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Seattle Times editorial board:

Charter schools have already been embraced by 42 other states…

So has an income tax, yet I don’t see the editors jonesing to follow suit on that.

Well, it’s pretty dispiriting that Inslee let the charter schools bill become law. I don’t know what I could add on the policy since the last time I wrote about charters. It would be nice if we could fund education before we start these sorts of things. This won’t take money directly out of public schools, but it will take it away from ancillary things.

If the legislature were serious about charters, they could have had a new revenue source rather than one that already goes to educational sources. But of course, charters were never about improving the quality of education so much as an attempt to break the unions.

James 5:1-4
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

Discuss.

Jimmy Dore interviews Hollywood conservative Vince Vaughn.

Mental Floss: 35 facts about rock bands.

Al Franken speaks after speaking with Chief Judge Merrick Garland.

Stephen: The NRA should rewrite all the classics.

Obama commutes the sentences of 61 prisoners.

Thom: How FAUX News brainwashed your dad.

Jim Earl: Nancy Reagan obituary:

PsychoSuperMom: Religious freedom doesn’t mean the freedom to discriminate.

Mark Fiore: #pray for [blank].

The 2016 Festival of Loonies:

• Farron Cousins: Can the GOP race get any more juvenile? Probably.
• Kimmel: American Girl Doll, Presidential Collection
• Stephen with Elizabeth Warren comments on Drumpf.
• Sam Seder: SHOCKING! Donald Drumpf breaks his pledge!!!
• Young Turks: Trump wants punishment for women…
• Kimmel: Donald Drumpf is a nice guy.

Ted’s face and Donald’s wall for the uterus.

• Drumpf and punishing women.
• Seth Meyers: A closer look at Drumpf’s Abortion comments.

• Maddow: Donald Drumpf exposes truth of anti-abortion politics
• Young Turks: Trump on releasing his tax returns.
• David Pakman: Drumpf sounds like a 5-year-old defending attack on Heidi Cruz
• Sam Seder: Drumpf defends his campaign manager while sitting on his stupid plane.
• Cartoon Donald Drumpf tells Stephen who started it.
• Kimmel: Donald Drumpf’s huge campaign announcement.
• Sam Seder: Cruz & Fiorina—Horrible humans unite.
• Jonathan Mann: Ted Cruz Is Like Breaking Your Penis
• Stephen: Tatiana Maslany reveals the German word for Ted Cruz
• Sam Seder: John Kasich is still really creepy.

Glass Ceiling: A game for girls.

Red State Update Feels the Bern.

Stephen: Late Night wheel of news…with Bernie Sanders.

Minute Physics: Why you should care about nukes.

State Sanctioned Bigotry:

• Seth Meyers: A closer look at GA and NC anti-LGBTQ laws
• Mississippi passes anti-LGBT law.
• Young Turks: Mississippi tries to outlaw premarital sex.

Sam Seder chats with Katherine Harris.

White House: West Wing Week.

Thom: We’re Koched-out on freebees for billionaire polluters.

Friday #hottakes.

Young Turks: Unions win huge in Supreme Court case.

Kimmel: People get mad when Jimmy has a politician on the show.

Farron Cousins: Bush Administration War Crimes Even Worse Than We Thought.

How airplanes changed the global economy:

Jimmy Dore: Political jokes of the week.

How to mount a Titanosaur in 10 steps.

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

Oh hey. It’s April Fools Day. AKA, the day to ignore any press release. AKA, why the fuck is this a holiday? I mean, I’m sure there’s some backstory if you Google it. But pranks are generally a not fun way to kick down. Great job of a holiday, everybody.

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.