Taking the Fifth

Kristin Devine

Kristin has humbly retired as Ordinary Times' friendly neighborhood political whipping girl to focus on culture and gender issues. She lives in a wildlife refuge in rural Washington state with too many children and way too many animals. There's also a blog which most people would very much disapprove of https://atomicfeminist.com/

Related Post Roulette

26 Responses

  1. Oscar Gordon says:

    Ya know, I like Spokane, I often wish it wasn’t 4 fricken hours away from my home in Issaquah, but it’s a nice town.Report

    • atomickristin in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      It is a nice town. Thanks for reading.

      I consider it a gift to be from Spokane, because it was an early lesson for me in bandwagoning and irrational hatred. People I grew up with and would go on and on about how much they hated Spokane, how bad it sucked, how they couldn’t wait to leave…but then I went other places and found they were no better and often worse in their own ways. (course, I had the luxury of getting to go other places to compare them…not everyone did) I quickly concluded that there are just some things that people decide to hate for no real reason and it was probably best to make up my own mind based on observation rather than to get caught up in it.Report

  2. Philip H says:

    I moved to Settle not long after Nethercutt was elected, and dated a woman who was a WSU grad (from Pullman). I miss Cougar Cheese.

    And Nethercutt should never have lost the seat, but not unlike Rogers he wasn’t really paying attention to those he represented. Thus I agree with you that Rogers is probably in more trouble then other think, but perhaps not as much as you see. Fact is, she’s been reelected – what 6 times – inspite of her inabilities.Report

    • atomickristin in reply to Philip H says:

      Ah, Cougar Cheese. Yum.

      Foley was voted out – Nethercutt left Congress to run for the Senate and made way for Rodgers at that time.

      I can totally see this election going the other way too – just that I don’t think it’s as done a deal as a lot of people seem to think it is. 🙂 Thanks for reading.Report

  3. Doctor Jay says:

    Two of my best buds during my days at UW were from Spokane. I have relatives in the area these days, too. Best of luck.

    For the record though, that slimy stuff all over everything on the West side is algae and mold, not fungus, though we do have plenty of that, too 😉Report

    • atomickristin in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      It was more a figurative fungus than a literal one, but you’re right.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!Report

    • Maribou in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      @doctor-Jay For the record, only, mold is a type of fungus.

      @atomickristin I really enjoyed reading this piece, as someone whose many Washington friends mostly live in Seattle but are sometimes from Spokane in meaningful ways (among them, that they still like it, and have friends there, and visit regularly). And also as someone who keeps meaning to read Jess Walter.Report

      • atomickristin in reply to Maribou says:

        Thanks.

        I really recommend Citizen Vince . Walter has all the problems of any male writer in that age group but there’s a lot of good that goes along with that.Report

    • Burt Likko in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      Yeah I thought you were talking about the elected representatives. You mean a literal fungus?

      Am I gonna get that here in PDX?Report

      • I don’t know about fungus. I do know that my homeowner friend in Portland inspects his house for invasive moss (eg, growing up under the siding) multiple times per year.Report

      • atomickristin in reply to Burt Likko says:

        Literal fungus. Of various sorts. Like if you leave something out in your yard for too long it gets stuff growing on it.Report

      • Maribou in reply to Burt Likko says:

        @burt in my limited but comparative experience, PDX is not as fungal as Seattle which is not as bad as Vancouver (the Canadian one)…. however, they’re all going to be much more …. growthful than you are used to in Southern California, when the spring comes. Or maybe even by February if it’s a mild winter. Growth of all kinds, including moss and fungi of various sorts.

        And algae, as Dr. Jay mentions, though I’m honestly not sure if that’s more of a Seattle thing than the other two.

        In my sister’s old neighborhood in East Vancouver (near the library), any one house’s roof had more of an ecosystem going on than my entire back yard does in Colorado…. almost all of it plants, moss, microbes, and/or fungi.

