#jon grant

Every week, I round up the best handful of things I’ve found on the internet. Here’s this week’s haul.

I was heartbroken reading the story of Chris Assapingok, a Yupik teenager from Alaska who has received a deluge of death threats since the news of his successful whale hunt went international. I firmly believe that human beings have a responsibility to form a deeper relationship with the animals they kill for food, and Chris has undoubtedly done that. The world can be a hateful place. (One of my top-5 books of all-time is Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale, a fictional exploration of the clash between traditional native whaling culture and the crush of modernity. Also worth a read.)

Austin Kleon (whose weekly newsletter was the original inspiration for these 7 Things posts) has been doing some art that I really like lately, especially since it feels like both a natural evolution of and total departure from most of the stuff he’s created in the past. 

One of the most inspiring and gut-wrenching things I’ve read in a long time is RL Stephen’s latest dispatch for Jacobin, focusing on the need for progressive politics to truly serve the communities that suffer daily at the hands of our broken and heinous systems of power. (It’s got me thinking about how my DSA chapter could take the lessons of the Black Panthers to heart and mobilize at ground level to truly serve the marginalized and oppressed. Stay tuned.)

Last week, I shared Jon Bois’s beautiful and brilliant “17776″ with you. He has since done a follow-up Q&A, which I loved reading in the aftermath. A quote that really stuck with me: “Once I wrote it, I sat back, looked at my baseball column, then looked back at my story drafts. And then I was like, ‘ah, shit. Yep. Let’s kill the future.’”

You should be very, very skeptical of Elon Musk’s vision for the future.

I stan HARD for acid country/bluegrass/sea chanty singer Sturgill Simpson. Needless to say I loved this video of him singing Roy Orbison at a tiny karaoke bar in Japan. 

Our Revolution Hedging its Bets on Progressive Seattle Candidates

The end of June marked a new era for Our Revolution when Nina Turner took over the organization as president. In doing so, she raised some eyebrows when answering The Nation columnist Collier Meyerson’s question on whether or not Our Revolution was interested in endorsing independents: You know what, yes. We are open to it. And for me, I’ve also heard the senator say this lately too: Let’s put…

Jon Grant, Walking Death

BARBADOS (Naked Departure) — JON GRANT — Naked, I want you to blast this BIG BLACK B**LLING GOLLIWOG TROLL LOOKING D****CKY PURCHASING OFFICER BY THE NAME  OF  JON GRANT FROM BOTTOM BAY ST.  PHILIP.

ALL JON IS  do is work to support men to f****ck he big belly c****ntzzzz.   But Jon what you could do is tek De money and help us self.   Ya big and black like an oil tanker.   Ya always got De…

Remember when Seattle voters approved I-122, also known as Honest Elections? Sure you do! It was last year. 

Part of the initiative included a program where Seattle voters (and some non-voters) are eligible for $100 of publicly-financed money to give to qualified, citywide candidates beginning in 2017. And it’s almost 2017, which means you’ll get to use them for the next citywide election!

You should receive your Democracy Vouchers—WHICH IS A VERY GOOFY NAME FOR A THING—sometime after January 3 if you’re registered to vote. If you’re ***not*** registered to vote for whatever reason (hopefully a good one!) you might still be able to get your vouchers if you apply here.

You’ll be able to use your vouchers in increments of $25 on City Council and City Attorney candidates that agree to adhere to stricter campaign finance standards, although you won’t be able to use them in a mayoral race until 2021, which is kind of crappy because the Mayor is also running for re-election. 

So far, only one candidate has stated their intent to participate in the voucher program—Jon Grant, who’s challenging Tim Burgess to a rematch for his at-large seat, Position 8.

It’s a smart move on Grant’s part, who appears to already be using the vouchers as a key part of his early campaign strategy. It’s the central fundraising peg in a campaign email sent Wednesday, the day after he announced his candidacy:

It’s also very On Brand for Grant, and plays right into one of the most successful moments of his 2015 campaign: when news broke that a Triad developer had allegedly offered to make an independent expenditure go away if Grant would do the same for a lawsuit filed by the Tenants Union (where Grant served as their Executive Director until he resigned to run for City Council). 

Jon Grant’s concession is a good read, especially as some pundits are busy hailing last week’s election the death of liberal politics in Seattle. Much to the contrary, Grant argues, his campaign, though a loss, pushed his opponent, Tim Burgess, to the left.

Burgess has already said he’s not planning to run again in 2017 (at-large positions run every two years), so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next 24 months. 

The Seattle City Council swiftly passed two renter protection bills today in the middle of a super-dense meeting — one increasing notice to 90 days on no-fault evictions, and another requiring owners of buildings with affordable units to notify the city 60 days in advance if they plan on selling. (This doesn’t require the city to buy said properties, but it gives ‘em a chance.)

From the city council’s press release (emphasis ours):

Council adopted two bills today that protect tenants and seek to preserve affordable housing in Seattle. The first bill increases the length of time required for certain eviction notices to 90 days (CB 118403). The second gives public agencies increased opportunity to purchase and retain existing affordable housing by requiring 60 days advance notice to those agencies of a pending market sale (CB 118404).

The bills were technically introduced by Election Cycle Tim Burgess, but as Burg pointed out himself during the meeting, they were Sally Clark’s babies before she left for a job at UW. And as Heidi Groover points out at The Stranger, she worked closely with Burgess’s District 8 opponent Jon Grant to get these protections passed.

The bottom line is that these are important bills -- one a necessary protection, and one that gives the city another tool to keep affordable housing around.

So uh, Burgess’s statement from the release (below) is technically correct:

“Today, Council adopted common sense solutions to address Seattle’s increasingly less-affordable housing supply. When affordable housing is slated for destruction, the City should have an opportunity to preserve those units. When people face eviction, they deserve enough time to find new housing in a challenging rental market. These bills adopted today are two of many concrete steps we must take to preserve and enhance Seattle’s supply of affordable housing.”

2015 Seattle City Council Election, District 8: Jon Grant Interview

Jon Grant is kind of late to the campaign-kickoff party, but what a fucking start: The Tenants’ Union director, who’s running for the City Council at-large position 8, managed to nab a very special (and very platform-appropriate) guest for his June 8 kickoff party. Because the rent in Seattle is pretty high. Extremely high. Dare we say... too damn high?

In case you’ve taking an extended leave under a rock, Jimmy McMillan ran for Governor of New York in 2010 under the banner of the Rent Is Too Damn High party. Because (1) the rent IS too damn high, and (2) he identified himself as “a karate expert,” his contributions to a 2010 gubernatorial debate now live forever in the annals of Internet fame.

We reached out to Grant, who confirms that yes, THE REAL JIMMY MCMILLAN will be at the kickoff. (No confirmation on whether he will be bringing his nunchucks, or how much McMillan charges for speaking engagements nowadays.)

With John Roderick hustling hard to unseat incumbent council member Tim Burgess -- who’s been raking in endorsements from other high-ranking Seattle politicos -- we were kind of wondering when Grant would get out and start kissing babies.