It’s pride weekend in Seattle, and there’s tons to do. I’m always a big fan of the parade. Parades aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (and it can run pretty long), but there are other events, if you’re interested.
Last year it was right after the marriage equality decision, and it was exuberant, even by the standards of a pride parade. This year, it’s in the wake of Orlando, and I don’t have any sense of the feel of the parade or any of the events.
So, congrats Britain: Under the leadership of a racist and a man so posh he makes the Queen look like a Commoner, you’ve managed to send a clear message that you’re opposed to the elitism of Europe. That caring for refugees is too elitist. That easy travel between borders is too elitist. Traded German bankers for British ones, who won’t do anything elitist. The only reasonable conclusion you can draw from the Brexit is that Brits hate elites.
The anti-LGBT terrorism cataloged here is a pretty tough read. The whole piece, in fact, is pretty tough. I don’t know what we mean exactly when we talk about radical Islam, but the overlap between that and the far right in this country needs to be addressed.
Ummm…better late then never! Join us in a couple of hours for and evening of politics under the influence at the 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.
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 the North Spokane chapters meet. Finally, the Kent chapter meets on Thursday.
There are 179 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.
What in the fuck is the 1515 campaign even thinking? Honestly, if your fake reason for supporting this initiative is to keep creeps out of the women’s restroom, why the fuck would you send creeps into the women’s restroom? I mean, I assume everyone on that campaign is at least a bit of a creep, but still.
Matthew 10:34-35
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Discuss.
Stephen: Newly discovered presidential love letters.
Samantha Bee: The many faces (and crotches) of Libertarians.
Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.
The 2016 GOP Narcissist Clown Show:
Stephen: D.C. statehood.
Red State Update: Drumpf is racist; Bernie won’t drop out.
How the Cold War launched the Space Race.
John Oliver: Retirement plan.
Gun Politics:
White House: West Wing Week.
Samantha Bee: Dope-ass Libertarian on the mic.
How Jon Stewart got involved with Wounded Warriors.
VSauce: How the earth moves.
Jimmy Dore: Media treats White killers different than non-White killers.
Stephen: Political news of the day.
AC360LGBTQ:
Stephen: The primaries are over…
POTUS in the wild.
Mental Floss: 21 homes with remarkable features.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
I find the GOP brand’s fall in Washington State fascinating. From Dino Rossi running as Prefers GOP Party because it polls better to Susan Hutchinson’s insistence that she wasn’t really a Republican until she decided to chair the Republican Party in the state to independents who would be Republicans if they had to chose winning in Thurston County. It feels like it’s more about branding than any change in policy.
I want to thank you both for participating in Chris Murphy’s filibuster. It’s far past time that the country took up reasonable gun reforms. I don’t know what could get passed through this Congress even in the wake of yet another horror. But thank you for trying.
Sincerely,
Carl Ballard
(if you want to contact them you can here for Murray and here for Cantwell)
I don’t know how to cover the shitstain who thought it would be a good idea to attack a North Seattle mosque. Do you just praise the people who caught him? Do you even give him any attention? I won’t name him, just like I won’t name the Orlando shooter.
I guess back to one I’ve said before: Nobody murder anyone. For any reason.
Join us this evening for some politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. Tonight is the final presidential primary in D.C.
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 happening over the next week. Tonight, the Federal Way, Tri-Cities and Redmond chapters also meet. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. On Thursday the Tacoma, Bremerton, and Spokane chapters meet. Finally, on Monday, the Aberdeen and Yakima chapters meet.
There are 179 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 don’t know what to say. Orlando should still be in the news, it shouldn’t fade so quickly to become just another in the litany. There are people who are writing more thoughtful, more interesting stuff. I could talk about the candle light vigil: I went, but I didn’t go as a blogger, so I didn’t take notes. I went because it felt immoral to be anywhere else. The speeches were great, especially Ed Murray and the queer Muslim woman (whose name I didn’t get).
A few months ago when Civic Skunkworks new podcasts came out, one of the things that struck me most was in the gun episode hearing President Obama list major gun incidents (starting at 11:32 at the link above). Lists like that are such an integral part of how we define a society. At the time, it made me think of the list of ships in the Iliad. But you can also think of the list of who begat whom in the Bible. Or the 10 Commandments. You can think of the bill of rights. You can think of your new year’s resolutions that you’ll often list publicly if you want a more modern one.
These lists tell us about a society. The mass shooting list is one that defines American in the last few decades. It’s one that even if we can’t get our heads around how large it is, even if we don’t know all of them, we know plenty of the particulars. Even as we grow numb to some of it, we can remember where we were when we heard about many of the shootings on the list.
Today we can add Orlando to the list of mass shootings. Another goddamn mass shooting. It goes with Cafe Racer, and Newtown, and Aurora, and Columbine, and Fort Hood, and whatever comes next.
Deuteronomy 28:22
The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
Discuss.
White House: West Wing Week.
If cell phone ads were honest.
Things you learn when you sleep next to someone.
Samantha Bee: Gary Johnson is also running.
Five times the NRA and friends were accidentally hilarious.
How America’s Democrats will finally come together this election.
The Republican National Clown show:
Liberal Viewer: GOP Senate Foreign Relations Chair forgets Mexico is foreign nation?.
Why are U.S. Presidential elections so long?
Mental Floss: What is brain freeze?
Samantha Bee: Gary Johnson’s poll dilemma.
Sen. Franken makes case for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee (with history lesson).
Why teacher diversity matters:
Mark Fiore: Grrl Power.
Clinton Makes History by Winning the Nomination:
Samantha Bee: The bed we’ve made.
Owning a gun is like owning a chimpanzee:
Jimmy Fallon and Barack Obama slow jam the news.
Mental Floss: 22 Ridiculous dxercise trends.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
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!