HorsesAss.Org

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

by — ,

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:

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:

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:

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.

Undecided

by — ,

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.

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by — ,

DLBottleAnother 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.

Open Thread 3/21

by — ,

So this happened over the weekend.

If you care about the opening of the new line, other people have said more interesting things than me. But here’s my 2 cents anyway.

This isn’t such a new thing in the way that the line from the airport to Westlake was. That being the first line and all. But it being on time and under budget, as well as a useful extension is promising. The stations are beautiful, and in great locations.

the only real negative for me was that I was a bit claustrophobic getting off at the U-Link station. I wandered around a bit before getting on the escalators but still felt boxed in. I hope at some point we get better as a city at stand to the right walk on the left.

All in all, quite good. I imagine I’ll take it pretty regularly. It’s a bit far from the Capitol Hill station, but if it isn’t raining too bad, you can take the train to Drinking Liberally.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

by — ,

LobbyWOW! It’s like a bribe, but 100% legal!

Mental Floss: 37 bizarre podcasts.

Jimmy Dore: Political news jokes of the week.

The 2016 Clown Debacle:

Inside the Capitol dome facelift.

White House: West Wing Week.

Seth Meyers: Voter ID laws…a closer look.

John Oliver: International Women’s Day.

Friday #hottakes.

PsychoSuperMom: The Religious Right is Neither.

GOP Obstruction of Justice:

Sam Seder: Dennis Miller isn’t funny.

TestTube News: How powerful is the Black vote?

Thom: How to reduce gun-related deaths in America by 80%.

Minute Physics: Transporters and quantum teleportation.

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

Oh Hey, We Have a Problematic Prosecutor

by — ,

One of the more interesting stories last Tuesday’s primary wasn’t a Presidential race. It was in Cook County where a prosecutor with the support of Black Lives Matter won opposing the worst abuses of the incumbent and ending the school to prison pipeline. I don’t know enough to have any opinion on how it’ll play out going forward. But from the outside it seems like the right local people are excited.

That got me thinking: Here in King County, we have a prosecutor who, while better than Cook County is still a problem. To cite the most prominent example, he didn’t prosecute Ian Berk after he was unjustified in killing John T. Williams.

It’s 2 more years until Satterberg is up for reelection if he decides to run again. And he won his first election fairly easily. Still, it seems like something for lefty activists in King County might be able to pull off if they found the right candidate.

Open Thread 3-18

by — ,

If people reading this blog know one thing about me, it’s probably my politics. If they know anything else about me, it’s my sense of humor. But somewhere on the list is my love of the library. Seattle has a great system. New York where I grew up also has a great system, but I honestly don’t remember much about it. What I remember more is that I have family near the first public library paid for with tax money in the country, and hearing that history over the course of many summers rubbed off on me.

Currently, I have 4 books checked out of the Seattle Public Library and I spend far too much time managing my hold list. I’ve recently started reading comics for the first time since I was a kid, and the graphic novel selection is great. I doubt I’d have gotten into them if not for being able to check out some, often pretty silly ones, for free.

Anyway, all this to say fuck the Koch brothers for making anti-library robocalls. What kind of monsters do that?

NPI Fundraising Gala

by — ,

Having been kicking around local lefty Internet circles for (approximately) ever I’m glad that we have Andrew Villeneuve and Northwest Progressive Institute around. From his activism against Tim Eyman, to helping build the netroots and his role as part of that netroots, Andrew has been a great part of the community. There were many times when I used to do multi-link open threads or tried on the old blog to at least have one local link a day and going to the Progressive Portal or the Regional Blogroll.

And while I’m always more of a build community on the Internet kind of person, Andrew and NPI are just as much in on the ground stuff. Permanent Defense goes after Tim Eyman in a real way, and the fundraising gala attracts a lot of big name people every year.

Well, the fundraising gala is happening again, and this year is no exception:

What: A special event to benefit the work of the Northwest Progressive Institute
Who: U.S. Representative Adam Smith, former Seattle City Councilmember Tina Podlodowski, and additional speakers to be announced
When: Friday, April 1st, 2016 | Reception starts at 6:15 PM, main program at 7 PM
Where: Mercer Island Community & Events Center
8236 SE 24th Street, Mercer Island, 98040

I know a billion people in politics ask for your money. But NPI are good people and it looks like a fun event if you can make it.

Open Thread 3-16

by — ,

I saw a countdown clock to St. Patrick’s Day recently that had days, hours, and minutes. I realized that it’s counting down to Midnight on St. Pat’s. I may be a bit of a prude, but I suspect that if anyone is in a bar at 11:59 on an weekday, they’re not waiting on the holiday to start drinking. I mean, I get that it’s a big drinking day but I think there’s time enough to not have to be up to the minute.

Also, please don’t yell “wooooooooooo” right outside my apartment. What? You’ll yell “woooooooooo” wherever you damn well please? OK.

Election night discussion thread

by — ,

I’ll try to offer some commentary throughout the evening, but the real fun will be in the comment thread….

Lil’ Marco has “suspended” his campaign after losing his home state of Florida.

What’s with this “We are ‘suspending’ the campaign” bullshit. “We” are not. You (singular) are. “Suspend” is a weasel word. Why can’t these weasels tell it like it is: “I’m quitting”, “I am dropping out of the race”, “I surrender to Mr. Drumpf”.

Oh…that’s right. They’re fucking weasels.

7:48: While Cruz is giving his “victory” speech, CNN updates the vote totals and Cruz goes from 1st place to 2nd place.

8:40 Carl Ballard commentary on the GOP primary: [fart noises]

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by — ,

DLBottle

Join us on this sub-Super Tuesday for an election watching party at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. Voters go to the polls in five states (FL, IL, MO, NC, and OH) and Republicans caucus on one island entity (Northern Mariana Islands). For Republicans, the presidential primary outcome is “winner take all” in all but the IL and NC primaries. We’ll have election results on the TV.

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 this week. Tonight, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters 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 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.

Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?

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!

Follow Goldy

[iire_social_icons]

HA Commenting Policy

It may be hard to believe from the vile nature of the threads, but yes, we have a commenting policy. Comments containing libel, copyright violations, spam, blatant sock puppetry, and deliberate off-topic trolling are all strictly prohibited, and may be deleted on an entirely arbitrary, sporadic, and selective basis. And repeat offenders may be banned! This is my blog. Life isn’t fair.