sprint, and this is going to take a generation of work.
I am writing to you today to thank you for the last three-years-and-one-hundred-and-forty-seven-days of your presidency. When you were elected, you promised you would unite the American people together uttering the words, “When America is united, America is totally [sic] unstoppable.” So here we are, Mr. President, three years and 147 days later. I’m so proud as an American to see you have fulfilled your promise to unite us.
Through your divisive words and actions, good Americans from sea to shining sea are uniting. Your great words about Charlottesville, where you declared there were “very fine people, on both sides,” and you were pleading to not rush to judgment. In contrast, how quickly you condemned protesters in Minneapolis without wanting to learn more. Yes, Mr. President, you are uniting the country.
As you tightened the rules of legal immigration in the name of defending America, you placed asylum seekers and those seeking the light of freedom into the textbook definition of concentration camps. They shivered in the cold, unwashed, lacking medical treatment, a place to sleep, and even basic shelter in some cases. They died of preventable diseases, documented beatings and rapes by guards, and murdered at border crossings.
Peoples of the world, trying to escape the specter of violence, government abuses, and crushing poverty, had their children taken from them and placed in inhumane conditions. The same children were misplaced in government bureaucracy and malfeasance while their parents were deported. Yes, Mr. President, thank you for uniting us. The same children remain packed in unfit conditions, exposed to abuse, negligence, and COVID-19.
Your attacks on the free press in words and deeds have made the United States one of the most dangerous places on the planet for reporters and photographers. When faced with overwhelming evidence that the government of Saudi Arabia murdered a reporter from an American newspaper, you only gave it passing mention. Today as I write this, the news agencies that once supported you have grown weary, and cracks are forming. When confronted with their concerns, with their realization that no amount of spin can put you in a favorable light, you attack what was once your allies. Yes, Mr. President, you are uniting us with your actions.
You promised to bring dignity back to the White House and to be the hardest working President in history. For three years and 147 days, we’ve watched you use Twitter for diplomacy, spend your days watching TV, playing golf at taxpayer’s expense, and when faced with a crisis from your beloved people right outside your door, cower in fear in your basement bunker. Yes, Mr. President, you are uniting us.
You promised to control the deficit, balance the budget, and drain the swamp. Yet during a period of economic prosperity that you inherited, your tax cuts didn’t benefit 90% of Americans, enriched the top 10%, and grew our nation’s deficit by 5.2 trillion dollars in just three years 147 days. A debt that our children and our children’s children will inherit with inflation and lost prosperity. Our economy entered recession before the first COVID-19 death was reported on our shores, and you could count the active cases on one hand. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.
Your authoritative and awe-inspiring words found within each of your Twitter broadsides vilified our friends and allies. You insulted our closest neighbors and most significant trading partners in Canada and Mexico. You have brought us to the brink of a cold war with China, left the dictatorial government of North Korea laughing at us, encouraged the Russian state, and left the globe wondering what has happened to American greatness. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.
You claimed that the government has no place in regulating business. So you gutted environmental and wildlife protection, while placing tariffs, also know as price controls, on goods and services. The prices of those goods and services hurt businesses and ordinary Americans alike, removing any benefit from your tax cuts, and not coming close to filling the deficit hole as you promised. The farmers, coal miners, and factory workers you promised to help have been abandoned while foreign nations scammed you for tax breaks.
Your incredible response to the COVID-19 epidemic has exposed to the world that the disease ravaging our nation is not just a virus, but the impotent reaction from your leadership. Emergency rooms became overwhelmed, front-line medical workers died due to a lack of personal protection equipment, your agencies scammed by predatory companies and junk science, and our leaders in science and medicine silenced. One-hundred-and-fifteen-thousand dead Americans from what you declared was a hoax, was just the flu, would magically go away once warmer weather came. As I type this, the southern and southwestern states are being devastated by your hoax. Your playbook of distraction and Twitter diplomacy didn’t work against a virus. The world has learned that we are nothing but a paper tiger, with fragile infrastructure and resources.
