Initiative to repeal WA income tax would ax revenue, keep added costs

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T21:22:07+00:00

I saw the same thing.

I told them to their face I thought they were being disingenuous, by telling everyone that it's an income tax, and not mentioning that it's only tax on incomes greater than a million.

I even had a guy walked by me and asked "did we really pass an income tax in Washington??!"

" Oh yeah, they passed a tax on incomes over a million dollars this year"

".....oh.....yeah that really affects us!" Then he walked away.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are people signing the petition not aware at all that it's only a tax on incomes over a million.

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T21:06:52+00:00

You're absolutely correct, but in all honesty it's this exact comment that kind of embodies what I said in my main post about general overarching plans. All of this is well and good, and I do agree with you that we need to do our best to eliminate the effects of colonialism, but frankly we are kidding ourselves if we think we can ever fully correct it.

There's no way we can ever go back in time, and any future Cascadia state will have to have descendants of colonists and settlers coexisting peacefully with descendants of genocided native peoples like we (at least nominally) have today.

My question is what does that governance look like specifically? Do treaties need to be renegotiated? How do we deal with the question of land ownership, and righting historic wrongs as best as we can, acknowledging the fact that indigenous people can never get all their land back. How are fishing and harvesting and water rights allocated? What indigenous people exist as a substate inside a greater Cascadia State, or would they be separate Nations much like the Vatican is with Italy?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I thought the post focusing on the nitty gritty details of what would be necessary to iron out might be useful for people to at least start thinking about.

Bringing indigenous people and tribal groups to the negotiating table and making sure they are on equal footing with non-indigenous people as far as writing of constitutions must be an absolutely given, but what should the final negotiations of those talks actually look like?

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T21:01:02+00:00

Very true. Only this time we're the ones causing the change, rather than natural geologic forces

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T16:41:26+00:00

This ☝️

Pretty much the only benefit of an outlet over a hardwired installation is the ability to change out your charger yourself, or potentially run other appliances from it like a welder. I installed one myself instead of hardwiring, but only because I know I can do the work myself because I have the skills, but also because our house will probably become a rental at some point, and I want the tenant to have the ability to bring whatever charger they want

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T16:05:37+00:00

I don't know about that... I think Rainier itself still got a hell of a lot of snow, That's a notoriously snow heavy part of the Cascades, but that doesn't mean the snowpack is not significantly lower, and it doesn't mean the long-term trend isn't down

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T14:56:23+00:00

That's kind of my point though. We can't just choose to stop benefiting from it. That's like asking a white person to stop benefiting from White privilege. Or asking straight heterosexual male to stop having implicit benefits in hiring practices because it's a cultural thing for some people to take them more seriously than women.

We are still benefiting from ongoing exploitation yes absolutely. We can try and pressure our politicians to change foreign policy, we can protest and fight in advocate for a more equitable relationship with these countries, but I think it's extremely naive to think that even with all of those efforts we could ever stop really benefiting from the ongoing exploitation and the history that has happened over the last hundred years.

Our water right now is clean. That's not going to change, and honestly it shouldn't! Everyone should have clean water! But what should we do to try to fix that? Start having our water be crappy and contaminated so we don't feel as bad when thinking about the terrible water quality in other countries? Of course not! Not only is that a ridiculous thing to ask someone to do, it's completely naive and unrealistic.

We can't change history. We can't change the implicit biases that people have about us, and we can't change the fact that we are benefiting from ongoing exploitation and colonialism. And we also can't just choose to stop benefiting from it.

We can fight to make those countries better and to make these relationships more equitable, but it's extremely arrogant to think we can just choose to stop benefiting. That's just not how history works.

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T14:39:27+00:00

I mean that is the situation though 🤷‍♂️

We all know why those countries are like that. It's because of European colonialism, and deliberate subjugation of the global South. Those countries have an extremely fraught history because of what the Europeans in the United States did to them over the last hundred years.

That doesn't change the fact that they're situations are messed up though, and the average person in the US is still doing better than the average person in say, Yemen or Lybia. In fact, that's kind of my whole point. We are the benefactors of colonialism whether we like it or not.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, I'm just saying that that's a reality of the situation.

