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Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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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.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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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.

Nancy Reagan Is Dead. Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

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The_Reagans_waving_from_the_limousine_during_the_Inaugural_Parade_1981Of course, my sympathies go to the Reagan family on the death of their matriarch, Nancy. But as the national media gears up for another round of fawning eulogies and bullshit mythologizing, I’m reminded of the post I wrote 12 years ago on the death of her husband.

HA was less than a month old at the time, and I had very few readers. Which is a shame, because looking back on it, this was a damn good post. So I’m repeating it below:

I was never a Ronald Reagan supporter, and the benefit of hindsight has not mellowed my opinion of his Presidency. I remain confident that the judgment of history will more closely resemble mine than that of the fawning revisionists who, like the man they endlessly eulogize, seem prone to confusing his movie roles with the role he played in public life.

Thus I never thought Reagan’s death would touch my life so personally, until both PBS stations chose to preempt their morning children’s programming to show coverage of his memorial service.

Some things should stay inviolate: The Bill of Rights… my grandmother’s pinwheel cookie recipe… a seven-year-old’s morning routine.

Even on 9-11 and the days that followed, with the nation transfixed by the tragedy of those terrible attacks, our PBS affiliates wisely shielded our children from the horror, sticking to their familiar schedule of Sagwa and Dragon Tales and other god-awful-boring but thankfully commercial-free fare. Well the rest of us watched and re-watched the clips of planes flying into buildings and towers collapsing like some recurring, national nightmare, my daughter could obliviously munch her Cheerios as she watched for the umpteenth time as Arthur triumphed over his personal nightmare that he forgot his pants.

But not this morning. No, instead of watching Clifford once again help Emily Elizabeth make amends with that bitch Jenna, we found ourselves viewing a flag-draped coffin while somber announcers struggled to pretend that the death of the body of a 93-year-old man was somehow more tragic than the Alzheimer’s disease that years ago robbed him of his mind.

I watched for a few moments, imagining an enormous red dog rampaging through the National Cathedral, crushing dignitaries as he tossed the withered body of a dead president high into the air, like some rawhide chew toy.

But my cartoon fantasy was quickly interrupted by reality. Not the reality of a national media who buys and sells the spin that Ronald Reagan was a great leader simply because he happened to preside over the culmination of the Soviet Union’s decades-long collapse. No, it was the reality of a disgruntled seven-year-old, clearly suspicious that I had somehow conspired with PBS executives to rob her of her precious kid shows.

I slipped a tape into the VCR, and the image of a procession of mourners was quickly replaced by that of dancing cartoon cutlery, which struck me as no less illusory, no less scripted than the caricature of national grief that danced in unison across six local broadcast channels.

Of course I have sympathy for Reagan’s family and friends who watched a terrible disease slowly squeeze the humanity from his once vital body; and I hope these ceremonies can bring them closure.

But their grief is not my grief. And it certainly shouldn’t have been imposed on a seven-year-old girl who asked little from the world that morning, but a bowl of Cheerios and a brief diversion of talking dogs and dragons, before trudging off to a hard day of first grade.

As parents, we often try to protect our children from the realities of our adult world… a world where towers crumble and planes fall from the sky and the most powerful nation in history can crush another in retribution, on the whims of a single, ordinary man.

Yes, even presidents are ordinary men (some, more ordinary than others.) For all the eulogizing of our week-long national shiva, I think my daughter summed up Reagan’s legacy best, when staring briefly at his flag-draped coffin she eloquently pointed out: “There’s a dead person in there.”

Ronald Reagan is dead. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Same goes for Nancy.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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How does money influence U.S. elections?

Nightly Show: Planning a plantation wedding.

Obama debunks GOP “alternate reality” on economy.

The 2016 Clown Slugfest:

Hillary Clinton’s Lena Dunham strategy.

Jon Connor and Keke Palmer: “Fresh Water for Flint”.

Mental Floss: 26 facts about the science of friendship.

White House: West Wing Week.

Seth Meyers: A close look at a Texas abortion case.

Thom and Farron Cousins: How can an entire party reject the reality of climate change?

Sam Seder: MI officials call for Gov. Rick Snyder to resign over Flint water disaster.

Super Tuesday!

Thom: The Good, the Bad & the Very, Very Coadunately Ugly!

Nightly Show: Keep it 100%–Black History Month edition.

David Pakman: Clanence Thomas speaks for first time in a decade.

