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Oh hey, it looks like people are using the Viaduct closure to bike from West Seattle to Downtown. Good news. Now that it’s overcast, maybe that number will go down a bit. But still. I hope some of them keep going.

Darryl mentioned it in this morning’s Drinking Liberally thread, but it’s kind of a big deal that the US Supreme Court won’t hear the Seattle minimum wage case. There are 2 reasons why it’s mass rad. First, for Seattle and other places where we want to set a minimum wage, and are going to have the sort of slow, multi-tiered implementation that we got. We can keep the law in place without this imaginary legal hurdle. For the fast food workers and other franchise employees who’ll get a raise going forward, it’s worth it on its own.

But, it also signals that with Antonin Scalia off the court, maybe the country won’t slip further into a new Lochner era. Maybe we won’t decide as many cases primarily on the basis of what’s good for business.

The Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to Seattle’s minimum wage law. And tonight’s election calendar includes an Indiana primary. We’ll roll these topics into our political conversations with cocktails 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.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings happening this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities, Long Beach, and West Seattle chapters also meet. The Lakewood and Bellingham chapters meet on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Tacoma chapter meets.

There are 178 chapters of Living Liberally, including nineteen in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find (or start!) a chapter near you.

I hope you survived your May Day (or your m’aider as the news seems to think). For me it consisted of walking home and seeing a lot of cops, and wondering why there are so many. Then kind of remembering and keeping walking. And then having someone in my building freaking the fuck out. Also some people on Twitter. In conclusion, I almost feel like we need better shitty anarchists.

Genesis 5:1-3
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth.

Discuss.

Mark Fiore: The Math of Democracy.

Stephen: Tips for potential VP candidates (not you, Carly)

Jimmy Kimmel: Wall of election results has a bad day.

Larry Wilmore: Cleaning up Utah’s porn.

The 2016 G.O.P. Self-immolation Comedy Show:

• David Pakman: This poll of Latino voters should terrify Republicans.
• Drumpf: The art of the sell
• Red State Update: Donald Drumpf is all nice now.
• Daily Show: “They Love Me” music video with Black Drumph:

• Stephen: Cartoon Drumpf admits it’s all an act
• Young Turks: Drumpf can’t stop digging his own grave with women
• Bill Maher: Andrew Dice Drumpf
• Donald Drumpf loves White power.
• A dangerous vision.
• Stephen: Side effects of being Presidential include drowsiness, sexism
• Young Turks: The silver lining of a Drumpf nomination.
• Jimmy Dore: Drumpf Attacks Hillary with ‘woman card’ while getting double Christie faced.
• Stephen: Drumpf goes all full lunchroom bully on Kasich
• James Corden: Donald Drumpf is excited for the exodus to Canada
• Young Turks: Drumpf’s foreign policy speech is a total mess.
• Jimmy Kimmel: Ted Cruz called a basketball hoop a “ring”
• Stephen: Wonder twin powers… agitate
• David Pakman: Politic’s creepiest couple
• Young Turks: Cruz appoints Fiorina Vice President of Imagination Land.
• Stephen: Ted Cruz names his loosing mate.
• James Corden: Why did Cruz pick a VP?!?
• Ted Cruz world domination.
• Maddow: “Lucifer in the flesh”
• Thom: Ted Cruz/Zodiac killer porn revealed
• Young Turks: John Boehner says about Cruz, “Lucifer in the flesh.”
• Jimmy Kimmel: Ted Cruz attack ad.
• Stephen gives Ted Cruz an inspirational coach speech.
• Bill Maher: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Ted Cruz:

• Young Turks: Cruz tries pandering to Hoosiers…fails miserably.
• Stephen picks a VP.

Stephen: The political week in review with the “Hungry for Power Games”.

Dark Night staring Sen. Patrick Leahy.

Sen. Franken: Obama’s Supreme Court nominee deserves a hearing.

Stephen: How are humans NOT the national mammal?

Daily Show: Felon voting rights.

Coach Convicted:

• Jimmy Dore: Child molester Dennis Hastert proves GOP ‘family values’ is hypocritical bullshit
• David Pakman: Former Republican House Speaker admits he raped students, gets 15 months jail for fraud
• Roll Call: 10 convicted ex-Congresscritters

Can you get rich by running for President?

Seth Meyers: Trump’s and Hillary’s running mates.

John Oliver: Puerto Rico.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: How Hispanic voters will crush Republicans.

Greenman: Surveilling the scientists.

Amy Schumer: Dr. Congress.

