About Tip Johnson

Tip Johnson is a longtime citizen interest advocate with a record of public achievement projects for good government and the environment. A lifelong student of government, Tip served two terms on the Bellingham City Council and has worked on many community boards and committees. He travelled with the Federal Transit Administration and Department of Commerce on mass transit trade missions in SE Asia and Africa before settling down to focus on keeping public interests at the fore of local government and the course of growth and development.

By: Tip Johnson (177)

Defund WHAT?

Vote for what you like. I like libraries.

Vote for what you like. I like libraries.

By

Happy Halloween, all.  The ghouls are out and mischief is afoot.  Beware!

There's a spate of GOP TV ads and mailers targeting Democrats for defunding the police.  Except, they didn’t, actually. 

Nevertheless, the attacks are on and Republicans continue to blame an increase in violent crime on Dems. It’s really not clear if increased crime is even true.

Meanwhile, GOP operatives have gone to some sketchy lengths to make these ads look more convincing.

Don’t take my word for it.  Just google “GOP defund ads”.  Unless you think everything is fake news.

However, it was the GOP that unanimously voted against additionally funding first responders.

Republicans have widely advocated defunding the FBI.

Even Chris Wallace on Fox “News” questioned how the GOP vote against funding the police squared with their talking points on crime.

Some political factions have definitely advocated for Defunding, but the policy developing from those calls have generally translated into reforms adding resources for situations where cops are not the first best choice. Cops and cop agencies agree.

So I am not impressed with the GOP talking points on crime.  I think it is, as Joe Biden might say, “Malarkey”.

After voting against funding the police, Republicans want to defund just about everything else. Just look this stuff up.

They want to defund Medicare, Medicaid and health care in general.

They want to defund Social Security.

They want to defund, besides the FBI, the IRS.

They want to defund education.

They want to defund libraries.

What? Libraries?

I’m not voting for any party that wants to defund libraries!

I’m not even really a Democrat, but that’s it.  I’m done with the GOP.

About Tip Johnson

Citizen Journalist and Editor • Member since Jan 11, 2008

Tip Johnson is a longtime citizen interest advocate with a record of public achievement projects for good government and the environment. A lifelong student of government, Tip served two terms [...]

Randy Petty

Nov 01, 2022

Awesome Tip… I’d like to see your articles more often.

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Satpal Sidhu

Nov 01, 2022

Facts are a powerful tool to open people’s minds.

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David A. Swanson

Nov 01, 2022

Hooray, Tip. I actually worked on John Spellman’s gubernatiorial campaign in 1980 and, of, course, voted for him, even though I was a Democrat. I simply thought he was a far better choice than Dixie Lee Ray. Over time, as the Republican party started purging the ranks and consolidated its ideology into “fund nothing,”“guns and babies for all,”  and “whine, whine, whine” I decided I could never again vote for any republican. I not only like having police, EMTs and libraries around, but I really, really liked the GI Bill and hope funding for it continues for veterans who came after me along with all the other VA benefits the whiners would “de-fund.”

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Jon Humphrey

Nov 02, 2022

I’m not sure whose argument this strengthens, but as I’ve explored in my articles the Corporate Democrats are total warmongers that hate most of the population just like their opponents. Rick Larsen loves that money from Lockheed Martin (maker of the Triton D5 Submarine Based Nuclear Missile) and more. And guess who loves Larsen? Shewmake and her whole crew.  
Shewmake and her pals are against real public broadband solutions and all of the social, environomental and economic benefits they bring. Plus they love creating homeless people by backing unaffordable housing.
But wait, there’s more, Black Lives DO NOT MATTER to the local Corporate Democrats either. How do we know? Because they all supported the police purchasing a 2nd tank! A tank! Not more training, to keep them from abusing people of color as the police still do nationwide disproportionately, but a tank!
So yeah, the Corporate Democrats didn’t defund the police. They armed them to the teeth with tanks, machine guns, and cyanide tipped armor piercing bullets because they don’t care about us just like their opponents. Oh, and no significant new training for the police either.
So yeah, I have no party allegiance. Just look at the facts. The Shewmake Democrats are just as blood thirsty as their opponents. Also, it’s hilarious for Satpal Sidhu to weigh in on “the truth” when he has lied his way through the entire broadband argument. Clear proof that he doesn’t care about people of color or the poor either who are disproportionately affected by lack of real broadband solutions. Oh, and he’s all about that unaffordable housing and doing next to nothing about flooding in the Nooksack Valley too. There’s some truth Satpal. Both parties suck and have abused this community. And both love militarized police forces. They can’t get enough of it.

