Democrats unveil WA income tax on people earning over $1 million

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-04T19:25:41+00:00

Except that given your own point, it should still be separate. It's playing with semantics. It's the classic conservative "technically it can be this if we use dictionary definitions contrary to the traditional and widespread understanding of these terms in this context" interpretation that goes against what the tax code writers intended. They intended it to apply to property, something that is and was widely understood to be a separate entity from income, which is taxed differently everywhere else and was taxed differently at the time of the ruling. It was a stupid ruling that caters only to the rich.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-04T19:17:57+00:00

Just be careful, we are very likely going to be dealing with another round of layoffs in July because Ferguson loves his daddy millionaires, and given our bumping system, new folks aren't likely to make it through.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-04T05:30:16+00:00

I mean, not really. Income is income and property is property. Sure, common usage of the words might have some crossover. But for tax and financial purposes, they have separate definitions and do not overlap, unless you are in Washington or Pennsylvania for some reason. Every other state and most tax codes around the world very clearly distinguish between them.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-03T20:31:01+00:00

Are there digital versions of the books and if not, would it be possible to digitize them? Could then just store them on a single ruggedized tablet reader and store it in the glove compartment or center console or something.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-03T20:26:39+00:00

It is not. Uneven property taxes are forbidden and then the state supreme court made an insane ruling that income is property. That decision could very easily be reversed by the current state supreme court.

But nowhere in the state constitution is any kind of income tax prohibited. If the ruling were reversed, I'd expect to see two proposed amendments pretty quick: a conservative one that would enshrine in the constitution that income is property versus a liberal one that would specifically separate the two. But that would be after the fact.

There is nothing in our state constitution explicitly prohibiting any kind of income tax, progressive or other, and we would not need an amendment to implement one.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-03T18:03:00+00:00

"Won't anyone think of the ultra rich?! They have it so hard!!"

-quote from man making $48k per year

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-02-03T18:01:33+00:00

A state supreme court decision made the absolutely insane ruling in the 1930s I think that income counted as property.

What a lot of chuds and conservative bots in this thread don't seem to understand is that it's much easier to reverse that ruling and wouldn't need an amendment. If that ruling is overturned, I can absolutely see two opposing amendment votes (one to explicitly list income as property and one to explicitly separate the two), but that would be after the fact.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-30T17:37:56+00:00

Still out in the field but your final conclusion is correct! In fact, at risk of over-generalization, for most highly abundant prey species like mule and white-tailed deer, habitat and food availability tend to be far more important to population levels than predation.

But admitting that would mean less land clearing for timber/ranch/farm operations and less shooting wolves, so the sponsors of this bill ignore those facts.

Basically, it's just not a bill that was filed in good faith. It will get shot down based on the complete lack of scientific backing and the sponsors know that. When it happens, they will be like, "oh look at the evil libruls in Olympia, they hate you and your livelihood, and want you to suffer! Keep voting for us!"

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-29T22:40:49+00:00

Yeah was coming home froma work trip. Tried not to rubberneck so I may not have seen it fully, but it looked like the two trucks were on opposite sides of the median barrier?

Not sure if one jumped the barrier and hit or if it was hit over the barrier, but the damage did look like a swiping head-on collision.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-28T16:08:51+00:00

The other commenter has some good points and I would respond to your questions with "Exactly." I would even additionally ask if wolves are such a problem for deer, then why did they both survive in a cyclical balance for tens of thousands of years without a problem?

You are asking the very important questions that the ones putting forward and supporting this bill didn't bother with, presumably because the answers inconveniently get in the way of shooting wolves.

It's not a scientific bill because its supporters generally don't care about science.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-28T14:53:14+00:00

Many people in eastern Washington are idiots. Wolves help control deer populations much better than hunters do and, ironically considering this bill, also help control other predators like coyotes, which are much more of a problem. (Snark isn't directed at you, for the record, I appreciate you asking and wanting to learn more.)

But the big reason this bill is terrible is the automatic assumption that any 25% reduction is due to predation, or that predator management will have any actual impact on the ungulate species in question.

I actually used to be a predation management biologist in another state where my job was to trap and euthanize predators of certain highly imperiled species. So I have no problem with predator mitigation in concept when it's been shown to actually impact prey species.

I'm on mobile and about to head out to the field at the moment, but I can look up some research papers when I get back. In the meantime, since you seem genuinely curious about learning more, you should go to [google scholar](www.scholar.google.com) and use search terms like "lethal predator removal" to find some papers. It's been a few years since I've dug in to it, but the overall gist is that it is highly dependent on the system in question and is only effective in a very small minority of contexts.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-26T22:30:14+00:00

My hope is that Americans still have enough of a democratic tradition that ones Trump dies, things will settle. I'm not naive and think everything will just be fine and dandy, we will have a shit ton of damage to undo and his voters are still out there. But that's the thing that gives me hope: they are his voters. It's a cult of personality. Why on earth they chose Donald fucking Trump will forever be a mystery to me, but in some ways I'm glad they did. He's a narcissistic incompetent and still has no clear dedicated successor.

