HorsesAss.Org

This week’s open thread’s are apparently random stuff related to me going to the Seattle Center. It’s kind of shameful to admit as a writer for HA, but I went to the Chihuly exhibit. I have always felt about it the same way I felt about Safeco and Century Link Field: I didn’t like how they were created, but now that they’re there, I’m not going to boycott them in protest or anything. I feel a similar way about some of the bars/restaurants/coffee shops whose owners were dicks about the $15 minimum wage or sick leave/safe leave.*

It’s quite impressive. I would certainly go again.

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It is primary election night in Washington…technically. So get that ballot turned in and then stop by the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally for discussion over a daiquiri.

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 some of us will show up earlier on election night.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings 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 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 really like Folk Life. It’s free. It’s all sorts of music. I remember going from clog dancing to hip hop shows. It’s fun, and you guys, it’s next weekend. Nothing is really calling me as a must go. But I’m still totally going.

Malachi 2:2-3
If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

“Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.

Discuss.

Democrats hold mock hearing on Judge Garland.

Samantha Bee: The victims of SuperPACs.

What is behind the G.O.P’s elephant and the Democrat’s donkey.

Stephen: Hillary Clinton goes full ’90s nostalgia.

Mark Fiore: Cheap-Labor-For-You, Inc..

The 2016 GOP Clown Show:

• Red State Update: Dunlap Publicist.
• Young Turks: Idiot Drumpf demands apology from The Onion
• Megyn Kelly kicks Donald Drumpf’s ass.
• Songify: Drumpf goes hard.:

• Jimmy Dore: “People just don’t care” about Drumpf’s lack of principles says RNC chief.
• Michael Brooks: RNC Chair Reince Priebus, “People just don’t Care’…about Drumpf’s misogyny
• David Pakman: Drumpf spokeswoman implodes on live TV in talking point coma
• Kimmel: Donald Drumpf talks about his money
• Donald Drumpf’s hair secrets revealed.
• Does Donald Drumpf speak for you?
• Sam Seder: Drumpf fat shames Chris Christie, just for fun.
• Young Turks: Drumpf to Christie…”no more Oreos.”
• Michael Brooks: “Drumpf not interested in Marla Maples” says Drumpf spokesperson “John Miller.”
• What a con-man.
• Drumpf’s pathological fear of germs.
• Chris Hayes: Drumpf’s Woman executive says, “He has to be STOPPED!”
• Slate: Meet Drumpf’s new energy adviser.
• Young Turks: Drumpf delegate produced child porn
• Thom: Drumpf’s Southern Strategy on steroids
• Seth Meyers: The Donald responds to Hillary ad
• Maddow: Donald Drumpf’s Cabinet.
• Sam Seder: Republican Sen. Bob Bennett spends his dying days apologizing to Muslims for Donald Drumpf.
• Young Turks: Drumpf releases his list of Supreme Court nominees
• David Pakman: Drumpf’s list of Supreme Court picks is an utter disaster
• Donald Drumpf paid $0 in taxes in 1981.
• Thom: The ghost of 1968 haunts our elections.
• Bill Maher: New Rule – Don’t blame Liberals for Drumpf:

• Stephen with Breaking News: Drumpf makes women uncomfortable
• Respect.
• Daily Show: Donald Drumpf set his sights on the Latino Vote
• Michael Brooks: Everything in 3—How to beat Donald Drumpf

Stephen: A man named Ralph Nader.

David Pakman: Why are the highly educated so liberal?

White House: Calling all kid scientists.

Daily Show: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomes Syrian refugees to Canada.

Mental Floss: 25 facts about the Indy 500.

Stephen explains this election to kids.

Farron Cousins with Howard Nations: Republican obstruction is decimating our justice system.

Seth Meyers with A Closer Look: Democrats divided on Hillary and Bernie.

Nightly Show: The origins of America’s lead poisoning crisis.