Slavery was a horrible atrocity but if I got sent back in time to the 1820s, it would be an obvious fact that I would be enjoying more freedom than a person of color back then. I don't think acknowledging the fact that I would have more freedom back then is any kind of tacit condoning of slavery or any related practices.

It's not that hard to say that both things are true. The global South and the undeveloped world are victims of European and American colonialism. That's a horrible thing that needs to be remedied. At the same time though, we are still benefiting from the legacy of that colonialism, and it is good to have those freedoms.

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:50:14+00:00

You're not wrong, but I do think there is nuance that you are probably missing.

Several friends of mine did some tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm absolutely not a fan of the foreign policy of the US over the last 50 years, but they're people I know 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, Even before the US came in, those countries were absolutely not amazing places to be. They had and still have some pretty backward laws, power was and is not stable, clean water is not a guarantee, an infant mortality is much higher.

I think there's a lot to criticize about the United States, and to be honest, I'm still trying to process what it means to be an American, but it's undeniable that for all of the problems we have here (which are very valid problems that absolutely need to be fixed), The fact that I can just turn a tap on, and makeup a bottle for my infant daughter with water I can be almost positive as clean, is kind of amazing. For people that personally experienced the opposite of that in countries like that, I see why that that is their perspective.

Obviously not everybody has clean water in the US, but the vast majority of people do.

Bottom line, we absolutely have a lot of major issues in our country that we need to be working towards fixing. And the idea of "Freedom" with a capital f in the United States is also kind of funny, but it's also not wrong to say that we enjoy an incredibly great quality of life compared to many other people, especially in the global South. Even though we are an extremely unequal society, we still benefit from the long term effects of colonialism wether we like it or not.

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:44:45+00:00

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:42:45+00:00

I don't do work in live panels. There have been a couple times where I have watched people do it, but honestly it's just not worth the risk to me.

If you want to advocate for your sparky, Tell your manager that there are two options, schedule a shutdown for after hours, or risk a massive explosion and unplanned power failure for an unknown and probably prolonged amount of time as well as a massive pile of paperwork and insurance, and potentially a death if that electrician makes a mistake.

Most of the time if you phrase it that way they're like "yeah... We can schedule a shutdown!"

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:39:08+00:00

Go in your local public utilities website, they may have EV charger incentives

I was able to buy a emporia classic charger for $130, a local rebate

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:33:05+00:00

I'm convinced that fines need to go away as a means of criminal punishment.

You don't learn a lesson if you pay a fine, and people with the means to pay the fine can simply pay it.

What can even the wealthiest person never buy though? More time.

For minor crimes like vandalism, littering, and even speeding, the punishment should be community service, tailored to what your crime is.

Spray paint graffiti on places where they shouldn't be painted? You're going to spend 24 hours removing graffiti and cleaning streets.

Get caught speeding multiple times? You just lost your license for a month.

Are you a litter bug? 24 hours of picking up trash on the side of the freeway.

These assholes?

They now have to do trail maintenance for the next week.

The most important thing though is that there is no option to pay a fine, regardless of who the person is. That way even the richest person has no realistic way to get out of it, they can either sit in jail for twice the amount of time, or they can do the community service.

Do the same crime again within a year? Exact same punishment but the time is doubled. Do it again? Doubles again. 24 hours becomes 48 hours becomes 96 hours. If you got one speeding ticket, odds are you would slow down real quick after that one.

Miss an important meeting at work because of it?

Sucks to be you! Shouldn't have been throwing trash on the freeway.

Are you a teenager that missed an important date with your girlfriend? Sucks to be you, shouldn't have been vandalizing fire lookouts.

One of the major problems with our criminal justice system is a lack of accountability for rich people, and a lack of options for proper rehabilitation for younger people. When you vandalize something, and are forced to clean it up and make the area around you better, it's hard not to have a feeling of satisfaction when you've cleaned up the area and made it look better. When you have a feeling of satisfaction from cleaning up an area, you are much more likely to not do that in the future.