Despite all of these missteps toward greatness, your support hasn’t wavered. Your staunchest allies and enablers have stood by you while trying to steer your course. Yet you continue to ignore the Constitution, jurists, leaders, scientists, doctors, and diplomats that have been attempting to save you from yourself. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.
As our nation watched in horror at the street execution of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street, his life squeezed from him as he cried out for his mother, the people became united. You went to your same playbook to divide, vilify, and tweet. As the people you profess to love unprecedently protested outside your door, you built a wall, you hid in a bunker and watched the TV you deny you watch. You threatened to send federal troops against your People, to the disgust and disdain of retired and active-duty generals and admirals. You had peaceful protesters pepper-sprayed and beaten for a photo op at a church. As you spoke of law and order from the White House, a house built by slaves, the nation could hear your state-sanctioned violence against the First Amendment in the background. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.
I want to thank you, President Trump, for the last three years and 147 days. Because of you, your words, and your deeds, I was able to see the hatred and racism that existed right under my nose. I could see what I thought were friends, for what they are. By encouraging the forces that want to destroy this nation, you exposed the great lie that there is equality in the eyes of the law, that the police forces of this nation have just a few bad apples, and make rare, but very public mistakes. I always suspected these were narratives were false, but you provided the proof.
You have united the American people, Mr. President, in a way that I never thought would be possible three years and 147 days ago. We are joined in historic protest from coast to coast and border to border—six-hundred-and-fifty cities and towns across America, from the biggest to the smallest. From marches measured in the hundreds of thousands to lone vigils of one. All these people, united against the hatred, the fear, and the anger you’ve fomented tweet after hateful tweet. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.
We are united to no longer accept the idea that racism has been resolved in this country, or is just a passing problem. Because of you, the good people of this county who didn’t think these were real issues are now learning that it is deeply rooted in the very things you defend, and rotten to the core.
We see you for what you are, a dotard, barely able to stand on their own, obsessed with what people think of you. A narcissist, staring at their magic mirror, listening only to those who say yes. Outside your bunker, a giant has awoken and been filled with a great resolve to bring about change to our nation. Yes, Mr. President, you have united us.
I have watched first hand since May 30 as Black, white, Latino/Latina, Asian, Hispanic, indigenous, native-born, and immigrant have marched in peaceful protest. I have seen first hand the excessive force applied by our militarized police departments using CS and OC gas on peaceful citizens, firing rubber bullets, striking with batons, shocking with Tasers, and preventing peaceful assembly. My eyes have stung, my lungs have burned, and I have personally carried the wounded as I documented the actions you sanctioned.
The violence was so great that our allies in the United Kingdom have voted to stop selling rubber bullets and teargas to the United States. Violence on the people so troubling that even in South Africa, they are marching for the Black lives in our raging and grieving nation. Yes, Mr. President, South Africa looks more enlightened in the eyes of the world than our country because of your words and deeds.
We are once again the United States of America, Mr. President. We are united against you and those who think like you. We are joined together to bring out meaningful change, for full equality, to demand that this nation treat everyone as equals. Equality does not mean that some will get less, nor is that what We the People want. We want the level playing field the American dream promises for all people. We want our minority brothers and sisters in this great race of life to run that race unshackled, unencumbered, and without the oppression of institutional racism. Mr. President, those of us that want this change outnumber those of you who don’t.
You and your supporters are focused on agitators and those who are trying to discredit this movement. I applaud that, Mr. President, because distraction is useful when you are bringing about change. While you shudder in anger watching your TV and spitting out sentence fragments on Twitter, we are using the most potent weapons we have in the American arsenal. We are leveraging our rights. We are using our right to peaceful assembly. We are using our right to freedom of speech. We are using our right to videotape and photograph, and audio record the transgressions of those who are so comfortable with racism and inaction, that they feel they can freely operate in this connected world with impunity. And, Mr. President, we are sharing those videos, pictures, and audio clips, on Twitter for the world to see. We are using your actions to demand change at a local, county, and state level and, on November 3, at the federal level too.