State Sanctioned Discrimination:

• Matthew Filipowicz: Meet North Carolina’s bathroom body guard.
• House erupts in chaos during LGBT vote.
• David Pakman: Anti-transgender extremist utterly confused by simple bathroom question
• Seth Meyers with A Closer Look: Bathrooms as battlegrounds.
• Samantha Bee: The new religious right.

VP candidate Kimmel discloses his personal finances.

Maddow: Alabama political clusterfuck. Will drag queen Ambrosia Starling rescue the state?

Stephen: Political week in review.

Sam Seder: Sorry Nutburgers…Trey Gowdy (R-GA) confirms that Hillary didn’t give a “stand-down” order over Benghazi.

White House: West Wing Week.

FAUX News anchor fights text on screen: misstating Supreme Court victory for religion.

What is the busiest airport in the world?

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

Like all of us do from time to time, I was reading about the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. I know, I know: You’re all bored of me talking about the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. It’s pretty much what every liberal blog, and especially every one that deals with Washington State politics, is just obsessed with. I hear you, so just this one time, and then I’ll have to go find some other thing to write about.

Anyway, I was reading about the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and I was surprised to learn how pro-trade the Democrats were, and the Republicans weren’t, at least according to a few paragraphs in Once in a Great City, and then some Internet research.

Part of that is a strange bravado that Kennedy had with things when he said “A vital expanding economy in the free world is a strong counter to the threat of the world Communist movement. This act is, therefore, an important new weapon to advance the cause of freedom.” So sure, Democrats being cold warriors. OK. We kinda did that.

But I think part of it was an assumption that it’s pushing our values. At the time, the head of the UAW supported it. It was still an open question what post-war Europe would look like, and I think trading with us, with our then strong unions and democratic values would pass that on.

So, maybe for those of us who aren’t big on NAFTA and the WTO for labor and environmental reasons, there are lessons. Maybe we need to have those sort of protections in the trade deals. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but if earlier liberals thought of trade as a way to improve things, we probably could too. I don’t know if that makes more sense than just rejecting them, and I don’t know what labor or environmental protections you could get 2/3 of the Senate to pass for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, how will I drag the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 into the next post is anyone’s guess.

Are you excited about whoever has filed where you are? If not, are you gonna run? Are you? Seriously, you have until 5:00 Friday. Here’s the list of the people who have filed so far, and it looks like some of them could use some competition.

I never get allergies, but this year, they’ve just knocked me on my ass. I don’t know if it’s the warm spring or what looks like all of the world’s Scotch Broom growing by the building where I work.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. We’ll have the Kentucky and Oregon presidential primaries for our personal amusement, plus lots of local and regional stuff to discuss and debate.

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. Tonight, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters meet. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. And on Thursday, the Tacoma, Bremerton, and Spokane chapters meet.

There are 179 chapters of Living Liberally, including nineteen in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find (or start!) a chapter near you.

The Obama administration’s administrative directive on trans students is great first and foremost on its own. It’s tough enough navigating high school no matter who you are. But if you’re a trans person and even pooping can be a mined field, this will hopefully make things a bit easier.

On top of that, it’s great for how much it makes the right people sad. Oh my God, do I love asshole tears.

Leviticus 25:44-46
Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

Discuss.

Matthew Filipowicz with Alice Ollstein: Restoring the voting rights of felons.

MinutePhysics: Solution to the Grandfather paradox.

GOP Drumpf-fest 2016:

• Ann Telnaes: Paul Ryan met with Donald Drumpf
• Donald Drumpf makes a YUGE announcement.
• Daily Show: Drumpf’s taxes?
• Donald Drumpf goes for ice cream.
• Jimmy Dore chats with Chairman Reince Priebus
• Stephen: No news is Drumpf news.
• Harry Reid: Trump and McConnell see women as “dogs and pigs.”
• Roll Call: GOP leaders split on supporting Drumpf.
• Bill Maher: New Rule – Lady and the Trump
• Liberal Viewer: Bill Maher v Jon Stewart—Sexist v Non-Sexist Donald Drumpf critique.
• Roy Zimmerman: The clown has taken over the party

