Brian Blakely

Seahawks, Huskies and Lakers.. what else do you need?

[Corbin K. Smith @CorbinSmithNFL]

I’m a reporter and not a fan. But I can tell you that the Seahawks have one of the biggest global fan bases in the league.

A huge chunk of my podcast clientele is from out of the country and honestly, the continent.

Large listenership in Brazil, Germany, England, and Australia among others.

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@hawkblogger

[John Stossel @JohnStossel]

It's the 20th Anniversary of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

NONE of his scary predictions have come true.

Mt. Kilimanjaro still has snow and Glacier National Park still has glaciers.

Here's why we are not doomed:

[Up & Adams @UpAndAdamsShow]

People are absolutely SLEEPING on the Seahawks 😤

@Seahawks | @FDSportsbook | @heykayadams

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@JordanReffett Half of those from former Pac-12 members...quite a statement. The true Conference of Champions.

[Rip Wheeler @WheelerRipWA]

If you live in Washington, you've been feeling something for years.

Our state is unaffordable. And it's worse than the states "they" use as a comparison to justify their decisions.

For years the narrative was that Washington was the common-sense alternative to California. The data now proves that is a lie. When you factor in the legislative stack and the removal of the public voice, we have surpassed the cost burden of Los Angeles.
And our weather isn't as good...

Here is what Governor Bob Ferguson doesn't want you to know...

Seattle is now 5% more expensive than Los Angeles. In Snohomish County, your overall cost of living is 31% higher than the national average.

Median rent in Snohomish is between $2,325 and $2,700. I hear even higher than this in my circle. The national average is $1,627. That's a 50% premium just to have a roof over your head.

Washington is the most expensive state in the lower 48 to eat at a restaurant. Anyone else feel this? A burger in Snohomish costs 14% more than the national average. That's a direct result of the highest labor-cost mandates in the country and a ban on tip credits. Restaurant owners pay the full $17.13+ wage on top of tips. You pay that difference on your receipt.

Gas is $4.38 per gallon. That's a $1.27 surcharge over the national average. A $1,500 annual penalty just to drive to work. The Cap and Trade carbon tax is an invisible drain on every delivery and grocery item in the county.

Sales tax sits between 9.2% and 10.6%. Fourth highest in America. You are penalized every single time you spend your own money.
The Legislative Mechanism.

SB 6346. The 9.9% income tax. They passed it. Then immediately labeled it an "emergency." Under Article II of our constitution, an emergency clause legally bars you from filing a referendum. They used 26 words to silence the 116,000 people who signed in to oppose it.

HB 1589. The forced retrofit. They're killing natural gas. If you own a home, you're looking at a state-mandated transition to electric. Experts estimate this will cost homeowners $20,000 to $40,000. They used an emergency clause here too. They don't want you to vote on your own utility bills.

HB 2355. The 4-hour trap. Hiring a neighbor to clean your house one afternoon a month now makes you a "hiring entity." One paperwork error carries a $20,000 state fine.

SB 5974. The Sheriff removal. They gave an appointed board in Olympia, the CJTC, the power to remove your elected Sheriff. The Governor appoints that board. Your local vote for public safety can now be nullified by political appointees.

"They" will tell you this is for the collective good. They will call me names, make fun of my grammar and talk down to me with their Berkley education (which they want us to pay off btw).

What they are doing is unintelligent business.

The "Tax the Rich" defense. They say the 9.9% tax only hits the top 1%. If that were true, they wouldn't have needed an emergency clause to stop the other 99% of us from voting on it. Once the infrastructure of an income tax exists, the threshold always drops to fill the next budget hole. Always.

The "Living Wage" defense. Forcing a $17.13+ base wage with no tip credit doesn't help a server when menu prices get so high that families stop eating out. Record restaurant closures are happening right now because the state made the cost of doing business higher than the value of the service.

The "Emergency" defense. You don't need to delete the public's right to a referendum to fund schools. You use an emergency clause when you know the public will reject your work. Since 2015, the state budget has outpaced population growth by nearly 4 to 1. This isn't about services. This is about power.

Consent of the governed is the foundation of a Republic. Right now, Olympia is treating it like a suggestion.

If we don't demand fiscal accountability now, there won't be a Washington left for our kids to inherit. Unless you count inheriting debt.

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@braves2430

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@BarronTNews_ Republicans control the house and senate...why not just pass it?

[Ranee Soundara @naynerz]

What bothers me about this bill, as someone who was born and raised in Seattle and spent half my childhood in Island County, is not just the tax itself. It is the worldview behind it.

Of course we want to support early education, school lunches, and programs that help uplift the most marginalized people in our communities. That is not the issue. The issue is whether the state actually understands who it is targeting, who it is hurting, and whether it can be trusted to distinguish between durable wealth and the fragile economics of people trying to build something.

Washington keeps writing statewide tax policy as if the whole state is Seattle. It is not. This state, Seattle especially, loves to perform its liberalism. It talks constantly about progress, equity, and protecting the vulnerable. But bills like this expose how selective that politics can be. When statewide tax policy is written around a narrow image of wealth, it does not just touch Seattle tech workers. It also reaches family-owned and pass-through businesses across the state, including people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who built something over time and do not live anything like the caricature of the wealthy.

