I am writing because I hope you will do everything you can to support an independent commission investigating Russia. With the firing of James Comey and, holy cow, the interview with Lester Holt, it’s clear that something is up. I don’t know the extent of Russian ties and I don’t know that anyone can at this point. But Trump’s words are clearly lies.
Thank you,
Carl Ballard
HorsesAss.org
(You can contact Senator Murray or Senator Cantwell for this or anything else.)
Today, on this 12 blogoversary of HorsesAss, we find the editorial board unleashing a blizzard of opinions over whether or not Seattle Mayor Ed Murray should run for Mayor. Not all opinions & geographies have been heard from, thus far. So this faction of the HA Editorial Board finds it necessary to weigh in. We call upon Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to NOT run for Mayor of Redmond. Seriously, Mayor Murray has not yet made any public statements, written or verbal, on whether or not he will run for Mayor of Redmond. We call upon Mayor Murray to clarify his intentions in this regard and then just not do it if he decides to do it. Thank you.
Only several hours after Ed Murray decided against running for reelection, the HA Editorial Board decided to endorse Ed Murray not running for reelection. Unlike The Seattle Times or other editorial boards, the HA Editorial Board encourages dissent (at Drinking Liberally last night).
So no, Ed Murray can run if he wants. Nothing has been proven. That said, if he decides to run, or even just in his public statements and defense in court, he should stop the victim blaming. And obviously, fuck him if he did it.
Carl Ballard
Dear Mayor Ed Murray,
Rumors suggest you might have dropped out of the mayoral race as early as earlier this morning. So do newspaper headlines. Also, your live and prepared statements. In the interests of the city and in making us look concerned about the interests of the survivors of sexual assault, we hope the rumors are true.
To be clear, we really were not paying much attention to Twitter this morning. We’re not proclaiming your guilt or innocence in a civil case alleging you sexually assaulted a teenager in the 1980s. Our conclusion that you should not seek re-election comes in reaction to the news that you are not seeking reelection.
From taking up the cause of raising the minimum wage, to bringing developers and affordable housing advocates to the table, to your groundbreaking work on advancing LGBT equality during your tenure in the state legislature, you’ve made a positive mark on this city and this state.
But now that you are not seeking re-election, we ask that you not seek re-election.
Sincerely,
The Editors*
*NOTE: Clearly, nobody edits anything here on HA.
The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight for political discussion over drinks. Please stop by.
We meet 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 beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the other 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including nineteen in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find, or go out and start, a chapter near you.
The headline is a little off (he was held in one facility rather than transferred to a different facility). And even if it was accurate, we’re not as a society going to be as worried about violent criminals in jail too long as we are with the early release scandal that happened earlier. Still and all, I hope he’s the only one. And we should have better safeguards going forward.
1 Samuel 5:6
But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon those of Ashdod, and He destroyed them and smote them with hemorrhoids.
Discuss.
David Hawkings’ Whiteboard: What’s a whip?.
George W. Bush does the Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Mental Floss: The history of mowing lawns.
Putin’s Cock Holster:
Trevor: The one who got away.
Samantha Bee roasts the Presidents.
Commandant Comey:
Samantha Bee: FAUX News In Memoriam
PsychoSuperMom: Facts Have A Liberal Bias.
Seth Meyers: Airline deregulation.
“Rep. Jim Martin“:
Samantha Bee: Alt White House Correspondences’ Dinner.
The House GOP Congresscritters Are Literally Trying to Kill People:
Jimmy Dore: Rick Steeves invests in housing homeless.
Samantha Bee: What is facts>?
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
So the House Republicans passed a monstrosity of a health care plan. I normally don’t talk about national stuff unless there’s a local angle. But honestly: Fuck the entire GOP. I know, some of them didn’t vote for it. And I’m sure there will be a much tougher road in the Senate. But, you know. Fuck every last one of them.
If you’re represented by someone who voted for it, you might want to let them know that fuck them (but more polite, maybe?). If you’re represented by someone who voted against this shit show of a bullshit bill, please thank them. If you’re represented by Dave Reichert who opposed it on the House floor but supported something similar in committee, you might want to let him know that you see him.