• How to make your own Drumpf at home
• Mark Fiore: Extrumpaganza!
• Larry Wilmore: Donald Drumpf bashes Hillary Clinton
• Seth Meyers: Drumpf and White Nationalists—a closer look.
• Stephen counsels Paul Ryan to wait until he’s ready
• Daily Show: Drumpf is a uniter…of immigrants.
• James Corden: Can Donald Drumpf and Paul Ryan make it work?
• Kimmel: Rick Perry endorses Donald Drumpf.
• Red State Update: Good Republicans support Donald Drumpf.
• Stephen: Trump’s chief nickname strategist makes Stephen cry.
• Drumpf gets kicked out of Drumpf Tower.
• Drumpf’s day on Capitol Hill
• Stephen: Ted Cruz could go further to the right
• Drumpf’s psychological disorder.
• Samantha Bee: End of Cruz campaign

David Hawkings’ Whiteboard: Inside Clinton’s voting record

Who owns GPS?

Jimmy Dore chats with Bill-O-the-Clown.

That Piece of Shit George Zimmerman in the news:

• Jimmy Dore: Piece of shit George Zimmerman’s gun auction.
• Larry Wilmore: George Zimmerman shocking gun auction.
• Young Turks: “Racist McShootface” bids on asshole’s gun.

Seth Meyers with Rachel Maddow: How Clinton beats Drumpf.

Samantha Bee: Crisis Pregnancy Centers:

Matthew Filipowicz: Are Democrats over-confident on Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton?.

Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.

Jimmy Dore: Political jokes of the week.

State Sanctioned Discrimination:

• Stephen with Dan Savage: What’s next in the fight for LGBTQ equality.
• Michael Brooks: Loretta Lynch has strong words for N.C.; Ben Carson calls those words ‘A bunch of crap’
• Ann Telnaes: For NC, conservatives, privacy extends only to public restrooms
• David Pakman: Countersuits
• Samantha Bee: NC and 2010
• James Rustad: He wouldn’t let me use the bathroom:

Mental Floss: 21 jobs your guidance counselor didn’t mention.

Stephen with Dan Savage: Why Dan trusts Clinton over Trump.

Bernie Sanders’ retirement plan.

NASA: ISS marks 100,000th orbit.

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

The women on the Seattle City Council have written a nice opinion piece rebutting the garbage people have thrown at them over their stadium/land use vote. It’s sad that the article was necessary in 2016.

Oh man Don Benton’s make work job is going away.

Benton and three other employees’ jobs will be eliminated due to the reorganization, and could save the county as much as $1.2 million over the next two years, McCauley said. Benton’s salary and benefits package totaled about $154,000 in 2015, according to Clark County.

Benton’s position has been the subject of continuing controversy after he was appointed to lead the department in May 2013 on the orders of Republican County Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore. As the controversy built, both men, who at the time had sole authority to hire department heads, have denied their role in Benton’s hiring. Instead, they blame then-County Administrator Bill Barron for the action.

On the one hand, I know, I know. I know. There are all sorts of government orgs, non-profits, and businesses that hire legislators. It’s not really that different from the former members of Congress (even ones I like) who are now lobbyists. It’s not that different from Ed Murray’s job at the UW (Seattle Times link). It’s not the best look, but whatever.

But on the other hand, I am definitely petty enough to laugh when it’s an asshole like Benton. Especially given the process in the first place. So ha!

It’s been three years almost to the day since Madore and Mielke tapped Benton to lead the environmental services department during a now-infamous board time meeting in 2013. The issue has continued to be a popular subject for those who comment to the council, despite Madore and Mielke’s continued insistence that they never directed Barron to hire Benton in the first place.

Benton’s appointment also drew criticism from around the state, including a Seattle Times editorial headlined “State Sen. Don Benton for environmental post? Really?”

And I’m legit sorry to anyone else who got caught up in the restructuring.

I cast my second meaningless vote in the primary (my caucus would have been 2 delegates for Clinton, 4 for Sanders no matter how I voted; this one awards no delegates). Still, if the system is going to be this, I’m happy to participate at the cost of a couple weekend afternoons and a stamp.