Across the state, there are family-owned businesses, small operators, and early-stage companies where income is irregular, cyclical, and often tied up in keeping the business alive. In those businesses, the real risk is not the average year. It is the unusual year — the year when several years of work, reinvestment, or one strong season finally shows up as income on paper. That is what this bill misunderstands. It treats that kind of income as excess personal wealth, when in many cases it is the very capital a business needs to survive, hire, grow, and reach the next stage.

That is why this bill is so destructive. It kills family-owned and operated businesses that are already trying to make it. It kills startups before they ever have the chance to become durable. And while the American Dream is often more myth than reality, this bill punishes even the attempt at upward mobility in a system that is already stacked against ordinary people.

As a woman of color founder building a women’s brand, I now find myself researching where I need to move my business in order to give it the best chance of surviving — and where I can eventually build something that rewards the employees who help me get there.

That is the problem with bills like this. Even if today it is 9.9% above $1 million, the moment the mechanism exists, people start asking the obvious next question: when does 9.9 become 10? When does $1 million become $900,000? When do success, marriage, or growth become things the state quietly teaches you to fear?

And I do not absolve myself of responsibility for any of this. I voted for this governor. I contributed to the American Dream Killer, and I 100% regret my vote.

[Vijay @VijayInWA]

No state has experienced a more dramatic political transformation than Washington state since Covid, or perhaps in our nation's history.

Five years ago, WA had among the most moderate business friendly policies in the nation.

Today it is the most far left, anti-business location in the United States, where unprecedented ideas such as a wealth tax and the highest estate tax (almost double the next nearest state) seem reasonable to the Democratic legislators who control the state.

The economic consequences of this transformation should serve as a warning to other states in the Union about the dangers of one-party political control.

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@SenatorCantwell You are a liar and fraud.

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@GovBobFerguson Its not unfair! It is called capitalism. You are driving business away and putting more burden on the taxpayers. You lie to the people. You are breaking the state constitution. Wake up people...it wont just be "millionaires" soon enough.

[Brandi Kruse @BrandiKruse]

When your liberal friend complains that Washington gas prices are high because of Trump and Iran, send them this and ask who they voted for in state elections.

[Brandi Kruse @BrandiKruse]

INSANE. A leading Washington state Democrat admits he was drunk last night while debating the budget. This comes as his party is trying to rush through an income tax that could upend the state's economy.

[FOX Sports: NFL @NFLonFOX]

Repost if your team had 10 or more wins in the regular season👏

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Unrealized gains tax for Gen-Z:

You buy a Pokémon card for $50.

Someone offers you $500 for it. You say no. You love that card. You're keeping it.

The government says: "Cool, but that card is worth $500 now. You owe us $100 in taxes."
You: "…I didn't sell it."

Government: "Don't care. Pay up."

You don't have $100 lying around. So you're forced to sell the card you love just to pay a tax on money you never received.

Next month? That card drops back to $50.

Your card is gone. Your money is gone. And the government shrugs.

That's a wealth tax on unrealized gains. They don't pay you back the tax...

Now picture this.

Your mom calls you crying. She has to sell the house she raised you in. Not because she can't afford it. She's lived there 30 years. It's paid off.

But some website says it's worth more now and the government says she owes $15,000 she doesn't have.

So she sells your childhood home. The kitchen where she made you breakfast. The doorframe where she marked your height every birthday.

Gone.

To pay a tax on money that was never real.

Now picture the opposite.

Your dad put everything into his small business. For 20 years he built it from nothing. One year the business is "valued" at $2 million on paper. He owes a massive tax bill. He empties his savings. Sells his truck. Borrows money. Pays it.

Next year the market crashes. His business is worth $200,000.

He lost everything to pay a tax on a number that doesn't exist anymore.

Does the government give him his money back?
No.

Does the government give him his truck back?
No.

Does the government care?
No.

They sold this idea as "taxing billionaires." But billionaires have armies of lawyers, offshore accounts, and trusts. They'll be fine.

You know who won't be fine? Your mom. Your dad. Your neighbor with a small business. The farmer down the road who's had the same land for four generations and now has to sell it because dirt got expensive.

You're not taxing wealth. You're taxing people for owning things.

It's like getting a parking ticket for a car you might drive somewhere someday.

They want you to own nothing and be happy. To fund the fraud, waste and abuse of the welfare state they created.

There is enough money. More tax isn't needed. It's all a lie. But you've been gaslit into believing this is a rich vs poor debate.

I hope you understand what's at stake.

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@JasonLaCanfora Unfollow...

[Dave “Softy” Mahler @Softykjr]

If you want the Seahawks to wear these in the Super Bowl, sign the petition..aka repost. 10k reposts and it's a 90% chance it happens

[Brian Blakely @BrianBlakely73]

@AaronJFentress Not much of a journalist are ya? Sheesh.

[FOX Sports: NFL @NFLonFOX]

Repost if this is the game of the year so far