State Sanctioned Discrimination:

• Tenessee’s anti-gay bill.
• Seth Meyers: A closer look at bathroom laws.
• Conservatives disagree with GOP attacks on transgender Americans
• Farron Cousins: Right wing states are screwing themselves over with hate laws
• Stephen: Let’s talk about bathrooms….:

• PsychoSuperMom: Protest shopping at Target.

Jimmy Dore: Political news of the week.

Sam Seder: Dennis Miller is still incredibly unfunny.

Seth Meyers: A closer look at the NE primary.

Mental Floss: 36 facts about tea.

Daily Show: Confused Islamophobes target American Sikhs.

Bernie Sanders: Bernie Sanders on the crisis of the middle class.

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

Oh hey, it’s super on-brand* if I talk about highways for 2 open threads this week. But here we are:

Are you planning anything different for when the Viaduct is closed? Going to telecommute? Going to tough it out? Live in the Tri-Cities and just going to laugh at us Wet Siders? Using this as an opportunity to start biking or walking to work? Going to take I-5 and hope for the best? Going to plan for some more time, and just make it happen? Unemployed? Taking the Light Rail? Working odd hours?

[Read more…]

Of all the books I’ve read while out to eat or on a bus, or whatever, I’d say this is the one that I’ve had the most people ask me about. I don’t know if the Supreme Court is an interesting topic generally. Or possibly it’s because you hear so many conservatives ranting about the court, a long haired Seattle person reading “Case Against the Supreme Court ” might seem incongruous.

Anyway, if you want to be super depressed, it’s one I’d recommend. Very interesting and really shows the importance of the court.

It is election Tuesday in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Please join us tonight for an evening of election-watching over an elixir 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, but some of us will show up earlier to watch the returns.

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. The Kent and Woodinville chapters meet on Thursday. And next Monday, the Yakima and South Bellevue chapters meet.

There are 180 chapters of Living Liberally, including nineteen in Washington state, three in Oregon and one in Idaho. Find (or start!) a chapter near you.

The Eastbound lanes of 520 are now open for bridgeness. Anyone taken them yet? Notice any difference in your driving experience?

Judges 10:4
He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys.

Discuss.

Roy Zimmerman: Everybody is Everybody Else.

Bill Maher: Tax the churches.

How to fix America’s corrupt political system.

The White Jet Pro.

What people did with presidential candidate cut-outs.

Who’s it going to be? Donald Drumpf or Hillary?

Always After Me Lucky Charms:

• Stephen: Reince Priebus’ cry for help is very specific
• Stephen and Tom Hanks share some Bailey’s and Lucky Charms.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Gyrocopter pilot sentenced to prison.

Wicked: Denying Hillary.

The 2016 Crazy-Fest:

• Samantha Bee: Drumpf wins sooooo hard…
• Young Turks: Drumpf claims he helped clean up after 9/11.
• Jimmy Dore: Drumpf celebrates NY victory with disgraced G.O.P Teabagger.
• Michael Brooks: Rudy Giuliani wants to be very unclear about Donald Drumpf
• Maddow: Drumpf upends anti-LGBT GOP orthodoxy
• Young Turks: Drumpf clownishly confuses 7/11 with 9/11.
• Drumpf: Unpresidential
• Michael Brooks: Drumpf, speaking about what you shouldn’t forget, confuses 7/11 and 9/11.
• Stephen: Cartoon Trump is emperor of New York
• Chris Gethard: A solution for Drumpf’s tiny hands
• Maddow: Drumpf holds racist anti-Hispanic rally in New York
• James Corden: Running for President is hard for Ted Cruz
• Ted Cruz watching pornography on the internet.
• Samantha Bee: John Kasich goes to New York City
• Michael Brooks: John Kasich thinks he’ll be the GOP nominee despite all evidence to the contrary
• Stephen: Paul Ryan is probably open to being President.

David Hawkings’ Whiteboard: Life in the Senate after running for President:

Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.

Daily Show: The Carson twins debate….:

Stephen: Bernie said “do do”.

State Sanctioned Discrimination:

• Samantha Bee: Jeremy Durham is the Worst Person in Tennessee.
• Stephen with a word about North Carolina.
• Samantha Bee: Worst Person in Tenessee, Part II
• Young Turks: Classy Rep. Louie Goober mocks LGBT community.

Reporter fail: Attempt to make #DemocracySpring look stupid backfires!

Deprogrammed political news of the week.

Thom: Can social media seize control of our elections?

Stephen: New York primaried hard.

Mental Floss: 27 facts about James Bond.

