Rian Watt

one dozen bats at a keyboard

14h

setting aside the racism and xenophobia, I always find it very off-putting when people pretend to be morons in order to appear folksy. it’s disrespectful to folks, who are by and large not morons!

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

JD Vance says of the Middle East that it's "a region of the world made up of countries whose name I couldn't even pronounce"

Rian Watt reposted

@panasonicdx4500.bsky.social

Brazil’s results tonight are a big endorsement for the idea that every country should have a second “are you you sure about that” election a couple weeks after the first one for the important stuff

@elections.kingcounty.gov

Every single sport

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Rian Watt reposted

King County Elections

You may have heard about some undelivered ballots that were recently found in a dumpster. Here’s a thread of what you need to know.

@mattyglesias.bsky.social

I endorse this campaign, with all my heart

The New York Times@nytimes.com

Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a campaign against listening to music or videos without headphones on public transportation. London commuters weighed in on those plans. trib.al/dW7NL6Y

Rian Watt reposted

Matthew Yglesias

There is a clear "revealed preference" to do less of basically everything and spend more time home alone going online, but I'm convinced a lot of the anger and misery in contemporary America is downstream of this rather than conventional economic problems. www.slowboring.com/p/americans-...

Rian Watt reposted

The Seattle Times

@seattletimes.com

State leaders and childcare advocates say repealing the "millionaires tax" would slash childcare funding at a moment when families — and providers — are already struggling.

seattletimes.comFerguson warns childcare funding at risk if millionaire's tax repealed

I will not be rooting for the Brewers, sorry, so with great regret I must say: Go Tampa Bay Rays

@adammongrain.bsky.social

Cleveland would have been an easy rooting interest, and yet

Rian Watt reposted

Adam Mongrain

Another adjacent @jdcmedlock.bsky.social essential hit

Adam Mongrain@adammongrain.bsky.social

Medlock was on to something important when he was asking people about their favourite taxes

Rian Watt reposted

James Medlock

@jdcmedlock.bsky.social

Reaping [tax escrow lowering the salience of property taxes, allowing for higher rates]: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!! Sowing [the salience property tax skyrocketing as people pay off their mortgages]: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

jamelle@jamellebouie.net

a tax revolt fueled by stupid people who don’t understand escrow payments www.politico.com/news/magazin...

politico.comDo You Really Own Your Home? A Tax Revolt Says No.The argument that property taxes make Americans renters in their own houses has fueled the biggest anti-tax uprising in half a century, and local governments are scrambling.

Rian Watt reposted

e.w. niedermeyer

@niedermeyer.online

*just wrote off more interest payments from taxable income than my house is even worth voice* society has suckered me into bum deal

Politico@politico.com

“I’m old. I’ve paid my home off,” said Ray Warner, a 72-year-old Akron resident. “Why would I pay property tax?” Across the country, homeowners are asking the same question and revolting against property taxes at a scale not seen in a half century.

Rian Watt reposted

William B. Fuckley

@opinionhaver.bsky.social

One would be good and the other would be bad because one cause is good and the other is bad. We are not in the realm of procedural justice concerns anymore, liberalism is not obligated to be neutral on the question of its own existence.

Mike Masnick@masnick.com

People demanding Zuck be hauled before Congress to explain why No Kings insta was suspended... how would you feel if MAGA GOP hauled MSNow execs to explain why they covered Trump the way they do? Both are editorial choices protected by the First Amendment. If this annoys you...

Rian Watt reposted

Abdul El-Sayed

@abdulelsayed.bsky.social

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his.

Rian Watt reposted

Alex Hudson

@blacksandpaper.bsky.social

Someday, we’ll have streets like this in every neighborhood in Seattle and ask ourselves why it took so long.

Rian Watt reposted

Mike Goodman

@themlg.bsky.social

I think it’s even worse than this. This often means, “after I deduct expenditures *and savings* from my cash flow, my cash flow is net zero.”

Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social

I think the real finding from surveys like this is that a lot of self-pitying rich people don't know what "paycheck to paycheck" means. If you are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on voluntary expenditures like prep school tuition, you don't count. finance.yahoo.com/economy/arti...

finance.yahoo.comMore than a third of Americans earning over $500,000 say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, Goldman Sachs findsNearly half of $500K-plus households pay only the minimum on their credit cards, and 80% have put off a major financial goal—more than middle earners on both counts.