Had you told me, Mr. President, that you would unite our nation in a singular fierce voice demanding change in just three years and 147 days, I would have said it was impossible. I had expected incompetence and hatred, but I never realized how dark your heart is, how you lack a soul, and how deep corruption runs to your core. You made these things mainstream and revealed the ugliness of America hiding in plain sight behind gossamer curtains. Those curtains, Mr. President, have been torn down.
On November 3, 2020, the American people will decide on whether they want to renew The Donald Trump Show for four more seasons. Forty-million unemployed, the numbers without health insurance exploding, institutional racism and violence defended by you, the Constitution defiled, 115,000 dead from COVID-19 and counting, and protests in 650 cities from coast-to-coast.
Thank you, Mr. President, for uniting us and putting America, for the first time in more than a generation, on a path to greatness. We, the people, are screaming in a singular voice, “no more.”
There is no Batman, Commissioner Gordon, or Harvey Dent, but Seattle is full of Jokers
Radalyn King drove her Nissan Sentra at speeds up to 80 MPH on the city streets. She closed her eyes and laughing crashed her car into the sidewalk, killing two and injuring two others. She then tried to run away from the wreck, where citizens held her until the police showed up. Laughing and drugged out of her mind, King was arrested.
Jonathan James Wilson, who had multiple arrests for violence and assault, grabbed a woman in broad daylight as she walked to work and declared, “Do you want to go over the edge?” The 270-pound Wilson tried to throw her 40 feet to her death until a passerby intervened.
Charged in 2018 for another assault, Wilson was walking a free man in March of 2019. Prosecutors didn’t file their case against Wilson for the 2018 incident until October 2019.
In February 2019, a report indicated that 100 offenders in Seattle had been in and out of the criminal justice system for thousands of cases combined. By November 2019, 90 of the 100 in the February report had reoffended. Most are still on the street as I type this.
David James, a business owner in Pioneer Square, struggling with crime and filth to keep his business running, confronted two homeless people throwing their trash into the street this November. Beaten to the point of needing hospitalization, no one intervened from the public to stop the daytime assault. When police arrived by bicycle, and the assailant ran, they told him, “He’s a drug addict on the street, and whoever decides if charges are pressed probably won’t press charges, so there’s no reason to bring him in.”
On August 2, 2019, Michael Caballero, homeless, assaulted four women in Pioneer Square as they were trying to walk to Second Avenue as part of the monthly art walk.
Downtown grocery store Uwajimaya filed 261 complaints with the city of Seattle for criminal theft in 2018. Of those 261 cases, 11 resulted in guilty pleas or pretrial diversion.
In September, Bartell’s announced they are closing their Third Avenue location because there have been so many assaults on their staff, and the police do – nothing.
The King County Courthouse has become so unsafe, and there have been so many assaults, officials closed the Third Street entrance. Well closed to all but the disabled, which will still have to run the gauntlet.
Seattle made a choice
In November, the people of Seattle had a chance to make their voices heard at the polls. They said in a loud voice, “we want more of the same.”
We want more human feces and urine on the streets.
We want more random attacks and violence.
We want more used needles in our parks and playgrounds.
We want more assaults and thefts.
We want more store closures.
We want more derelict RVs illegally parked and dumping their human waste and gray water on the streets and down the storm sewers.
Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!
Never mind the mail theft, car break-ins, home burglary, porch pirates, and bike theft. Take heart Seattle, things were worse in 1987 so don’t you dare complain about the situation today. Why, did you know that car theft was worse 15 years ago? All of this is fun with statistics as many citizens don’t even bother to file criminal reports anymore. There is no point. It will be hours before the police show up, if at all. Why should they? The city and county won’t prosecute the cases anyway.
While this happens, officials in Seattle would like to remind you:
You can’t wash your car in the driveway; it’s terrible for the environment – dumping your gray water and crap in the street not so much
You better not park your car in a spot for more than the allotted time you paid for, but you can park your RV where you like for basically as long as you want
If you’re a business or property owner, you’ll be fined if you don’t clean up the feces, urine, needles, and graffiti on and around your buildings – it’s your problem
All of this is happening while ordinary citizens have watched their rent skyrocket, their property taxes spiral out of control, their car tabs increase exponentially, their wages stagnate, and Millennial tech bros take over the city. Seattle is the same city that, while ignoring the crime on our streets, was inspecting the trash of citizens looking for recyclables.