Farron Cousins: Court agrees…Bill-O-The-Clown is a horrible person.

Does giving up privacy keep us safe from terrorism?

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

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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What are basic human rights?

How is this a thing? Whitewashing.

Jimmy Dore: Bizarre Don Quixote lie & why Richard Dreyfus was stunned

Thom: Why are Republicans so vexed over Gitmo?

The 2016 Clown Show:

Minute Physics: How do we know what air is like on other planets?

What is a rigged economy?

Obama is still trying to close Gitmo.

Seth Meyers: A closer look at Bernie Sander’s “Democratic Socalism”.

The Church for people who are “Spiritual, but not religious”.

Obstruction of Justice:

Seattle police release video of Che Taylor shooting.

Nikki & Dan Savage do politics.

Stephen’s wish list for Hillary.

John Oliver: Abortion laws.

For those who need help getting to the polls….

A moment with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.

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

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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Bernie and Hillary supporters kiss and make up.

Mental Floss: 37 ways you might be weird.

Stephen: Cory Booker talks what it means to be united.

What happens if the presidential election was a tie?

The 2016 Konservative Klown Kavalcade:

Stephen: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is now an Incisive-Political-Humor Dog.

Buy food ethically unless it is too hard.

Why are so many Mexican journalists being murdered?

WaPo: Journalism in peril.

Obstructing Justice:

NASA: Celebrating African American History Month.

Bill Maher: For the love of bud.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about sports.

Young Turks: Democratic town halls versus Republican town halls.

Jimmy Dore: Apple, Trump, Cruz and other bad apples.

FBI versus Apple:

White House: West Wing Week.

Does the President really need Air Force One?

David Hawkings’ Whiteboard: What is Regular Order?:

David Pakman: January was the warmest January on record.

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

3 Strikes

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I’m a big believer in parole over just locking people up. It incentivizes people to fix their shit in prison. And while it should be tough to get out of prison early for people who’ve committed serious crimes, it should be possible. I’m also not sure 3 strikes legislation, or in Washington’s case initiative, is a particularly helpful in reducing crime. It might make sense to go with something more grounded in crime prevention than sports metaphors. So, I’m glad that the Washington Sentencing Commission is proposing this, even if it has approximately 0 chance of passing the GOP Senate:

Three-strikes offenders serving life in prison without the possibility of parole should get a “second look.” That’s the position of Washington’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission.

It voted Friday to recommend a new review process for these prison inmates.

This is a non-binding proposal to the Washington Legislature. It basically says three-strikes inmates should be able to petition for early release after 20 years behind bars. Aggravated murderers would not qualify. A special “Second Look Review Board” would consider the petitions.

It has been over 2 decades since Washington passed the 3 strikes law. Even with the state becoming more liberal, I don’t imagine it would have much trouble passing again. Certainly, there will be victims who don’t want this sort of thing, and I’m not here to tell them how to feel.

Still, I hope the Legislature takes a good look at giving people another chance. It’s not even just for the criminals who should get another chance, or the cost of keeping reformed people behind bars. It’s as much about the kind of society we want to build. I’d like to build one where people can genuinely get out of prison.

Democratic Debate Open Thread

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I’m at the Roanoke Tavern this evening with a couple of friends to watch the debate (starts at 6pm local). Please join us if you wish. Otherwise, join the fun in the comment thread.

I’ll post some commentary, snark, and (mostly) other people’s excellent Tweets.

Enjoy!

5:59: I’ll be watching the debate on PBS rather than CNN. Just a personal choice (and a choice endorsed by the bar management).

6:03: Opening shot of the candidate’s backs…looking for the secret radio receivers strapped to Clinton’s back…

6:07: Sander’s opening statement “Yuuuge count”: 1

6:09: Shorter Hillary, “I’m just like him.”

6:21: Hillary is sure “we” will have the political capital to raise taxes on wealthy. Don’t think so, but probably better than Sanders.

6:43: Come’on, when is Bernie going to go all Christie on Hillary?

6:46: Will someone PLEASE ask the candidates about their position on waterboarding?!?

7:50: Man…Democrats SUCK at negative campaigning.

HA Bible Study

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Leviticus 18:17
Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

Discuss.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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Congressional hits and misses of the week.

Straight outta options:

Mental Floss: Fifteen facts about coffee.

Bill Maher: Lies are the new truth.

What led to Flint, MI’s poisoned water.

Stop making guns so sick.