 

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Tip Johnson

Nov 03, 2022

Maybe so, Jon, but Dems don’t defund libraries. 

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Jon Humphrey

Nov 04, 2022

Yet, the Dems. don’t defund libraries yet. 
This is always the BS choice that we have at election time here in Whatcom County. In essence we have a lot of mini Trump vs. Clinton choices.
It’s not like the Dems. are overly generous either. Our libraries don’t even have gigabit fiber connections yet County Wide.  
So, you can have an underfunded library or no library at all.
You can have an inadequate minimum wage or no minimum wage at all.
Etc.
Not to mention that they refuse to replace taxes on our necessities, like property which they overvalue using a totally made up system called fair market value, with a more just income tax. 
South Park describes the choices we have on in this clip. Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich. 
So make your choice. Almost no real progress vs. no progress. 
Here’s the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7pfsneLSSM

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Defund WHAT?

By Tip JohnsonOn Oct 31, 2022

Vote for what you like. I like libraries.

6 comments, most recent 6 months ago

Dear Vlad…

By Tip JohnsonOn Jul 08, 2022

Anon letters trying to intimidate us and our writers are non starters.

9 comments, most recent 10 months ago

Elevators, Smelevators

By Tip JohnsonOn Feb 14, 2022

…Pants on Fire!

9 comments, most recent 1 year ago

Save the Trails Referendum Falls Short

By Tip JohnsonOn Sep 09, 2021

A summary of the Douglas Avenue right-of-way petition effort.

SAVE THE TRAILS! STAY SAFE. GET ONLINE. GET IT DONE!

By Tip JohnsonOn Aug 27, 2021

The Save the Trails Referendum goes into Pandemic Mode

3 comments, most recent 1 year ago

The Scheme to Turn Green-Spaces into $Green

By Tip JohnsonOn Aug 17, 2021

Neighborhoods beware: City Hall is selling our public rights. Your neighborhood could be next.

14 comments, most recent 1 year ago

A call for citizen action

By Tip JohnsonOn Aug 13, 2021

This is the Save the Trails Referendum Page

3 comments, most recent 1 year ago

City Throws Down the Gauntlet

By Tip JohnsonOn Aug 09, 2021

But ever so s_l_o_w_l_y

3 comments, most recent 1 year ago

Our Public Property Rights For Sale - Cheap!

By Tip JohnsonOn Jul 27, 2021

Preserve public property rights & save the trail

14 comments, most recent 1 year ago

Massive Excavation in Archeological Zone Permitted by City Hall

By Tip JohnsonOn Jul 15, 2021

The city granted building permits while the Planning Department knew this was a state historical Indian village site.

2 comments, most recent 1 year ago

Save the Whales - Bellingham’s $40mm Padden Creek Joke

By Tip JohnsonOn Jun 19, 2021

What does a little stream matter? Spoiler alert! It’s not a joke and, if it were, it would not be a nice one.

5 comments, most recent 1 year ago

Will City Double-Down to Kill Public Trail?

By Tip JohnsonOn Jan 24, 2021

Tip Johnson makes the case that the City’s cozy relations with developers and its neighborhoods-be-damned attitude is costing us all.

3 comments, most recent 2 years ago

“Culture of Fear” at Western

By Tip JohnsonOn Dec 29, 2020

WWU, Western Washington University has a “Culture of Fear”. No, NW Citizen is not saying that - the Seattle Times is.

Dirty Deal at Douglas and 21st

By Tip JohnsonOn Dec 02, 2020

Proposed Elimination of the Douglas Avenue Trail

10 comments, most recent 2 years ago

Sitting on a Gold Mine?

By Tip JohnsonOn Feb 09, 2020

The best kept secret in the west?

5 comments, most recent 3 years ago

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

By Tip JohnsonOn Jan 28, 2020

An easy test for candidate selection

Jail Tax: Third Time’s a Charm?

By Tip JohnsonOn Jan 22, 2020

Council Rebukes Justice Advocates and Voters

1 comment, most recent 3 years ago

The Jail - Pentagon Hammers and Brick Walls

By Tip JohnsonOn Oct 25, 2019

A million here and a million there, pretty soon you are talking real money

1 comment, most recent 3 years ago

Seth Fleetwood for Mayor

By Tip JohnsonOn Oct 15, 2019

Electoral Perspective from a long-time neighborhood advocate

8 comments, most recent 3 years ago