Dear HA Readers,
This is just a note to let you know that I don’t think that I will be posting open threads, or anything else, next week. Thanksgiving week is going to be a lot, so probably nothing from me. I usually write these posts on my commute, and I won’t be commuting most of the week. So here’s an early happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it, and strange Thursday off or thanks for reading from outside the US to the rest of you.
XOXO,
Carl Ballard
Dear Representative Jayapal,
I am writing to thank you for your support of the MORE Act. I am glad that it is getting a markup today. While reading about the legislation, I was glad to see your name on the list of cosponsors.
I hope that it will remain a piece of legislation that not only legalizes marijuana, but also brings some justice to the people who have been harmed by the prohibition.
Thanks,
Carl Ballard
The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets Tuesday for a night of politics over a pint. Won’t you stop by?
We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. Look for us in the back room of the pub beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 268 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, seven in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!
Dear Governor Inslee,
I see that you and Governor Brown are meeting to figure out replacing the I-5 bridge across the Columbia River to replace the one there now. I hope that you will give adequate consideration for public transportation. I hope rail can run along it.
Carl Ballard
Robert Reich: The real winner of the 2019 elections.
Wendover: The US government program that pays for your flights.
The New Yorker: Why a designer turned the U.S.-Mexico border into an art installation.
Hasan Minhaj: Mental health.
The Atlantic: From the Iraq war to ballet, a veteran’s inspiring story.
Vox: We’re melting the Arctic and reviving deadly germs.
The Dotard Трамп and Other Impeachable Grifters:
Wired: Forensics expert explains how to lift fingerprints.
Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship
The Atlantic: Will America fall like Rome?
Roll Call: Congress is as outlandish as it could be—Congressional hits and misses of the week.
Bill Maher: New Rule—Let it go.
Vox: China’s fight with the NBA, explained.
Twenty-twenty Vision:
Roll Call: If Congresscritters cannot be impeached, how are they disciplined?
Robert Reich: The myth of voter fraud.
The New Yorker: Janelle Monáe on growing up queer and Black.
Vox: America’s wilderness is for sale.
Now This: The Past, present, and future of seeking asylum in America
Full Frontal: Columbus day should be Indigenous Peoples Day featuring Congresswoman Deb Haaland.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
You guys. Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler wants to investigate the Ukraine phone call in the open, but also it’s a distraction, so she opposes the actual investigation. Imagine! If she has an alternate plan for how the inquiry can be conducted beyond vague generalities, it wasn’t in the article, and I couldn’t find it.
Oh no, closed doors! So I fear things,
It will be fought but won’t clear things
So Republicans say,
‘Til they got their way.
Now how dare you hold open hearings?
Please join us Tuesday night for some politics and conversation over a drink at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. Look for us in the back room of the pub beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 268 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, seven in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!
Trevor: Hillary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton on co-writing “The Book of Gutsy Women”.
SNL: Corporate nightmare song.
Vox: The mistake that toppled the Berlin Wall.
Daily Show: Today in Obama scandal history—The Marine umbrellas.
The Dotard Трамп, His Lawyers and Other Co-conspirators:
Samantha Bee: Local elections 2019—Thank you, Kentucky! We love you, Virginia!
Trevor: Hillary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton—Conspiracy theories & impeachment.
Roy Zimmerman and Deven Green: My Conservative Girlfriend:
WaPo: Virginia turns blue as Democrats win full control of legislature.
Stephen: Republican support collapses in the suburbs, Democrats win big in Virginia.
Bill Maher: The Zuck stops here.
Twenty-twenty Vision:
Jim Jefferies: Americans are scared of the wrong things.
Vox: When Florida had a committee to terrorize gay people
Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.
Bill Maher: 24 things you don’t know about Lindsey Graham.
Trevor: The invaluable work of California’s inmate firefighters.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
It’s tough to detangle how much of Kshama Sawant’s turn around in the late ballots is due to various factors. How much is it that liberal votes tend to pick up later most elections? How much is due to SA organizing? How much is other GOTV efforts? How much is Sawant specifically? And of course, how much is the backlash against Amazon and other companies spending soooooo much money in the race? Still, if the turn around is greater than her first City Council election, I think that it’s safe to say that the Amazon money hurt Amazon more than it helped.
Yesterday was a pretty good election nationally. Virginia and Kentucky had great wins for the Democrats. Statewide, oof. You hate to see the initiatives go the way they have.
And Seattle City Council is a mixed bag. With Mike O’Brien’s retirement and Kshama Sawant maybe losing, the left wing of the Council won’t be as liberal. But the median vote may be farther left. Hopefully we can get a head tax and figure out ways to minimize the impact of cuts that are probably coming to transit. I hope that some of the organizing that went into those races can be transferred to organizing to push those policies.
Tuesday is election day! So, if you haven’t voted yet, do so! Then, put on your “I think Eyman should get the chair” tee-shirt, drop off your ballot in a nearby ballot drop-box, and celebrate democracy by joining us at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. Look for us in the back room of the pub beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 267 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, seven in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!
For goodness sake, get your ballot postmarked or dropped off by tomorrow. If you’re in Seattle, please vote for the hold large corporations accountable slate. Everyone vote against killing transit projects. Vote for affirmative action.
Samantha Bee: Meet the badasses who roasted Harvey Weinstein.
Now This: Who is Steve King? Narrated by Nore Davis.
Vice News: The voting war in North Carolina.
Vox: Why Turkey is invading Syria.
Samantha Bee: Big little lies—Instagram’s sponsored content problem
The Dotard Трамп And Other Criers and Whimperers:
Roll Call: House Dems mourn bills buried in McConnell’s “legislative graveyard”.
Schmoyoho: Obama sings spooky scary skeletons—This day in Halloween history.
Stephen: Speaker Pelosi—We’ve sent “grim reaper” Mitch McConnell scores of bills
Samantha Bee: It’s complicated—Revenge porn and the Katie Hill controversy.
The New York Times: Inside Northeast Syria—What U.S. troop withdrawal cost the Kurds.
Twenty-Twenty Vision:
Bruce Nelson: Republican guys.
The Daily Show: Today in Obama scandal history—Date night.
Mental Floss: 28 facts about Theodore Roosevelt.
Samantha Bee: Organ failure—An American horror story.
Stephen: Twitter’s ban on political ads is a jab at Mark Zuckerberg.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Imagine being too racist for the College Republicans. Imagine being such a shitty organization that they have to explain, “I am NOT with those jerkoffs!” Oh, don’t get it wrong, they’re all assholes. But apparently the National College Republicans have a different threshold, or at least don’t want to have to explain the UW chapter anymore.
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!