        It’s the rainforest part of “temperate rainforest”…Report

      • Oscar Gordon in reply to Burt Likko says:

        Let me put it this way, a good power washer is a wise investment if you have outdoor furniture/patios/etc. You’ll be using it a few times a year.Report

  4. Michael Cain says:

    I am always curious about the state budget flow of funds when I read pieces with regional intrastate resentment as mentioned in parts of this piece. Here in Colorado, where for a time I was intimately familiar with the state budget, I noticed that the greatest level of resentment aimed at the urban/suburban Front Range — that accounts for most of the state population — was from areas that received the largest subsidies in the flow of funds. (Resentment up to the level of the General Assembly member from a rural district whose stump speech included “The Front Range has declared war on rural Colorado!”, and the short-lived 51st State county-level ballot initiatives.) When I say subsidies, I mean that the local budgets for schools, roads, and social services are heavily dependent on money transferred from the Front Range counties by various allocation formulas. In a few cases, 80% of the funding for local schools is from such transfers.

    I don’t blame the rural areas here for complaining some — no one has figured out how to have them keep up in terms of jobs, quality of health care, broadband, etc. However, when I say “no one”, I include the rural folks themselves. The proposals that they bring to the state legislature are always increased subsidies in one form or another.Report

    • atomickristin in reply to Michael Cain says:

      It’s not the money, it’s the abject disdain thing. The holier than thou, we know better than you hicks how to run your region, your town is garbage kind of stuff. And our town is totally normal, just a regular town, no worse than anywhere else, so it’s just generally a weird vibe. I think that’s where the bulk of the resentment is coming from.

      All rural areas get a higher % of tax money. Don’t quote me on this, but I think if there’s resentment in the financial arena, it’s possibly stemming from the perception (accurate or not) that the tax money we receive in the East goes to fairly mundane and necessary things while money is squandered on big budget, showy projects, mismanagement and messed up priorities on the West Side.Report

      • Jesse in reply to atomickristin says:

        “It’s not the money, it’s the abject disdain thing. The holier than thou, we know better than you hicks how to run your region,”

        That’s hilarious considering it’s Eastern Washington Republican’s currently trying to pass laws that would limit the ability of the city of Seattle to pass various taxes, but to be fair, the disdain is probably most recently coming from continual support of right-wing social conservative policies including trying to keep gay marriage illegal, voting for legislators who wish to limit reproductive choice and whom support harsher crackdowns on immigrants.. Ya’ know, little things like that.

        But then again, you have this odd belief that your town was basically a shining city on a hill with no real issues with race, gender, or minority rights until the Left invented them all in 1986 or whenever.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to Jesse says:

          Yes! Let it flow through you!Report

          • The Question in reply to Jaybird says:

            well when somebody points out the inherent disdain that the city folks seem to have for the rural folk I think it’s fair to point out that the conservative rural folk have a fairly well established distain for the city Folk. Jew York City is something I have heard more than once, and plainsman bitching about how brown Denver is getting.Report

            • Jaybird in reply to The Question says:

              Ah, yes. “Both Sides Do It.”Report

            • atomickristin in reply to The Question says:

              But of course I’ve never said any of those things (in fact, that’s the first time I ever heard that thing you just said about New York in my whole entire life) and the 1/3 of voters in my district who vote Democrat never say any of those things, and the Republican voters in my district who are decent people, of whom there are many, don’t say those things. So you’re heaping a lot of disdain towards a lot of people that you’re really directing towards a small percentage of people, possibly even setting policy based upon an assumption that many people have beliefs that only a small percentage of people actually do.Report

              • Chip Daniels in reply to atomickristin says:

                I was going to post this on the Bolsonaro thread, but it actually makes more sense here:
                From Matthew Richmond h/t to a commenter over at LGM:

                This is a crusade of second-class citizens against non-citizens, orchestrated by those who rights and privileges are never in doubt.

                Report

        • atomickristin in reply to Jesse says:

          hey ya wow that’s it exactly! Thanks for helping me out with your wondrous display of disdain. Appreciate itReport

  5. atomickristin says:

    Update –

    McMorris Rodgers pulls out a pretty emphatic victory over superprogressive Lisa Brown.

    I still maintain this is a very vulnerable seat and could be won by a moderate Democrat. If they have a candidate who isn’t BFF’s with Sandanistas, and didn’t just move to the area 3 months before the election this is a winnable race for the D’s.Report