On a recent tour of the Capitol office he’ll soon depart, Gov. Jay Inslee pointed to an old nautical instrument he keeps on the wall. Inslee mused that it’s a reminder of how he guided the state for the past 12 years.
Jim Brunner, The Seattle Times

In the game of chess, some players are known for being aggressive, others defensive, others for waging chaos all over the board. Then there’s some who use a “gambit,” famed because the goal is to win by first doing some losing.
Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times

In early December 2019, I called Faimalotoa Kika Stowers, the health minister of Samoa. The measles outbreak that began earlier that fall on her small Pacific island nation had spread out of control and become an epidemic that threatened to overwhelm the country.
Dr. Josh Green, Governor of Hawaii, in The New York Times

Chad Magendanz is a computer science teacher who was noodling around with some numbers the other day, and he could scarcely believe what the screen was telling him.
Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times

Ann Telnaes, Pulitzer-winning cartoonist for the Washington Post since 2008, quit the paper this week after her editor killed her cartoon depicting WaPo owner Jeff Bezos and other craven billionaires debasing themselves before Donald J. Trump.
Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report

Today, we lost a singular figure in American history. There has never been a president or a former president quite like Jimmy Carter. 
Dan Rather, Steady in Substack

Donald Trump isn’t the cause of what ails America. He’s the consequence. The real causes go back four decades.
Robert Reich

After the mailboxes of small Pacific Northwest towns were hit by some immigration hate this month, the pushback to it was marked by both humanity and hopefulness.
Danny Westneat of The Seattle Times

On Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed the Freedom to Read Act, which prohibits the state’s schools and public libraries from arbitrarily banning books.
Evette Dionne, MSNBC

This is Paul Krugman’s final column for The New York Times, where he began publishing his opinions in January 2000. This seems like a good occasion to reflect on what has changed over these past 25 years.
Paul Krugman of the New York Times

Usually in the honeymoon period, between an election and when lawmaking begins, legislators are a bit shy about using the “T” word.
Danny Westneat, Seattle Times

One of the first pieces of advice that Dan Buettner, the founder of Blue Zones, always gives as a way to improve your life, health, and happiness is to sign up to volunteer in your community. It’s a long-term investment in your health and in your city if you sign up to do it regularly, and you’ll meet like-minded people along the way.
Naomi Imatome-Yun, Blue Zones

Representative Melaine Stransbury of New Mexico exposes the impact of the Dismantle DEI Act co-sponsored by JD Vance.

Trump is saying the election gave him a “very big mandate.”

Rubbish. It wasn’t a mandate at all. It wasn’t even a “red shift” to Trump and the Republicans. It was a blue abandonment. 
Robert Reich

At his Madison Square Garden rally, Trump’s argument was hate and fear. And then things got worse. 1939 all over again.
Daniel Graham at The Atlantic

CNN host Jake Tapper mocked the two Republican leaders in Congress with clips of former President Trump calling his opponent, Vice President Harris, a “fascist.” 
Flip Timotiija of The Hill

“Can Kamala Harris win this thing? Are we going to be OK?”This sentiment is heard over and over from sweaty Democratic operatives who all too often love to run to the press with their woes.
James Carville in The New York Times.

John Kelly, the Trump White House’s longest-serving chief of staff, said that he believed that Donald Trump met the definition of a fascist.
Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times