The $20 Makeover:

• Stephen: Hooray for the Tubman $20
• Kid v. Drumpf on Tubman $20 bill
• David Pakman: Harriet Tubman “replacing” Andrew Jackson on $20 bill
• Young Turks: Harriet Tubman will appear on the front of the new $20 bill
• Trevor Noah: FAUX News and the new $20

Mark Fiore: Islamophobic Air.

How to stop Ted Cruz.

Obama’s weekly address: Building a fairer and more effective criminal justice system.

PsychoSuperMom: Gerrymandering.

Stephen: Everyone is mad about campaign finance reform.

Break Free Pacific Northwest.

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

While I haven’t read it, can’t imagine I won’t support the SEIU backed initiative to fund enforcement of the $15 minimum wage, of the sick leave/safe leave law, and other workplace issues in Seattle. While, generally I don’t think dedicated money is the way to go on those sorts of things, the city hasn’t been very good at enforcement so far. So better a dedicated tax than it being under-resourced.

When liberals and conservatives have conversations about things like homelessness, it can be frustrating. Conservatives want individuals to take personal responsibility. And while liberals find individual responsibility important, we also understand that there are systemic problems that have to be dealt with. That it’s really tough to bootstrap yourself into a house if you’re homeless and there isn’t enough supply. So, sometimes we talk past each other. Jason Rantz tries to circle that square by showing how liberals being tolerant is the real systemic problem (h/t).

I’ve been meaning to do a longer piece for a while, but it keeps being nice out. After like 4 days, it’s still too nice of a day to do a metacommentary piece on the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

But why so many in this neighborhood? I’ve never seen as many until recently. As other neighborhoods are engaged in trying to help deal with the problem, Capitol Hill seems like they’re allowing it to develop unfettered. I think I know why: ideology.

Homelessness is everywhere. I don’t know what neighborhood doesn’t have homeless people. Including suburban and rural places in King County. Also, is Cap. Hill’s tolerance new? Because otherwise, it doesn’t really apply to this supposedly new problem. Also, too, I walked from the light rail station to Drinking Liberally last Tuesday, and back fairly late at night. It was after reading this piece, so I was on the lookout for homeless people. It didn’t seem like a whole lot, at least compared to other neighborhoods. Sure, I passed by some people sleeping in doorways, but I don’t think more than Downtown or Belltown. Certainly not more than, say, the Terminal 91 Bike Path or SoDo, if we’re trading anecdote for data.

Progressive ideologues like to preach how tolerant they are. You ask them and they’ll proudly tell you. Now, they don’t support ideological diversity, but they’re pro-LGBT, pro-people of color, pro-atheist, pro-multicultralism, pro-whatever. The only things they’re against seem to be capitalism and cisgendered white Christian Republican men. And to show how tolerant they are, they seek to ban microaggressions; they support college students who need “safe spaces” from opinions that make them uncomfortable. They like to declare themselves allies of any group they believe to be oppressed.

Atheism and multiculturalism are both ideologies. So that third sentence is self-refuting. Some progressive ideologues are against capitalism, but I think most aren’t. Also, I don’t know what against “cisgendered white Christian Republican men” even means. Like, don’t think they should dominate the conversation, sure. But progressives are not the ones trying to regulate where cis people can poop or poised to nominate someone who wants a travel ban on Christians. Anyway, I guess we should just be glad he learned the word cisgendered and this isn’t a rant about that.

Oh my God there was so much wrong with that paragraph. OK. Keep going.

Nobody is trying to ban microaggressions. Pointing out how harmful they are? Sure. You can go yell racial epithets (macroaggressions if you like) in the park, and nobody is going to ban you. But you think a ban on microaggressions is in the works? Also, safe spaces and being allies to the oppressed is pretty rad. Like everywhere should be unsafe in general and harmful to oppressed people? What the fuck even is that? In fairness, he walks that back a bit in the next couple paragraphs, that I’m skipping. But still.

I think some ideological activists won’t help the homeless because they subconsciously want to live around them. They can say that they don’t judge people based on their appearance or status as someone who lives on the street, and this gives them a sense of superiority to those of us who want to intervene.

This describes literally nobody. The solutions to homelessness include build more housing and make it affordable. It isn’t just tolerate it. The closest thing I can think of to being tolerant as a policy was housing for chronic public inebriates, but that has been a success story among King County’s mixed-at-best record.

I’m going to see if some small talk spurs discussion.

Geez, 3 days of more than 80 degrees is quite enough. I’m giving up: Shorts to work. And it’s only April. Man. I’m actually looking forward to some rain in a few days. Can you believe it?