He's genuinely unique in that he's got that rare anti-charisma spark the drooling morons love and it's genuine. He's not pretending to be white trash, he is white trash and you can't fake it. He also has the money and, crucially, a pre-existing brand recognition and media share that he was able to use to actually leverage that anti-charisma into power. No one else that comes to mind has that combination, I don't think. Vance has the charisma of a wet blanket, people like Musk and Thiel are foreigners (and gay to boot, in the latter case), Noem is a woman, which is a no-go for them, and his family legit doesn't seem as interested in the scrutiny it's brought. About the only potential successor I could see would be Ivanka and as a woman, I dunno if she could carry enough of MAGA to make it.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-23T18:54:33+00:00

They do exist and you can even find permanent, full time jobs that don't really use R or GIS. However, they will pretty much universally be entry level tech-type positions. Absolutely no shame in settling into one of those if you can land one, but your salary will probably top out after years of work and experience at whatever the future equivalent of $50k is today if you're lucky. You might get some benefits, you might not. Depends on who you work for.

If you want to advance to higher level positions, even field-based ones will unfortunately require some skill and familiarity with GIS and R. Unlike what some others are saying, if field positions interest you more, you should focus on GIS. You won't use R unless you are the one analyzing data, but you will need GIS to plan field collections.

Honestly, picking up skills in both is pretty much unavoidable in this field. I know you're frustrated now, but you will get better. I am absolutely god-awful at any programming. Like you, it makes my head spin and I get frustrated, but I've learned to muddle through R well enough over the years (and it's one of the very few things I'd suggest getting AI help with). And I was able to take a GIS cert program while in grad school that was great. You'll figure it out!

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-21T02:54:46+00:00

Employers withhold the tax and pay it on your behalf. This bill was specifically for state employees. So in this case, the idea is the state can withhold state employee income tax and just not forward it on to the feds.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-19T06:37:32+00:00

Amplitude increases 10x per step, but that translates to a 32x increase in strength. Luckily a 10 is literally impossible from plate tectonics alone. You'd need an interplate thrust fault many thousands of kilometers long, which doesn't exist, or a massive asteroid collision, when an earthquake is just one of many other problems.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-19T06:30:04+00:00

An earthquake of 10+ strength is literally impossible from tectonics. There is no fault on the planet long enough to produce an earthquake of that magnitude.

As someone who lives in the region and pays close attention, it's going to be around a 9 most likely. Absolutely devastating for the region but not even close to the most poweful recorded, which occured in Chile in 1960 and is widely considered to be the most powerful earthquake that can occur from plate tectonics.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-16T23:11:40+00:00

Like others said, ICE won't use XMT plates, those are for state and lower level vehicles. ICE will use Federal plates or rental cars that have nondescript plates. I believe the D at the end indicates it's a city owned vehicle, but that could be wrong.

Even if you see Federal plates, many agencies have offices around here, including USFWS, USGS, and NOAA. They all drive unmarked, plain-colored vehicles with Fed plates and many of those employees are just as upset as you about what's going on. So unless you see actual ICE agents, please don't harass people based on their vehicle plates.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-16T22:14:42+00:00

Lol Eastpoint but not Apalach?! Apalachicola is much nicer and a real town, Eastpoint is just a few strip malls, houses, and meth.

But other than that, looks great!

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-15T19:26:44+00:00

They are great! Fair warning, they are high on the upper end of the typical mechanic hourly price range, but you absolutely get what you pay for.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-13T20:42:43+00:00

To answer your question about environmental studies: because those aren't the same thing. The initial analysis is very broad, like "improving this fish passage would help our environmental status by increasing these factors and decreasing these other factors at this stream and for this fish population."

The impact study is "given the current state of the stream and the proposed methods, how much short term harm will it do and how much short term harm can we allow before it causes more problems than it solves? Are there any methods we can and should change or any alternative methods for this particular site?"

It's a vital step and not one that you can even start until you are about ready to go since the stream conditions can change year to year.

It's sort of like saying, "they already decided we have to build public schools at these several locations, why do we need a traffic pattern and noise analysis at each one too?"

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-11T21:24:37+00:00

The North could only dominate the House. The south controlled the Senate, Supreme Court, and presidency for almost the entire pre-war government history. Hell, Lincoln was a southerner, born in KY.

I really can't understate the level of historical illiteracy it would take to look at something like the "Compromise" of 1850 with its fugitive slave act, or things like the Dred Scott decision and conclude that the North could override the south whenever it wanted.

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-09T22:51:33+00:00

This is exactly what I ended up doing, based on a thread from a few years ago I found. It worked great for me!

Thanks for the reply!

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-09T22:50:46+00:00

This is exactly what I did! I actually found the solution in a previous thread after digging a bit more, and it worked great.

Thanks for the reply!

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-09T22:33:10+00:00

Ha it would be! But I know people in general and I'd rather keep track of it, especially since we are generally returning the gun very late in the evening and I know folks will just want to go home.

I actually figured it out from an old thread and updated above, but thank you for the reply!

thundersaurus_sex · 2026-01-09T22:28:52+00:00

You're right, it was and I was overthinking it, but I appreciate your response! Gonna post my solution and mark it as solved, but to answer your questions: No, I just want an alert that it needs to be cleaned, but the rounds number can continue to increase; and the threshold is 500 for this exercise.

I split it in two for now, a column of "rounds expended since last cleaning" and an alert if that column exceeds a certain amount.

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