Minute Physics: How to discover new particles.

I Oh Wha???

Twelve minutes of Right-wing nutjob Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-5) talking politics.

Stephen and Samantha Bee try out some lady euphemisms.

What the West gets wrong about Muslim women.

Obama: Employment is down to 4.9%.

Young Turks: “Pro-life” activist proves she’s not really pro-life at all.

Pap and Farron Cousins: Lunatic Michele Bachmann says Obama is about to reveal himself as Anti-Christ.

Larry Wilmore and friends: Anger and politics.

Conan meets his censor.

The 2016 Conservative Crazy Car:

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about famous companies.

Madame President.

David Hawkings Whiteboard: Here comes the budget:

Follow the money: The chemical industry writes a law.

Farron Cousins: Republicans destroy government to prove government doesn’t work.

VSauce: Math Magic.

One of these people will be President.

Thom: The Good, the Bad & the Very, Very Depascently Ugly!.

Martin Shkreli invokes his fifth amendment rights before Congressional oversight committee.

Space Station Live: African American History Month.

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

Open Thread 2-5

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It is always amazing to me when I read things like this. “I’m old enough to remember the shock, replaced quickly by compassion fatigue, when urban homelessness first energed as a problem in the early ’80s,. Before then, hard as it is to imagine now, cities didn’t have homelessness issues – just a few random drunks and what were then quaintly called hoboes.” Geov isn’t the first person I’ve read with similar observations, and while I believe it, it’s tough to internalize. What seems like an intractable problem that has been there forever is actually a bit younger than me.

G.O.P. Debate (sans one Trumphole)

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Its happening tonight starting at 6pm local, another FAUX News Republican Debate.

And there WILL BE BLOOD…from whereever. (Hmmmm…reminds me of this debate from the 2008 campaign.)

There will be one notable change: There will be no Donald J. Trump at this debate. It seems that Donald Trump is afraid of a girl.

I’ll liveblog when I get the chance. Use the comment thread for your own penetrating analyses.

Or, just fling your own poo.

6:08: You can stream the debate live at foxnews.com.

6:09: Rubio, in his opening salvo, still comes off as irrationally angry and defensive like an adolescent. Or…as Atrios puts it…

6:15: Kasich is so general that is words get lost.

6:17: Ben Carson: “We need people who can think out of the box.” Let’s call it “Pyramid Thinking.”

6:19: Earth to Marco: ISIS is NOT the most dangerous terrorist group ever. Not even close.

6:30: Please, please, please, Ted…WALK OFF STAGE!!!!!

6:30: Let’s sell…Rubio attacked Ted over whining about moderators inciting attacks on Ted…

6:34: Rubio seems to think his path to electoral success is his daring stance to send people to Gitmo.

6:36: Rubio is continuing with his petulant ‘tude. Sorry, Marco, it is getting really old.

6:38: Ben Carson seems to believe we would “defeat ISIS” if only we could collectively stop being politically correct. What a moron!

6:39: Wouldn’t it be hilarious if Megyn Kelly got a nose bleed?

6:40: Someone should mention to Gov. Kasich…he is wearing his flaggy flag flag pin WAY TOO HIGH on his lapel. What a dork.

6:49: Chris Christie boasts about trashing women’s health care access in NJ. Way to go tough guy! No White House for you.

6:51: Cruz unloads a big fat lie about negatives of ObamaCare. Lies, lies, lies.

6:54: O’oh oh. We are into to the “Science Denial” segment of the debate.

6:57: Rubio talks Cap & Trade with the same petulant, alarmist tone that he talks about ISIS. Hope he can find peace-o-mind in a bunker somewhere.

7:01: Now Marco is getting defensive and angry over immigration. One trick pony!

7:01: Jeb! “I’m kind of confused…”

7:07: Ted Cruz totally dodges talking about his support of the immigration bill.

7:08: I think Rand Paul just cleaned Ted Cruz’s clock!

7:09: Ted…isn’t it about time for you to WALK OFF STAGE???

7:10: Apparently Ted Cruz flip-flopped on amnesty AND mean questions.

7:14: Jeb: “Dulce Candy is now an entrepreneur of The YouTube” (The Ghost of Ted Stevens takes notice.)

7:16: Ted: “Am not the candidate of the career politician of Washington” says the man who want to spend the next 8 years as exactly that.

7:30: Rubio delivers an ANGRY answer on how Americans are the most generous people on earth.

