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June: 17:: Open: Thread

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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.

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

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DLBottleJoin 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.

Open Thread June 12

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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).

Add it to the List

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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.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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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.

Open Thread: The Tenth of June, Two Thousand-Sixteen, Anno Domini

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I want to say a quick word to the lefties who supported Bernie Sanders, but aren’t sure if you can vote for Clinton. I hope you can for policy reasons. She’s pretty great. I said what I like about her here, and I’m sure you’ve heard plenty from other sources in the last few days. Cool. I really hope you can change your mind for the general.

But, even if you can’t, I hope you’ll find some other office to support liberals. This country isn’t going to have top down change, and while who gets to be president is super important, so is who gets to figure out road funding, and public transit, and whatever cemetery district does, and education, and on and on. Sanders got his start in elected politics Burlington, a place I’ve literally looked up and couldn’t find on a map of Vermont, maybe not on a map of Burlington. Surely, there’s someone out there who might be the next Sanders, and the more liberals who get elected, the more the next one will have a chance.

Here in Washington, all the statewide executive offices, half of the state Senate and all of the state House are up for reelection as well as all the US House and Patty Murray’s Senate race. There are also initiatives on gun safety and minimum wage because our legislature hasn’t acted. And there’s a campaign against the trans hate initiative. Any of those campaigns would love to have committed volunteers or a small donation. I wrote here about some of my favorites, and there are a few other suggestions people liked in the comments. I’ll try to remember to do an Act Blue page over the weekend if anyone is interested in making a local donation.

I remember volunteering for a down ticket executive race a few election cycles ago, and they were soooooooo happy to have someone make calls or write letters like once a week. I hope you’ll eventually come around on Hillary Clinton, but even if you don’t, there’s still plenty of work that so many great candidates would be glad to have.

Drinking Liberally—Seattle

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DLBottleJoin us this evening for an election-watching party at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. Tonight California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota have presidential primaries. And North Dakota has Democratic caucuses. It will be entertaining.

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 consider showing up earlier for the vote tallies.

And something else…Negin Farsad is coming to Seattle on June 12th promoting her book:

HOW TO MAKE WHITE PEOPLE LAUGH
A memoir-meets-social-justice-comedy-manifesto
By Negin Farsad
Book Trailer
Purchase link

SEATTLE EVENT
Reading & Standup at University Book Store
4326 University Way NE
June 12th at 4 PM
FB Event


Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight, the Tri-Cities and West Seattle chapters meet. On Thursday, the Kent chapter meets.

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.

Open Thread 6-5

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I’m reading Lindy West’s new book (it’s excellent, read it if you haven’t yet). It’s got one section where she talks about her abortion, and she mentions seeing someone she went to school with. It reminds me of a story from my Grandmother volunteering at the Lutheran Home For Unwed Mothers, in what’s now Lake Forest Park in, I believe, the 1930’s and 1940’s:

She and the other volunteers would do chores or drive the women around. Obviously, if you’re volunteering in a place like that, you can’t be that much of an asshole to single mothers that you know. Still, the stigma was so great at the time that the procedure was the volunteers sign in, and if any of the women needed anything they saw the list, they weren’t supposed to chose someone they knew.

HA Bible Study: 1 Corinthians 7:2-9

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1 Corinthians 7:2-9
Each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband because of sexual immorality. The husband should meet his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should do the same for her husband. The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Don’t refuse to meet each other’s needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I’m saying this to give you permission; it’s not a command. I wish all people were like me, but each has a particular gift from God: one has this gift, and another has that one.

I’m telling those who are single and widows that it’s good for them to stay single like me. But if they can’t control themselves, they should get married, because it’s better to marry than to burn with passion.

Discuss.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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People who won’t speak to Red State Update.

Jimmy Dore: The Week in Political Jokes.

Bill Maher does Goldy’s boss.

Jihad Solution’s new Breathe Easy:

White House: West Wing Week.

The 2016 Drumpf Clown Show:

Mental Floss: 31 facts about music festivals.

Jimmy Dore: Ron Paul calls in.

Obama on the economy.

Bill Maher: New Rule–Capitalism eats everything:

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

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