Archives for March 2016

This morning as I was looking at The Seattle Times’ editorials, hoping for something to write about when I came across this editorial on the special session. It’s so Seattle Times, that you know the jokes I’d have made. They’d go like this:

• Stop obsessing about process over results, assholes
• You can’t complain about what the legislature cut if you don’t propose other cuts, or more taxes, assholes
• That’s not really a fair characterization of Inslee’s vetoes, assholes

Etc.

But what I want to focus on here is much more specific:

This time, the gimmicks included taking $227 million over coming years from a fund that pays for municipal bridges and sewer projects. It also wrongly wiped away $10 million to pay for performance audits of government agencies. Taxpayers want more efficiency, not a neutered watchdog.

That’s not how neutering works. Seriously, unless you’re breeding a dog, get it neutered. Here’s what the Humane Society has to say if you’re interested:

Myth: Neutering will take away the “guard dog” instincts.
Not true: Neutering a dog does not reduce its ability as a guard dog or watch dog. He will still be as protective of his territory as he was before the surgery.

So, what is it that a neutered watchdog would actually mean about performance audits? They’ll be fine, but the performance audits won’t have kids? They’ll hump fewer legs? They’ll be less likely to run away looking for sex? I mean I know metaphors are often imperfect, but the fuck are we even talking about?

And this is a dangerous myth to spread. We don’t need more unwanted puppies out and about. And as the Humane Society post I linked to earlier mentioned, not neutering a pet can make them go free-roaming. So dogs are more likely to get lost or get hit by a car. This throw away line is so bad, it may be the second worst thing someone at The Seattle Times has ever done for dogs.

I guess can kicking budget is better than no budget. And the legislature passed a can-kicking-no-new-taxes budget. There will surely come a point when the legislature’s being in contempt for failing to do their job will actually make them act, right? Right?

Did you caucus on Saturday? If so, how did it go? Perhaps you want to join us this week for a “debriefing over a beer” edition of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally, as we take a breather from primaries and caucuses.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the small room at the back of the tavern. We start at 8:00pm.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. The Woodinville chapter meets on Thursday. And next Monday, the Yakima and South Bellevue chapters meet.

There are 178 chapters of Living Liberally, including twenty in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find—or go out and start—a chapter near you.

I didn’t go to the University of Washington, but because I went to a school with no athletic department to speak of, I tend to root for them in college athletic competition. I mean, I mostly ignore college athletics. But when I get drawn into a game, they’re at the top of who I root for. That’s to say, holy cats, what a game from the UW Women’s basketball team yesterday. They got an early lead and never fell behind after that. It has been quite a run, and now they’re in the final 4, where they face Syracuse.

Hosea 3:1-3
Once again the Lord spoke to me. And this time he said, “Hosea, fall in love with an unfaithful woman who has a lover. Do this to show that I love the people of Israel, even though they worship idols and enjoy the offering cakes made with fruit.”

So I paid fifteen pieces of silver and about ten bushels of grain for such a woman. Then I said, “Now you are mine! You will have to remain faithful to me, though it will be a long time before we sleep together.”

Discuss.

North Carolina anti-gay tourism advertisement.

Jimmy Kimmel mansplains to Hillary.

Minute Physics: Are we looking in the wrong place for aliens?

Rosie the Riveter goes to Washington.

The 2016 Festival of Clowns:

• Great moments (and one not-so-great moment) in American Oratory
• Sam Seder: Trump goes on and on about his tiny, tiny hands with the WaPo editorial board
• David Pakman: President Drumpf would outsource SCOTUS nominations to a think tank
• Daily Show Reenacts (verbatim) Donald Drumpf speaking to the Washington Post.
• Thom: Drumpf is a delusional crybaby.
• Young Turks: Drumpf and Cruz have Twitter wars over their wives.
• Maddow: Trump’s escalating violent rhetoric.
• Larry Wilmore meets Drumpf’s Black supporters.
• Sam Seder: Cruz calls Trump a sniveling coward.
• David Pakman: Embarrassing Drumpf audio exposes him as totally clueless
• Kimmel: Mitt Romney’s attack ad on Donald Drumpf
• Red State Update: Is Drumpf Hitler?
• Jimmy Dore: A Donald Drumpf criticism so sad you’ll feel sorry.
• Trevor Noah: How the fuck did we get here?!?

