Recent NWCitizen Articles

A bi-partisan bill to honor the Vietnam service of the Red Cross Donut Dollies was reintroduced by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) on March 11th.
Now that I think of it, half of Medicare has already been privatized under Bush, Obama, Trump 45, and Biden.
Thanks to Jon Humphrey, our community knows more about public fiber than most. Unfortunately, it hasn’t helped us.
It is about “having the six”* of your fellow veterans.
New 33-unit project makes matters worse
Thanks to generous donations from readers, this site is renovated and improved.
Affordability has been a ruse for creating market rate housing.
Represent Us and Our Interests. Please!
Local action in support of a proposal to rebuild nationwide infrastructure
Who’s Superman when you need him? We are.
From Musk’s big investment all the way to local campaigns, political “contributions” will be re-paid. Here’s how.
Private banks are fighting hard to keep us from starting our own state bank. There’s a reason.
To be so manifestly unqualified and yet not be deeply aware of that speaks exactly to the very point of not being qualified.
Chaos likely to ensue. Catastrophe cannot be ruled out.
There is no escape from the deep-throated roar and the clouds of filth produced by these machines.
A perspective from a very old liberal political junkie.
Deeds, not talk, count on Veterans Day
Several days ago, I received the following from Veterans Service Officer (VSO), Liz Witowski, of the Whatcom County Veterans Program (items below in bold are mine). On this Veterans Day, the
An off-budget $5 Trillion National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), along the lines of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) that operated between 1932-1957, means low-cost loans and no additions to the deficit.
Medicare Advantage is NOT Medicare. Medicare is there to provide health care. Medicare Advantage is a business, there to make money.
David Swanson verifies what Jon Humphrey has said for years: good internet access benefits people, cities, counties, and states.
Or perhaps tragic farce or farcical tragedy might be more apt descriptors. Pick one, or both.
After nearly 30 years online, and literally being one of the oldest blogs on the internet, Northwest Citizen needs a major programming overhaul. To do so, we need your help.
The top 20% of commercial banks in the United States control 95% of our total banking assets. Remember “Too-Big-to-Fail”?
The City has created another useless document ensuring nothing changes and mediocre communication services are protected.
Why a vote for Jason Call for Congress is a good vote for conservatives, liberals, Democrats and Republicans. Yes, an unusual idea.
Heaven forbid our reps should attack the main problem, Medicare Advantage, head on. But no. They must nibble around the edges to give the appearance of doing something.
Morally significant double binds force doctors and combat soldiers into identical life and death quandaries, damaging their moral centers. To these two groups we can also add law enforcement officers.
“Citing the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the paper  [Less Care at Higher Cost—The Medicare Advantage Paradox] notes that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have overcharged the
Eric Hirst gives us a brief and clear explanation of the water adjudication process that is beginning now in Whatcom County
Aggressive citizen involvement carried the day.
Build-for-profit, incarceration-inspired housing is destroying our souls.
The last of the scrap metal is loaded on the ship and it will be gone from our town.
A 54-photo tour of the ruptured pipe area of the Whatcom Creek explosion taken in July 1999.
Below is an audio tape of 911 calls, emergency responders’ radio communications, and local radio coverage from June 10, 1999 when Whatcom Creek exploded in Bellingham
Whatcom County's confusing water rights will be defined by court proceedings beginning now
If not killed-in-action, they are still dying from the effects of their service in Vietnam.
The foam of secrecy hides all.
Local presentations scheduled on a reasonable use framework for water resource management
Broadband-Washing: Greenwashing the Internet

Richard Verbree

Commenting Since Dec 31, 1969
I grow food

Total lifetime comments: 23

Recent Comments by Richard Verbree

Tue Jan 7, 2025

Electricity is provide by pse, a foreign owned monopoly, (owned by a toronto governememt employees pention fund), this is very bad for all who live here, pse gets green lit by utc 90% if the times they ask for a rate increase, all the while we do have a PUD in whatcom county that ironically does not provide or sell electricity to residents….only industry, very bad.