Rian Watt reposted

Invest In Washington Now

@investwanow.bsky.social

The Millionaires Tax doesn't apply to union pensions because it can't. It's mathematically impossible. You'd need a pension check for $84,000 a MONTH to trigger the Millionaires Tax. Learn more: https://investwanow.org/iwn-updates/millionaires-tax-cant-apply-to-union-pensions @wslc.bsky.social

therealdeal.comBuilding for the “Commie Corridor”: the projects and players in the territory of NYC’s most left-leaning politiciansProgressive bloc of Brooklyn, Queens still home to major projects as socialist politicians play ball with developers

We can build this alliance in Seattle, too, and should.

Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social

Tacit alliance of convenience between socialist politicians and productive capital against their mutual enemy, rentier capital, is starting to bear fruit therealdeal.com/new-york/202...

Impeachment, for any of a thousand reasons, is the only reasonable and responsible course for Congress to take. That applies today and it applies in January of next year.

jamelle@jamellebouie.net

wrote on saturday that trump was not going to let democrats avoid the question of impeachment and here we are with an offense that would have had a president impeached, removed and *at least* exiled if it had happened at any point prior to now.

Big Cleveland homer in the playoffs against Chicago? Never seen that one before

@typewriteralley.bsky.social

Yep. Seems to be the case that investments in making parenting easier and more affordable are worth it because … it’s good to make parenting easier and more affordable, not because those policies do anything to boost fertility.

Stephen Nuñez@socio-steve.bsky.social

You generally wouldn't expect policies that facilitate women's labor market participation would increase fertility. But policies that directly subsidize children or effectively subsidize stay at home parenting (like home care allowances)... also don't increase fertility rates

Rian Watt reposted

Ryan Packer

Happy second birthday to the Overlook Walk, a piece of infrastructure that I can't imagine Seattle without at this point.

local man appears on television

Seattle Channel@seattlechannel.seattle.gov

Should Washington repeal its new Millionaires Tax? I-645 supporters say it'll grow into an income tax for everyone, while opponents warn repeal would cut funding for schools and health care. Watch the full City Inside/Out debate at the link below ⬇️⬇🔗

@typewriteralley.bsky.social

Even in Seattle!

Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com

Fourth: relatedly, transit agencies in the US, apart from maybe in Seattle and LA, don’t really know how to get big projects going. They are extremely reliant on consultants. They have forever processes to make decisions. They experience delay after delay after delay.

Rian Watt reposted

Ryan Packer

"This was surprising to me to learn, that currently applicants need 30 plus permits from eight different departments to build housing in the city." -Seattle Budget Director Aly Pennucci just now

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social

SDCI is set to hike permit fees again by 10%+ in the face of declining permit volumes, a direct result of having a fee-funded permit department. These fees already saw an 18% increase last year. The per-unit fee on the 230 unit building was $1,193 in 2025, now it will be $1,513. That's +$73K total.

themomoftheyear.substack.comI’m the Mom in That Viral Giants Clip. Let Me Tell You About My Husband.You saw me carrying our baby and food. There was more happening in our family that night.

As a fellow traveler on the Illinois to Seattle road — and a fan and friend of @typewriteralley.bsky.social for eight of those years: I’m glad you’re here!

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social

Twenty years ago today I left Illinois for a city I had never actually set foot in, Seattle. I think that ended up being a good call.

Rian Watt reposted

Josh Marshall

@joshtpm.bsky.social

everyone who's ever joined in an online pile on should read this.

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com

great piece. man social media is a cancer themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...

nytimes.comWashington Taxed Its Millionaires. Now the Rich Want It Repealed.Washington State voters will get a chance to accept or reject the 9.9 percent income tax on millionaires approved by the Legislature, which broke the state’s taboo against levying income taxes.

Quoted in the @nytimes.com this morning: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/u...

One of the greats of the game.

Casey Drottar@caseydrottar.bsky.social

My goodness, what an incredible moment. After Justin Verlander secured the final out of his career, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch came out of the dugout...to summon Verlander's daughter out to embrace her dad on the mound.

Nobody — not teachers, not retirees, nobody — will be taxed under the Millionaires Tax unless they make more than a million dollars per year, and voters will always have the final say on any changes to that threshold. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.

Teachers across Washington understand that 645 would cut billions of dollars from K-12 education, and that's why they and the Washington Education Association are voting @no645.bsky.social.