• Kimmel: Things Drumpf loves.
• Thom: Ted Cruz & Drumpf have come for the Muslims…
• Seth Meyers with Sorry Not Sorry: Racist Drumpf supporter, Kasich insults women.
• Wait…WHUUUT? Ted Cruz has a sex scandal.
• Young Turks: Lindsay Graham gives worst endorsement EVER
• Obama calls out Ted Cruz on his Muslim surveillance proposal.
• David Pakman: Ted Cruz sex scandal explodes.
• Trevor Noah: Lindsey Graham picks his poison.

Seth Meyers: Eric Holder explains why more Wall Street bankers aren’t in jail.

Greenman: How reliable are satellite temperatures? (Director’s Cut).

Proof of evolution in our bodies.

Larry Wilmore: Racist origins of Nixon’s War on Drugs.

Cuban Romance:

• Seth Meyers with a closer look at Obama in Cuba.
• The complicated history of the U.S. and Cuba explained.
• President Obama addresses the people of Cuba.
• Sam Seder: Glenn Beck completely loses it over Obama in Cuba
• Young Turks: Republicans are furious over Obama’s Cuba trip
• Jimmy Dore: Barack Obama & Raul Castro have awkward handshake to end all awkward handshakes.
• Daily Show: Americanization of Cuba.

Mark Fiore: Thank You! Love, ISIS.

Food processing science (and weirdness).

Sarah Palin gets her own “Judge Judy” show.

Young Turks: The legacy of Rob Ford.

Thom: Portland, Oregon sues Monsanto.

Matthew Filipowicz: Who’s to blame for the five hour long voting lines in Arizona?.

GOP Obstruction of Justice:

• PsychoSuperMom: Dear Mr. Garland
• Kimmel: Hillary on the Supreme Court nominee
• Farron Cousins: Republicans are holding the whole court system hostage.
• Steve Kornacki with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) GOP Raises Partisan Bar In SCOTUS Obstruction
• Who is Merrick Garland and why is he Obama’s Supreme Court nominee?
• Sam Seder: Does Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court make any damn sense at all?

Trump vs. Bernie in the First Ever @midnight Presidential Debate:

Hashtag Wars: Bernie v. Drumpf in #IfIWerePresident.

Farron Cousins: Sarah Palin to return with the dumbest TV show of all time.

Young Turks: Alabama Governor’s (R-Family Valuesville) phone sex with mistress released.

Kimmel: New Hillary Clinton campaign slogans.

Capitol Hill Kids on 2016.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

I haven’t had a chance to study the ST3 draft system plan in any depth. But I like what I’ve seen so far. A Graham Street Station and Light Rail to Ballard are probably highlights for me. I imagine suburbanites have their favorites.

For decades of me paying attention to national politics, I’ve been a great admirer of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders:

I was never the biggest fan of Bill Clinton: His administration’s tack to the center was always harmful. It was certainly better than Bush or Dole, but it seemed at the time that he could do better. Still, there were people in the administration who pushed it to the left. Hillary Clinton was one of those people. The most important frame for me was her speech on the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women (video). And I think that, both the specifics and the fact that she — the First Lady — said it were important.

Also, her willingness to call out the bullshit thrown against her impressed me. Her use of the phrase “a vast right-wing conspiracy” was important at a time when so many liberals were unwilling to defend the administration from that sort of thing. When a lot of lefties pretended that Whitewater was probably a thing and just laughed when people said they were drug dealing murderers. It was important to be able to have a phrase that described what was going on. Given that these were people who drove a good friend of hers to suicide and then pretended that she’d murdered him, given that these were the same people who accused her of hanging crack vials on the White House Christmas tree, given that these were the people who impeached a president, it had to be called out, and it was the right wording.

