Perhaps Trump’s relentless drive to “get this pandemic over with” is primarily driven by his business circumstances.

Judge Niemi knew women needed encouraging because she herself had faced much prejudice when she graduated -- among the first women to do so -- with a J.D. degree from the University of Washington law school. In those days, there were few options open to her.

The Covid numbers are quite stable, with a slight majority not ready to die. Texas is way more ready for death than Washington state, the land of wusses. .

The splitting up of functions and blurring of responsibility stems from the days of Progressivism and Populism, where the only way to counter the railroads' conquest of the Legislature was to fracture power. Once there is this proliferation of offices and semi-responsibility, it becomes very difficult to remove the crabgrass.

The pandemic has been well managed, textbook-style. Even so, the pandemic has hit hard, notably cratering the province’s tourism industry from cruise ships to wine tourism in the south Okanagan.

Since passage of the Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1990 the state and region have been in the forefront of what came to be know as the Smart Growth movement that sought to shift growth patterns away from the dominant post-World War II model. If we have been leaders, do we have any followers?

The trick is to run out the clock by asking a lot of seemingly-dumb questions until, exhausted, the scammers are ready for a low-ball offer.

The “Berniecrat” wing of the Democratic Party misfired this year with scattershot challengers to Reps. Kilmer and Rick Larsen, candidates who cheered on the Capitol Hill occupied zone in Seattle. Rep. Adam Smith, in the 9th District, blew away left opponents in 2016 and 2018. Running in the 10th, Beth Doglio is the most credible hope of the “blue-green” left of labor and environmental activists.

The book is narrated by Meriwether Lewis’ dog, Seaman, a Newfoundland. As such it is a great introduction to this important chapter in American history. And there really was a “Seaman.”

The president came out second best to Biden, losing out on most issues with defensive responses ("it was China's fault"), looks-will-kill glares, frantic accordion hands, and obvious lies.

Biden talked of kids “torn from the arms” of parents; Trump went on about coyotes and cartels, murderers and rapists. Biden promised a “path to citizenship” for millions and preservation of DACA. It went downhill from there, Trump declared himself “the least racist person in the room” and appeared totally incoherent on climate change.

He never could say what he'd do in the next term, so busy was he in finding enemies and boasting. No empathy, as usual. Crazy attacks. The moderator saved him from going on and on, but the frothing personality was there to behold.

"What is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency, honor, respect, treating people with dignity, making that sure that everyone has an even chance. And I’m going to make sure you get that. You have not been getting it the last four years.”

So, Joe Biden = Ronald Reagan. A uniter, not a divider. Which may be why he’s going to win.

Trump's pressing of his distorted view of dystopian America likely did little to capture those few undecided voters exhausted by four years of conflict and chaos.

Given fears or expectations of a Biden gaffe or senior moment, he stood tall. He did talk about what he hoped to do. And on more than one occasion, when tonight’s excellent moderator, Kristin Welker, asked Biden a question he, in contrast to Trump, actually responded to the question, clearly and directly.

Winner: Biden who nailed the last question about inaugural speech with a message of president of all America. Trump? I can’t even remember. More narcissistic BS.

As one of those who can remember the good old days of political comity, I am not surprised to see polls showing older women voters trending toward Vice President Biden. Nor am I surprised to hear which issues are propelling the ballot choices of women over 50.

A big new poll just out from the Knight Foundation shows that over 60 percent of people in both parties think that the other party is a threat to the United States and its people.

Wolverines are the largest members of the weasel family. Your basic weasel is considered a fierce predator. It weighs less than a pound. A wolverine can weigh up to 44 pounds. They are clearly badass.

Nationally, economists have been predicting that the recovery from the pandemic recession would hit a wall, and we have hit that wall in Washington.

If the digital political landscape in this disorienting, dispiriting year gives you the creeps, imagine where we’re headed if hackable digital tech, unmanaged media, and microtargeted marketing rampage on without brakes or scruples.

Put at its most basic, the university communities of Eugene (Oregon Ducks) and Corvallis (Oregon State Beavers) keep Democrats in power. The rest of the district votes Republican, even in areas where blue-collar workers voted Democrat at mid-century.

In Portland, at least, there are early warnings to incumbents. Embattled, "embaffled" Mayor Ted Wheeler had seemed a shoo-in, but months of nightly demonstrations and violence that he seems powerless to end have now put Wheeler in a tie with his challenger,

Why can’t the Republican Party do better than Loren Culp?. The Mainstream Republicans put on a wonderful shindig for Dan Evans. But the party’s base is, in an Inslee-coined word, “Trumpian.”

Nationally, there's reason to believe that, historically, Black and Brown communities have been over-policed when it comes to minor offenses and under policed when it comes to serious offenses.

The author quotes race historian George M. Fredrickson: “American laws were the main foreign precedents” for Germany becoming a “full-fledged racist regime.” What laws? U.S. miscegenation laws, also known as Blood Laws, that defined who could and could not marry.

The police unions would fight back furiously, counting on rural legislators in state houses, alarmed homeowners, and Congressional tough-on-crime lawmakers to protect their sweet deals.

Politics, at least in a democracy, is the art of the possible and the practice of compromise. It is, and should be, a limited sphere. Which is why I’m good with Joe Biden.

Lazaro was six miles from the unrest. I wish he had been there, for the protests were for him too. His seventy-nine-year-old black life still mattered.