Seattle, we need to talk about standing. Like, how are we all so bad at it. I don’t understand, for example, how we’ve figured out the stand on the right thing for the escalators in the U-District and Capitol Hill stations but no where else. I assume most of the people getting off at one of those two stations use another station. It’s not just people traveling between the two of them (and I guess the surface level ones). There must be people who go from University Street to the University District, leave standing on the right and then come back, and get out of the bus tunnel standing on the left. This is not OK.

But that’s an old complaint on this blog. Another thing I’m seeing now is people standing in front of stuff. I was at the Seattle Art Museum and their Graphic Masters exhibit. A lot of the pieces were quite small, so you had to get your face into it and take your time. I have no problem with this, and in fact, Seattle folks should do more of it at SAM and other museums. But it did mean that toward the beginning there was a bit of a line. Anyway, in front of me two people start talking about what phone they use. Have that conversation if you want, but don’t do it standing in front of a piece of art you can’t see without getting close up, for God’s sake. Take two steps back.

And, I’ve seen this sort of thing a few times recently. I think part of is is the Seattle chill, that we don’t call them on it. I also think is generally good. I’d rather wait a minute than have a conversation with a stranger. All I want is for everyone to not get in people’s way when you’re standing.

A future Open Thread will probably deal with how bad we are as a city at walking.

There has been a long time where people would say about Trump, that you might not like his positions, but at least he tells it like it is. Of course that was always bullshit, Mexico isn’t sending rapists, and we can’t build a wall with their money just because. At the time, he was several years into his investigation of Obama’s birth certificate. So no. He never told it like it is. But now that he’s saying that he sees planes full of Iranian bribes that don’t exist, and that Obama founded Islamic State, can we please stop saying that? Thanks!

I’m going on vacation pretty soon. I plan to keep up the contingent of nonsense Open Threads, and then hopefully when I get back, to start posting more.

Anyway, do you have any recommendations for light summer reading? Beach read or airplane. I have this on hold from the library, but I’m not sure it’s going to arrive in time.

Not sure why, but this this thread seems to have been eaten. Here we go again: I enjoyed Seafair, but would prefer it not have the Blue Angels. I also took a tour of one of the Navy ships. It was interesting, but I’d prefer to live in a world where we didn’t have any.

I like Bob Ferguson and his work against Comcast being assholes. But I’m not sure Batman is the best analogy. Bruce Wayne really should be using his money on other things if he wants the best return on investment. Ferguson is pretty much doing best for the customers. I’d rather read about Batman (no offense, Bob) but live in a state with Ferguson as AG (no offense Bruce).

Were the primary election results everything you hoped for? I’m glad in the 7th, we’ll get 2 fairly liberal Democratic candidates. We’ll wait to see what two. I was hoping for a better turnout for Angie Marx, but maybe it was inevitable when a legislator stepped in. In any event, more results will come in over then next few weeks.

Hey, turn in your primary ballot. Postmarked or dropped off by tomorrow. If you’re in King County, you can find your drop off locations here. But for goodness sake, please vote. The trolls here get a vote, so at least cancel one of their dumb asses out.

Man, the last 2 days of the convention were also pretty great. Obama doing a greatest hits. Clinton doing a lot from her stump speech, but also some smart funny anti-Trump stuff. I thought listening to it that “No Donald, you don’t” was her in grandmother mode.

… I guess I should have checked the home page before I started writing the open thread. Oh well.

Have you been enjoying the Democratic convention? I think it has been pretty good. I’ve never been a big Bill Clinton fan, but you have to say when his speech was the most boring, it’s been a good couple nights.

Even in a couple days of stand outs, Michelle Obama’s speech was probably the best. I was only half listening to it while doing other things, but when she talked about waking up in a house built by slaves, my spine stood bolt up. I can’t imagine the feeling for decedents of slaves listening to it. I’m very proud to be a Democrat, and to keep pushing forward.

This is going to be pretty specific, and even if it’s not, it’s about a comic that ended its run in 2008, so feel free to just ignore me here, and jump right into calling each other names in the comments, or whatever goes on there.

I just finished Y The Last Man. It was so good, although I didn’t love the denouement. It was well plotted, and I kept being like I’ll just read one more chapter. Oh, just one more. Until, I finished all of the books as quickly as being a library user can. I mentioned a while ago that I’m still pretty new to comics, but that was by far the best I’ve read since starting up again.

Looks like more cost overruns and delays for the downtown tunnel.

We seem to be a lot better at making rail tunnels than car ones. So I say we should just make a commitment now to put rail in there. Then things will start to go swimmingly. It can be like the Gerorge Benson Streetcar, but without the view or most of the stops.

Not sure why, but this morning’s open thread seems to have been editing the previous one instead of adding a new one. Here’s my second try. Enjoy?

I got my ballot. I’m still not sure who I’m voting for to replace McDermott. It’s between Walkinshaw and Jayapal for me, but any of the 3 major Dems would be pretty good. You can’t really vote for any of those three would be fine on your ballot though.

Also, there are too many executive positions. Please eliminate 3. I am not a crackpot.

I mean, Mike Pence? Mike Pence. Is. I guess. Going to be Trump’s VP. I was mentioning in the last poll analysis that I was surprised that nobody had polled Indiana. Maybe some GOP pollster did, and decided they needed to shore it up? But still Mike Pence?

I have been an REI member since forever. I love dividend day, ya’ll. I have literally taken an out of town guest to the Downtown store as, like, a touristy thing. I say that as prolegomena to the fact that I support the REI workers. They deserve secure scheduling and the right to join a union. It’s not too much to ask.