I’d love to hear why our publicly owned PUD does not provide electricity to the public?

Corporate Welfare at its Worst …and About to Get Worse
Tue Jan 7, 2025

John, 

I don’t know what trolling is, so you are right about that.

Tmobile has partnered with starlink to provide cell service to Tmobile customers via starlink satellites, so cell service is now available anywhere in america where you can see the sky.

Many homes are served by underground electricity only so new poles would need to be installed for some or a trench dug to be connected to fiber

Corporate Welfare at its Worst …and About to Get Worse
Sun Jan 5, 2025

There are extremly cheap smart phone plans available to anyone for $25/month which provides all the connectivity needed to live a first world entitled life…...if one chooses to live in the middle of nowhere, one shouldn’t expect the government to provide you electricity or internet connection.

If you do live off the grid, solar panels and batteries….and yes an evil starlink, will connect you plenty good to video chat or stream things….GOOD ENOUGH!!!!!!

Corporate Welfare at its Worst …and About to Get Worse
Sun Jan 5, 2025

Like there is no carbon foot print to dig a trench for this holy grale fiber to each and every home in america…....if bill gates invented starlink, you would be singing its praises, but because of close minded partisan thought patterns, it’s musk bad because he supports teump, therefore starlink is bad, I hope you or one of your anti starlink friends doesn’t own a tesla, heaven forbid.

Quite a lot of one sided leftist propaganda on this nw citizen

Corporate Welfare at its Worst …and About to Get Worse
Sun Dec 1, 2024

And…..those horrible private wireless companies will pay for that fiber on their own and the government won’t be burdened to dig trenches along every road in America

New Trump Administration Expected To Undo Biden’s Financial Regulation
Sun Dec 1, 2024

Yes they do need fiber, but only between towers and servers, not every single road in the United states that has a residence which has to be like 95% of roads, wireless elimates like 85% of digging as far less miles need to be dug

New Trump Administration Expected To Undo Biden’s Financial Regulation
Sun Dec 1, 2024

Musk is no genius, but he is a doer unlike any other, he brought the precious electric car to the world (to save the planet or so the left believes) long standing Ford and GM are still trying to catch up and suck at it even with more government subsidies than tesla, watching all this unfold is funnier than any comedy writer could dream up. 

Oh….I almost forgot, who’s company landed a rocket back on its launch pad recently???, LOL!   if that’s not genious, I don’t know what is…..think of the positive environmental impact of reusing rockets  rather than only one time use as has been for…..I don’t know how long, like forever

New Trump Administration Expected To Undo Biden’s Financial Regulation
Sun Dec 1, 2024

All government contracts have a conflict of interest, if starlink is fastest and cheapest, so be it. If musk makes money while being fastest and cheapest so what?

I have starlink and a tmobile 5g gateway.

They both work very well, supporting multiple devices. 

Did you forget the life saving communication network musk deployed for ukraine and hurricane victims here in the US?, fiberoptic couldn’t have done that, would take 10 years of digging to do what musk did in 3 days for ukraine

New Trump Administration Expected To Undo Biden’s Financial Regulation
Sun Dec 1, 2024

Hi Carrol, I hope rural broadband is canned by musk, rhe federal government has plowed hundreds of millions into “rural broadband service” the last 15+ years and not achieved what starlink did for rural internet, the government would save a fortune and connect everyone if they provided a discounted starlink instead of this empty expensive promise of cable internet, which is now an outdated concept.

Starlink is a great example of the private sector solving problems at no cost to society and government wasting hoards of money for decades while solving almost nothing

New Trump Administration Expected To Undo Biden’s Financial Regulation
Sun Dec 1, 2024

I have no public profile, I do not do social media because of argumentative interactions where plain logic and facts isn’t acknowledged like our exchange here.

Facebook (fakebook as I call it), x, Instagram is destroying young people’s lives because we talk AT each other not WITH each other, my way or the highway

I can aggree to disaggree, can you?

That is the most important question in civilized discourse

New Trump Administration Expected To Undo Biden’s Financial Regulation