All right, but rhetoric is one thing. Wasn’t she a conservative Democrat with her votes when she got to the Senate? No. (h/t) Certainly the Iraq war vote was bad. It wasn’t the only problem. But that’s typical of any Senator. She was a consistently liberal voice. One of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate.

But there’s a lot of room in this country to the left of a fairly liberal Democrat. And I’ve always admired Sanders’ voice as a socialist in the House and Senate. I’ve always admired that he has been able to make that push happen without being a vanity candidate or throwing seats to the Republicans. I’ve always admired that he wears his passion on his sleeve. And I’ve admired that, at least in Burlington, he has left a legacy after he left office, with Socialists still able to keep control after he was elected to Congress by running the town well.

So I’ve been neutral up to now. But the Washington caucuses are coming up this Saturday. You can get more info, including finding your location here. My plan is to go in as undecided, so I can keep thinking about it up to the last possible moment, as if knowing about both of them since the early 1990’s isn’t enough time. If there are enough votes for undecided to get a delegate, great! Otherwise, I’ll have to pick.

So feel free to use this as a discussion thread of your plans for caucusing. It’s this Saturday at 10:00 for Democrats, and at I can’t be bothered to look it up for Republicans.

Or if you want to try to convince an actual swing voter (me) for your candidate, go for it. For what it’s worth, negative stuff about fake Clinton scandals or nonsense like Sanders isn’t electable won’t help your cause at least with me.

So…a guy in a tree? I don’t know. It’s sad that he’s still up there. Also, we all decided “stuck” was the right word to describe it, even though it sounds like he’s staying voluntarily. I don’t want to speculate too much based on my basically scanning social media headlines, so I won’t. I will just say, I like the tree more than Seattlish.

Another Tuesday, another set of elections. This week we’ll have the Idaho Democratic caucuses, the Utah caucuses and the Arizona primary to kick around. On top of that, next Saturday’s Washington state (and Alaska and Hawaii) Democratic caucuses may generate some discussion. Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at this week’s Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the small room at the back of the tavern. We start at 8:00pm, but feel free to join us early to watch election returns.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings happening this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. On Wednesday, the Burien and North Spokane chapters meet. Finally, the Kent and Woodinville chapters meet on Thursday.

There are 178 chapters of Living Liberally, including twenty in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find—or go out and start—a chapter near you.

So this happened over the weekend.

You guys! pic.twitter.com/9YAy9I2deh

— Carl Ballard (@BallardCrl) March 19, 2016

If you care about the opening of the new line, other people have said more interesting things than me. But here’s my 2 cents anyway.

This isn’t such a new thing in the way that the line from the airport to Westlake was. That being the first line and all. But it being on time and under budget, as well as a useful extension is promising. The stations are beautiful, and in great locations.

the only real negative for me was that I was a bit claustrophobic getting off at the U-Link station. I wandered around a bit before getting on the escalators but still felt boxed in. I hope at some point we get better as a city at stand to the right walk on the left.

All in all, quite good. I imagine I’ll take it pretty regularly. It’s a bit far from the Capitol Hill station, but if it isn’t raining too bad, you can take the train to Drinking Liberally.

Zephaniah 1:2
I, the Lord, now promise to destroy everything on this earth.

Discuss.

LobbyWOW! It’s like a bribe, but 100% legal!

Mental Floss: 37 bizarre podcasts.

Jimmy Dore: Political news jokes of the week.