“OK, Boomer – whatever.”
I’m not a Boomer, I’m Gen X, and we’re completely out of fucks to give. We hate Millennials with the same fury that we hate Boomers. Here is an idea, quit bitching about your student loans, quit bragging about how woke you are and move out of our Goddamn basements. But I digress, back to the topic at hand.
Just like in Gotham, the frustrated citizens of Seattle lift their eyes skyward and wait for Batman to appear. Is that the Amazon logo I see upon the clouds? Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-BEZOSMAN!
No, that’s not Bezosman, or Batman, or even Phoenix Jones. That’s the Amazon cloud you see, and the ever-spreading tentacles of Amazon, which is akin to Walmart, Microsoft, Kroger, Google, Netflix, and Apple, rolled into one big happy smiling logo of domination. Forget Boeing, 50 years from now robots will assemble rocketships for Blue Origin.
Meanwhile, at Bezos manor, Amazon plays let’s pretend to deal with the problems they have contributed to (not caused, a significant difference) with feel-good headline-grabbing projects like building a homeless shelter in their headquarters. They care! That’s why they put that shelter in such a high visibility location and cranked up the public relations machine. See what we’re doing? We’re helping solve the problem. Funny, I have never seen a Ronald McDonald house at an actual McDonalds.
While Amazon security watches the sidewalks of South Lake Union, Belltown, downtown, and Pioneer Square are a hotbed of unchecked crime. Not our problem, our rent-a-cop contract security team paid a non-living wage have our offices and employees covered. Don’t feel safe walking to your Tesla after your 13 hour day at AWS in the Kumo building? We can escort you to our clean garages that don’t smell of urine.
The reality is Bezos’s altruism is about as fragile as his South Lake Union glass testicles. He’s too busy counting thousand-dollar bills and sending e-mails with the subject line of, “What’s This,” to wrap himself in AWS super-science to save Gotham.
“Alexa, deploy the Amazon rappelling cable.”
“OK. now playing My Testimony by Rapper Able.”
“No Alexa, deploy Amazon rappelling cable.”
“OK, adding coax cable to your Amazon shopping list.”
“Alexa, you killed me………………………..”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that. Did you say Alexa, splat?”
In Gotham, Carmine Falcone doesn’t operate with impunity, but the Joker and his minions do
Still, that isn’t the real problem. The real challenge lies in the prosecutor offices of King County and Gotham.
Over 50% of criminal cases referred to the Seattle City prosecutor’s office go untried. The police are so frustrated that they’ve all but given up. Who can blame them when they arrest a person and bring them to jail, and then the same officer arrests the same person during the same shift in the same store. Mayor Durkin is so tone-deaf that she expresses surprise. Well, when you’re the mayor of Gotham, you don’t have to deal with the criminal element like ordinary citizens. The situation is even worse at King County, where 18% of cases referred to the office go to trial. So if you’re homeless in Seattle, what incentive do you have to remotely follow the law? Scratch that. Remotely follow common decency? You can commit felonies at will and the police are powerless. Now tax-paying citizens that contribute to society, you better follow the law.
Carmen Best is not Commissioner Gordon.
Pete Holmes is not Harvey Dent.
Jeff Bezos is not Bruce Wayne.
However, Seattle is Gotham, and the Joker is running wild.
A billion dollars a year up in smoke
Don’t worry, good citizens of Gotham; your city leaders have a plan! If we add a few more taxes, we can get more money for housing and the homeless. A city that has taken hundreds of millions in tax dollars for the “homeless” for years with nothing to show for it.
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, approximately $1 billion with a “b” is spent every year on homelessness in Seattle. That comes out to about $100,000 per homeless person, per year. Do the math. If we just build tiny homes and give the homeless a place to live, all will be solved. That idea turned into a complete disaster and has been all but abandoned. From the Licton Springs “low-barrier” tiny home village to the broken promises of three mayors to build thousands of units with the money, Gotham keeps collecting your dollars with nothing to show for it.
