Likewise yourself. A mostly lifelong (until the last 3 years) resident, born and raised in Ballard. And I can tell you unequivocally that Seattle is extremely Democrat biased, and the city leans heavily to the left - exceedingly so. Puget Sound as a whole closely mirrors Seattle, and that makes the entire State lean so far Democrat that it exceeds the national margin of GOP/DEM voting results by several points. Washington is one of the most solidly Democrat states there are. Outside the rural districts in Eastern Washington (with extremely limited population), Washington is a guaranteed Democrat win - every election.

Just an additional $250 per man, woman, and child in Seattle. You know, the people who get to pay for it... At least the minimum wage will bump to $15 per hour so those low-income families will get to see a good chunk of their supposed raise going to solve a problem that could have been avoided from day one...

By "Republicans that rule this city" do you mean the City Council, or do you mean Ed Murray, the Mayor? Perhaps you mean the overall populace with its highly one-sided voting record?

Why do we have a federal Department of Education? Is there a set of common guidelines that apply uniformly for all school districts across These United States? A set of rules, goals, and guidelines that apply to inner-city Harlem, NY as well as ultra-rural American Falls, ID? Eliminate this Department, give the money back to the States, and be done with it.

Tesla's profits are not based on GAAP. Furthermore, if you remove their income from selling electric car credits, they lose a lot of money.

Electric cars existed well before Tesla, and continue to exist outside of Tesla. Many of their patents are very niche focused, things like charging plugs (there are plenty of alternatives, used in high power connections for decades) or the like. As far as scaring, Tesla still hasn't turned a profit on their cars - they only "make" money if you include the Government redistribution of carbon taxes - which is set to expire in about 2 years. Tesla not making profit on their cars by then? Good luck after that...

Well, if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck... Their actions do tend to look a lot like Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition", in that righteous indignation is aimed at a given highly valuable entity until said entity donates a lot of money, and then another entity is targeted - regardless of any real changes.

But that misses the point: trying to publicly shame Amazon into making a pro-Greenpeace statement and giving them a few hundred thousand dollars as penance...

I don't doubt that long-term strategy is important, but focusing exclusively on that is the sure road to ruin. For example, the Japanese were kicking our asses in the 1980s. How did that turn out? To win at business, you need to maximize your current position without harming your future growth. It's a tough line to walk, but you need both - or you either kill your future for the present, or simply cannot survive to the future.

Taxes are down? The corporate tax rate hasn't changed in 20+ years in the US. Wages are definitely down, and tax receipts are down, but that's what happens when the entire economy turns down. But corporate tax rates are stable (and the highest in the G20).

Interesting. How profitable is the US energy industry? Looking at the latest tax returns of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Texaco, it looks like they make about 7% return. I wouldn't call that insanely profitable at all...

Decibels used in SONAR are referenced to 1 microPascal; deciBels used in audio are referenced to 20 microPascals. Thus there is a 26 dB difference in level. A level of 140 dB underwater is the same as 114 dB SPL (in air). About a mid-level peak at an EDM club. Source: designing SONAR systems for scientific and fisheries research for the better part of a decade...

Replying just about your signature...

The money that has been taken has been backed with T-bills. Financially, it's as if the money was never taken out in the first place. Nevertheless, Social Security is now running in the red (drawing down on those T-bills) and will continue to do so until it's out of cash sometime in the next 20-25 years. Thus the talk about raising the tax rate, or lifting other exemptions (without raising the equivalent max benefit), or other means to increase funding without increasing expenses.

Social security is, in fact, behaving as a classic Ponzi scheme, except to keep the scheme going the schemer (US Federal Government in this case) is planning to charge late entries even higher rates to invest in the scheme. The problem is not use of funds now - the problem is structural. It will not survive long term without restructuring because it promises to pay out more than it receives - like a Ponzi scheme.

You bet! Buy a 'bot, find the parts that are missing, print new ones, and...

Oh wait...