I’d say that your home address and ZIP code are not exactly in the “fine intellectual dexterity” category. But beyond that, I think Huang is fundamentally wrong about his assumption that you can get “systems thinking” without a command of the details. Details are the building blocks of the systems!

Matt Ford@mford.bsky.social

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

theurbanist.orgWilson Seeks to Clean House Ahead of First Budget RolloutIn a recent interview, Mayor Katie Wilson told The Urbanist her administration has launched behind-the-scenes work to make city government run better and avoid perennial budget gap crises, including a...

22 Sept

I hope the business community takes the time to give the Mayor credit for this win. She is clearly being held to a different standard than other Mayors were/would have been, and this is exactly the kind of budget speech that would receive rave reviews if delivered by a Mayor from another faction.

Doug Trumm@metropolitanglide.bsky.social

Wilson noted her budget proposal isn't just balanced for next year, but also through 2030, a best practice Seattle hadn't been following since 2020. @amysundberg.bsky.social broke down the Mayor's push to clean house: www.theurbanist.org/wilson-seeks...

seattlechamber.comBusiness Leaders Welcome Mayor Wilson's Focus on Fiscal Responsibility and Public Safety in Proposed Budget - Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of CommerceThe Seattle Metro Chamber, Challenge Seattle, and Washington Roundtable today welcomed key elements of Mayor Wilson's proposed budget, citing its emphasis on

Updating to note that they put out a fairly unqualified statement of support, which is good! Hope there is more where this came from — on TV, in the op-ed pages, in private conversations. www.seattlechamber.com/news/2026/09...

22 Sept

Doug Trumm@metropolitanglide.bsky.social

22 Sept

I was also pleased to see the Mayor recognize that, in the medium- to long-term, additional progressive revenue will be needed to sustainably balance the city's budget. That's been true for years and it's true now.

The additional premise of MHA was that development is a cost to be borne by society which must be mitigated. That premise is, in my view, fundamentally incorrect, and actual effect has been to tax the production housing we desperately need.

Fat-tailed@fattailed.bsky.social

I kinda feel like there should be a compromise where developers get big upzones, and in exchange they have to set aside $ for affordable housing. Oh wait, that was the original premise of MHA that CM Foster is trying to roll back!

View full thread

Housing policy is really complicated and there are genuine tradeoffs here which will need to be worked out through the legislative process. It won’t be perfect. But it’d be crazy to maintain totally u changed a policy designed in a totally different cost and interest rate environment in a new one.

MHA wasn’t handed down from the gods, it was a political compromise representing the values and priorities of the time it was constructed. We’re in a different moment now and we need to act like it. I am glad CM Foster is keeping the conversation alive. I am sure it will be a vigorous one.

Fat-tailed@fattailed.bsky.social

I view this as a sensible effort to limit the negative impacts of that tax on market rate production, particularly in multi family zones, while maintaining a stream of funding for subsidized affordable housing which is ALSO desperately needed.

theurbanist.orgFoster Resurrects Housing Accelerator, Teeing Up MHA Fee Break in 2027After many housing advocates feared the idea of a temporary break on Mandatory Housing Affordability fees was dead, Foster's proposal could be approved by early next year. It includes an 80% discount for vested projects, and a 60% break for new projects that include more family-sized units.

Key to understand that the idea here is to simultaneously a) lower fees for multi family projects b) raise more revenue for dedicated affordable housing, and c) reverse the incentive structure so that you pay less the closer you get to the allowable density on the lot that last part is hardest.

The Urbanist@theurbanist.org

NEW STORY// Foster Resurrects Housing Accelerator, Teeing Up MHA Fee Break in 2027 By Doug Trumm via @theurbanist.org

There are a lot of moving pieces to this proposal and so it can be hard to see the big picture, but that’s it, as best as I understand it. Lots more work to do, to be sure.

Some who have followed me since Twitter days may recall that I have a friend who I’ve known since he was homeless as a young person here in Seattle. He’s housed nlw but still in a tough spot, and his mother just passed. If you would like to contribute to those costs feel free to Venmo me @rianwatt.

*housed now

I am so proud of @typewriteralley.bsky.social and what we have built together!

The Urbanist@theurbanist.org

We're just about to get underway at Town Hall Seattle with @nerd4cities.bsky.social, our own Ryan Packer, and special guests @kccclaudia.bsky.social and @alexis4seattle.bsky.social. Sold out crowd!