Maybe if we build a few more bike lanes, take away more parking spots, permit millions of more square feet of office space with no corresponding housing plan, we can make it better. Let us squeeze the local business owners more by taking away more parking spaces, increase the taxes, and hold them accountable for the crime going on outside their doors.
Why, in another few years, we can gentrify out the small mom and pop restaurants and businesses in the name of progress. What a perfect utopia Gotham will be of major chain stores and restaurants, Amazon office buildings, Amazon Go stores, Amazon book stores, and Starbucks. The Amazon employees can step over the piles of shit and dodge the needles, that contractors can clean up in the overnight hours. Well, that is until Amazon itself has had enough and leaves Seattle an empty shell.
There are more important legal matters to deal with in Gotham
Also remember, Gotham’s leaders are busy at the moment protecting Washington state from I-976. We have money, lawyers, and resources for that in King County and Seattle. Amazingly we don’t have money or resources to keep repeat criminals off the street. I feel so…safe. So well represented.
In September of 2019, KIRO reported, after filing a freedom of information act filing with King County Metro, that over 230 Metro drivers have been assaulted. In June of 2019, a homeless man threatened to blow up a Metro bus and shoot the driver. The man was arrested, charged with harassment, and released from jail. It should come as no surprise to anyone they were arrested again, for possession of a stolen firearm. Take the bus Seattle! It’s faster, it’s safe, and it’s good for the environment. Just don’t sit in the urine covered seat and don’t make eye contact with the person shooting up heroin.
As far as representing the interests of King County as a whole, I’m sure the residents of Skykomish are excited about the express bus lines and light rail coming to their community. Oh wait, they’re still waiting for Route 2 to be less of a death trap.
Now someone will get pedantic and points out Route 2 is a WADOT issue – no kidding, thanks, and I do understand that. It’s called an analogy. It doesn’t change the fact people on the edges of King County are getting ass-raped on car tabs and taxes to support transit they will never use or derive benefit. Thanks for your money, suckers.
Now someone will get upset because I used the term ass-rape, and taxes don’t equate to being ass-raped, and I shouldn’t minimize rape by using the term.
Stop being so sensitive, Seattle!
Executive Dow Constantine has our best interests in mind focusing resources on blocking the will of the voters. Anyone complaining isn’t aware of the real problems Seattle is facing! Cars are evil. That’s the real thing we need protection from, the Tesla and Prius death machines! Derelict RVs by the thousands are, of course, OK. We have to think about the needs of everyone. Except when the will of the people goes against what ironically named King County wants.
No, Batman is not coming to save Gotham. The Joker has taken over, and I guess I should ask myself, “Why so serious?”
I should just put on a happy face!
Tech bros will continue to spike rents and housing pricing. The city will collect more hundreds of millions for homelessness and have no accountability. Criminals will continue to attack law-abiding citizens who have no recourse. Our streets will be covered in more feces, urine, and used needles, and eventually, a Hep A epidemic will come during the summer months. Emergency services will continue to be afraid to respond to aid calls without police and support. Police will have their hands tied because prosecutors will continue to do nothing.
It is a madhouse.
The Joker approves.
Dark clouds hang over the Emerald City
I may not live in Seattle. I may not have a voting voice in the new Gotham, but I can vote with my wallet. I can also vote for our King County officials. I’ve reached my breaking point, and be put on notice leaders of Seattle and King County, I am not the only one. I am ending my affiliation with the Democratic Party. As part of the exhausted middle, I can make that much of a stand. Be advised Dow Constantine and Dan Satterberg, the good people of King County have had enough. We may not be able to save Gotham, but at least we can try and save King county.
Oh, and if you’re reading my statement of ending my affiliation with the Democratic Party as I’m now a Republican, you’re incredibly wrong. The party of Lincoln is a moribund, perverse, corrupt shell of itself. The leader is a wannabe dictator, a criminal, a huckster, and the GOP leadership enables him. No, I’m joining the growing ranks of Independent voters who feel abandoned by both political parties.
You’re not woke Gotham, you’re sound asleep
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