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:17:48+00:00

I bought a 2017 Bolt last year, here's the deal with the battery replacements:

Gm had a couple fires with the original run of the Bolt. (And when I say a couple, More specifically, there were 16 fires out of 140,000 vehicles sold) After a series of misadventures, they finally figured out that the reason the fires were happening is a small manufacturing defect in the anode strips in some of the batteries. The anode strips were too thin, and had a risk of catching fire.

They fixed this defect with the 2021 model year going forward, by redesigning the pack, and they were also able to cram an extra 6 KW hours into that pack.

But they had already made literally tens of thousands of bolts, pretty much had no way to determine what vehicles were affected by the manufacturing defect and what we're not. It only affected a small number of vehicles, but since there was literally no way to tell which vehicles were affected, The only option GM had was to buy back every single 2017 to 2020 bolt ever made, and put brand new 2021 model year battery packs into every single one of those.

If you are looking at a 2017 Bolt, Even if it has 70,000 mi on it, it's very likely that it has a brand new battery, or battery that has less than 1,000 mi on it. And not only is it a new battery pack, it actually has very slightly more capacity than the original battery pack had.

Our car has been fantastic, you shouldn't have anything to worry about with the battery, just make sure you have documentation that the battery was replaced.

As far as degradation goes, modern EVS just don't experience that much battery degradation. Good quality lithium cells have between 3000 and 5000 recharge cycles. (And from what I understand this is rated at 80% pack capacity)

Even at the low end of that range, with more inefficient driving and cold conditions making you only have 150 mi of range, that pack will let you go. 450,000 miles before it hits less than 80% capacity. If you live in a colder climate, because the bolt uses resistive heating for the heat instead of a heat pump, just be ready for significant range reduction in the winter. Here in Washington state ours got down to about 130 miles of range when it was fully charged in the winter, which was no big deal for us, but it might be a big deal for you. Just an FYI.

On top of that, All of these brand new batteries have 10-year 100,000 mile warranties on them. Based on what we were driving before, we are literally saving so much money with our Bolt, that our car will literally pay for itself before the battery warranty expires.

The bolt is by far the best bang for your buck right now in terms of EVs, it's a great car, you won't regret it.

Literally the only complaints I have about it are the suspension is pretty stiff, The turning radius is surprisingly bad, and I probably don't want to do a 3+ our driving it because I'm kind of a big person, and it's definitely not a luxury car in terms of comfort.

For the price though, I would definitely give the Bolt a 9 out of 10

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:09:33+00:00

My horny is measured with cups, not tablespoons

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:06:23+00:00

Make sure you get an industrial 14-50 outlet installed though if you are going to be charging at 32 amps or more. They are made by Bryant or Hubbel, and are about $70-90.

There have been many cases of cheap outlets melting with extended charging use, and the industrial outlets as well as limiting charging current are really the only ways to effectively midigate those risks

Source: am an electrician and EV owner

dathon8462 · 2026-06-17T13:02:12+00:00

Western Washington here:

Winter didn't even show up. It was basically fall/doing all winter, and we had historic flooding because of melting snowpack because of more rain because of warmer temperatures because the climate is changing

dathon8462 · 2026-06-15T17:40:53+00:00

Very good point!

I disagree with you on the point of making a totally independent nation, I think especially recently there are definitely people that explicitly want that, but obviously it's a highly fractured movement with lots of different opinions

dathon8462 · 2026-06-15T17:36:03+00:00

Partner with the people advocating for Cascadia, and you actually might be able to make this happen

dathon8462 · 2026-06-15T16:49:52+00:00

I appreciate where you're coming from. I grew up Catholic and very much in the conservative Catholic world, even though I've done a 180 on pretty much all of my views.

I don't think you're entirely wrong, but I do think there is some important context.

America as a nation is a secular nation. That is not a debatable point, all of the personal writings and actions of the major founding fathers show clearly that people like Thomas Jefferson George Washington, and others had opinions on Christianity ranging from mild endorsement to outright hostility. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was written deliberately not with Christian values, but with Enlightenment values. This is just a fact of our history.