The 2016 Clown Debacle:

• Stephen: Super Tuesday part three proved they need to retire the franchise
• PsychoSuperMom:You Made This Mess (Now You Have To Clean It Up)
• Jimmy Dore: Jeb is pissed off about quitting.
• Samantha Bee tries to understand Drumpf supporters:

• Jimmy Dore: Drumpf rally eerily similar to Nazi rally
• Seth Meyers: A closer look at a brokered convention.
• Trevor Noah: Drumpf’s political fight club.
• Second City Drumpf Fascion
• Even the Mittster won’t vote for Drumpf. Is repulsed by him.
• Drumpf’s “good ol’ days.”
• TestTube News: What does the world think of Donald Drumpf?
• Young Turks: Drumpf threatens violence if he doesn’t get the nomination.
• Stephen: Drumpf only knows what is on the internet.
• Nightly show panel: Drumpf
• Jimmy Dore: Evil GOP propagandist distances himself from Drumpf over ‘Auschwitz’ flap
• Bill Maher: Is Donald Drumpf a con man?
• Comedian Gilbert Gottfried says Drumpf is ‘Hitler without the warmth’
• Jimmy Dore: What Einstein had to say about Donald Drumpf
• Sam Seder: Reince Priebus basically says Drumpf’s not getting the nomination.
• Thom: “Proof” God doesn’t like Drumpf.
• Stephen: Paul Ryan can’t fix everything, John
• Young Turks: FAUX News has figured out who is responsible for violence at Drumpf rallies.
• Donald Drumpf blames Bernie for violence at his rallies?!?
• Jimmy Dore: Mitt Romney offers to solve problems the way he fixed the Drumpf problem.
• Second City takes on a Drumpf rally.
• Presenting: HAMILTRUMP:

• Stephen: Marco Rubio goes Ru-bye-o.
• Jimmy Dore: Chris Christie explains his humiliation by Drumpf

Inside the Capitol dome facelift.

White House: West Wing Week.

Seth Meyers: Voter ID laws…a closer look.

John Oliver: International Women’s Day.

Friday #hottakes.

PsychoSuperMom: The Religious Right is Neither.

GOP Obstruction of Justice:

• Al Franken likens GOP obstruction to an SNL skit.
• David Pakman: Obama’s SCOTUS nominee is set up to destroy Republicans.
• Roy Zimmerman: 65 Million (Mitch McConnell STFU):

• Trevor Noah: Republicans SCOTUS-block President Obama

Sam Seder: Dennis Miller isn’t funny.

TestTube News: How powerful is the Black vote?

Thom: How to reduce gun-related deaths in America by 80%.

Minute Physics: Transporters and quantum teleportation.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

One of the more interesting stories last Tuesday’s primary wasn’t a Presidential race. It was in Cook County where a prosecutor with the support of Black Lives Matter won opposing the worst abuses of the incumbent and ending the school to prison pipeline. I don’t know enough to have any opinion on how it’ll play out going forward. But from the outside it seems like the right local people are excited.

That got me thinking: Here in King County, we have a prosecutor who, while better than Cook County is still a problem. To cite the most prominent example, he didn’t prosecute Ian Berk after he was unjustified in killing John T. Williams.

It’s 2 more years until Satterberg is up for reelection if he decides to run again. And he won his first election fairly easily. Still, it seems like something for lefty activists in King County might be able to pull off if they found the right candidate.

If people reading this blog know one thing about me, it’s probably my politics. If they know anything else about me, it’s my sense of humor. But somewhere on the list is my love of the library. Seattle has a great system. New York where I grew up also has a great system, but I honestly don’t remember much about it. What I remember more is that I have family near the first public library paid for with tax money in the country, and hearing that history over the course of many summers rubbed off on me.

Currently, I have 4 books checked out of the Seattle Public Library and I spend far too much time managing my hold list. I’ve recently started reading comics for the first time since I was a kid, and the graphic novel selection is great. I doubt I’d have gotten into them if not for being able to check out some, often pretty silly ones, for free.

Anyway, all this to say fuck the Koch brothers for making anti-library robocalls. What kind of monsters do that?