I know it has been successful in many localities, but I just do not like the soda tax Seattle is considering. It always feels very fat shaming whenever people trot it out. Here in Washington where we don’t have an income tax, it seems like a strange place to use your time and energy to push.
Please join us this evening for drinks, conversation, and perhaps some alt-history alt-lessons at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet 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 beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the other 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including nineteen in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find, or go out and start, a chapter near you.
I’ve seen a lot of how-to-survive May Day posts in the local media recently. Or more accurately, I’ve been seeing a lot of headlines about them on social media and rolling my eyes about the whole thing. So here’s A Downtown Resident’s Guide to Survive May Day:
1) Are you a window Downtown? If so, congrats on being able to read, and thanks for choosing HA. There is a small chance someone will throw a brick at you and if that happens a decent chance that brick will smash you. That sucks, but your owner probably has insurance and at least you’ll get to be on TV continuously for the next few weeks and then in perpetuity ahead of May Day every year. There’s also a chance that someone will spray graffiti on you. That’s less bad, but still.
2) Are you a police officer? If so you’re probably getting more training than a nonsense snark blog post can provide. Please don’t attack peaceful protesters and try to use harm mitigation strategies on ones damaging property, or putting people in harms’ way if that happens.
3) Are you a protester? I’m usually against the bottled water industry, but I always recommend if you’re marching to have a bottle with you. It can be tap water, but those marches can be dehydrating. Maybe bring something you can eat like some trail mix or a Cliff Bar. Please don’t be violent to another human. If you’re going to smash windows or graffiti stuff, know the consequences of that ahead of time.
4) Are you worried about being stuck in traffic? Since May Day is the only day in Seattle where the traffic gets annoying, this is a reasonable fear. If you’re in your car, take alternate routes, I guess. Or wait for the marchers to go somewhere else. They’re marching, so they’ll pass. Give yourself some extra time and be patient with other people caught up in traffic.
If you’re taking public transit, just be patient. Give up your seat if you can since it might take a little longer. You know, bus stuff we already do, mostly.
5) Are you going to be outside Downtown, including suburbia, or like, anywhere North of the Montlake Cut? I guess just watch it on the news. If you do, maybe try to remember that if you’re seeing the same window smashed for the 5th time, it doesn’t make it 5 times as bad. Or watch something else? Maybe. There’s got to be some playoff basketball or a Mariners game. You probably have Netflix, so you can watch something on that. Maybe play a board game with your family.
1 Samuel 20:30
“You stupid son of a whore!”
Discuss.
Onion: America is more religious than other countries due to its proximity to the Gates Of Hell.
Minute Physics: Can we survive curiosity?
Olbermann: Bill-O-the-Clown’s downfall.
Greenman: What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.
Jimmy Fallon: Barack Obama is back from his vacation.
Trevor Noah: Confederate Memorial Day makes waves in the South.
Climate Lab: Going green shouldn’t be this hard.
Turmoil in Трамп-Town:
VOX: FAUX News’ problem is a lot bigger than Bill O’Reilly:
Pot activists arrested after smoking pot on the Capitol Lawn.
Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.
Michael Brooks: FAUX News’ Jesse Watters makes blowjob joke about Ivanka, immediately goes on unplanned ‘vacation’
Minute Physics: How do we know the universe is expanding?
Mental Floss: 31 explosive facts about volcanoes.
Nutcase Alex Jones:
Bill Maher: Change anxiety.
Trevor: So much news…Obama, Coulter & a Senate briefing.
Young Turks: Arkansas is literally on a killing spree.
North Korea’s nuclear threat explained.
Scientists march on Washington.
VOX: How “sanctuary cities” actually work.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Pete Holmes is pretty good as City Attorney, but it seems like there is space to his left if a challenger wants to come along. I mean a lefty candidate pushing harder on the consent decree might be an interesting race.
I don’t know much about Scott Lindsay (Seattle Times link), but all I really get from that article is that he’s been pushing the homeless sweeps that are gross gross gross. He also has supported safe consumption sites, so he probably wouldn’t be going back to the bad old war on drug days.
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!