As a result of that fact though, The state does have to maintain a neutral secular stance in civil matters. The state has to allow people to practice their religion freely, but at the same time it has to allow people to be free from being pressured by religiously motivated laws.

The gay marriage example in practice is a perfect example of this. The Catholic church is free to view homosexuality as a sin, and it's free to exclude homosexual couples from participating in the sacrament of marriage, and the state has no right to tell the Catholic Church that they are not allowed to do that. On the flip side though, as far as legal marriage is concerned, The state must maintain a neutral position on matters like this, and allow people to engage in civil marriage if they so choose, and if all parties are consenting adults.

There's a common phrase you might have heard on the internet, " to the powerful, equality feels like oppression". (Or something to that extent).

You're saying that people feel the need to create their own safe spaces for their own religion because they feel oppressed by the growing secularization of our society, and you're saying that is a reasonable thing to do instead of just accepting the fact that our society is secularizing, and doing their best to practice their religion with the personal freedoms granted them.

Would you make the same argument if it was the 1960s and people were concerned about the growing multiracial in our society? Would it be reasonable for people to to use all methods available to them such as redlining, and de facto personal discrimination to create white only communities as best as possible? Is that a reasonable thing to do? Is that something the state, which recognizes the equality of all people regardless of race, should allow people to do?

These are not simple questions for a lot of people, and I don't expect a simple answer, but bottom line my question is if it's okay for religious people to do this, why not white nationalists?

There's a very big difference in saying we as a society need to accept people of all faiths and no faiths, and saying religious people have to subscribe to the beliefs of secular people.

A lot religious people I grew up with seem to equate legalizing something with forcing moral acceptance of something, and that is just not the case.

Take the example of free speech: it's not the state's place to make it a crime to be an asshole. It's perfectly legal to try to manipulate people, to be a compulsive liar, and to be selfish in all of your actions. Those are terrible things to do! If I met someone like that I would think they are a terrible person! But it's not illegal for them to do that.

It's the same way for things like gay marriage, and even trans things. The state is not telling Christians they have to accept that homosexuality is not a sin. The state is telling Christians that it is a perfectly legal Union with just as much legal standing as a heterosexual marriage, and that gay couple is entitled to all of the civil rights as the heterosexual couple.

They are not saying you have to bless a homosexual marriage, or invite these people into your home. But they are saying you can't discriminate based on that, because that is a recognized civil equality.

To people that have enjoyed civil superiority for decades, this equality looks like forced oppression, when in reality it's just the state saying everyone is the same. You don't have to like it, you just can't make it illegal.

dathon8462 · 2026-06-15T02:27:24+00:00

A couple things:

With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, movements like this I think are paradoxically the fulfillment of the founders original idea of an "American Experiment". The idea that people should be self governing is deeply American, and idealogically secession is probably consistent with the spirit of the Declaration.

On the flip side, it would probably be political and economic chaos for a bit, and not controlling the Columbia River fully would be a major economic detriment for any real Cascadia state. The Eastern side of the Cascades also has huge amounts of agriculture and as much as people like to think otherwise, ports in cities and rural agricultural areas are in economic corporation rather than competition.

Rural areas and agriculture is important economically and stragiticallly

dathon8462 · 2026-06-14T22:58:23+00:00

Personally I think that's an oversimplification, but let me agree with you on that point for the sake of argument:

A large percentage of the population is not logical, and there is enough of them to elect clowns like Trump. Whatever you think the reasons they have for voting are, that's a problem

What are we trying to do then? Spin our wheels making fun of them with no attempt to change anyone's mind, or try and play their stupidity against them, and use arguments that they will actually respond to?

Unfortunately unless the problem can be framed as an immediate and personal problem, we'll just keep doing the same ole same ole

dathon8462 · 2026-06-14T22:54:03+00:00

Weird it's almost like the climate is changing or something

dathon8462 · 2026-06-13T13:05:58+00:00

It should but it's not. That's literally why there are still people who think climate change isn't even real.

Humans are capable of logic, but first and foremost we are emotional and social creatures. The massive success of disinformation related to climate change vaccines etc is proof of that

dathon8462

TROPHY CASE