7:32: Aqua Buddah talks his virtuous philosophy. (Dodging the real question.)

7:34: Ben Carson: “Putin is an opportunist.” Can you say PROJECTION?

6:39: Wait…did Chris Christie just TOTALLY dodge the “ground troops Libya” question by talking about Hillary Clinton dodging questions??

7:44: The debate turns to the topic of SEX. Specifically…a brief 20 year old affair.

7:49: Cruz obfuscates his unpopular (in Iowa) position on Ethanol subsidies by confusing the hell out of everyone.

7:58: Carson just plagiarized 90% of his closing statement….

7:59:

8:02: Carson: “I’ve had more 2am phone calls than all here on the stage.” No shit. Get some sleep, man!

8:10: Megyn Kelly seems pained having an on-air conversation with Charles Krauthammer.

Fucking His Own Constituents

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Back when Rodney Tom was complaining about the Seattle Sick Leave / Safe Leave and minimum wage laws, I thought it was horrible. If you’re a State Senator, you should at least ostensibly have the interests of the state in mind. And you know, he was promoting terrible policy. But at least I understand if you’re going to try to argue that the Eastside is better than Seattle, you’re going to have to argue with what you have. So claim East King County’s bad labor laws compared to Seattle are an advantage for business, sure if that’s your thing. But if you represent a city that just passed a sick leave / safe leave law, embrace it.

Not so much with Senator Baumgartner. He has prioritized pushing against his own constituents’ being able to take off if they’re sick or having an emergency!

Republican Sen. Mike Baumgartner introduced Tuesday what he’s calling the “Seattle quarantine” bill, which would prevent city councils across the state from placing new worker rules on businesses. As currently written, it would void laws already such as the family and medical leave ordinance which the Spokane Council passed Monday over Mayor David Condon’s veto but Baumgartner conceded Tuesday existing laws would likely have to be grandfathered in later discussions.

You know quarantine. When you force sick people to go to work lest they risk being fired. Quarantine. It’s also an admission that his side can’t win on ideas qua ideas. Can’t have his constituents seeing what good is happening in Seattle.

Quarantine Spokane from Seattle. When Spokane people elect leaders running on a platform of workplace rules like this, and those same people enact that agenda. That’s why they need to be quarantined.

Also, the bill would stop Seattle the same as anywhere else. And if places are grandfathered in, Seattle is still prevented from doing future workplace stuff. So quarantine doesn’t work to describe the thing it’s meant to describe even close to correctly. And don’t get me started on how quarantines generally are supposed to be temporary. All around, solid metaphoring.

“The goal of the bill is not to gut what’s already been done, it’s to prevent future damage,” he said.

Damage like a decent minimum wage and a bit of sick leave or safe leave. That’s damage. Damage of local elected officials saying the minimum set out by the state can be improved on. Is damage.

Baumgartner referred to the Spokane Council as a “mini Me” to the Seattle council, where the minimum wage is being raised to $15 an hour in phases over the next two to five years. “The state cannot afford to have labor laws made city by city by liberal city officials chasing progressive fads,” he said.

Excellent reference. I’m sure all the kids today are making Austin Powers jokes. Or not even jokes so much as half-assed mentions of a character who only appears in the sequels. I’m sure Baumgartner is fun at parties. He probably quotes Monty Python, blurting it — and other ancient pop culture ephemera — out at inappropriate times. I bet this has happened at at least one of his fundraisers:

“This music is kind of loud.”
“Well it goes to 11.”
“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you to make a horribly dated reference for no reason.”
“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
“Yeah…”
“Yeah, Baby!”
“I’m leaving.”
“Running away, eh? You yellow bastards!”
“There’s only one of me and you already made a Monty Python reference. Now I’m leaving for real.”
“Come back here and take what’s coming to ya! I’ll bite your legs off!”

It’s possible I’m reading too much into that Mini-Me thing and have lost the thread. So… back to the larger point. Spokane made a choice. For the record, one that this Seattle resident approves of whole hog. But it was ultimately Spokane elected officials who ran on a platform enacting that platform.

The only way that Seattle had something to do with it is how our (and Sea-Tac’s) example worked so far. If we had become the horrible shit hole that minimum wage opponents claim, we wouldn’t be an example. Also, we, and Spokane can reverse course. If this $15 minimum wage thing doesn’t work out, elected officials can change it. If opponents of the sick leave / safe leave law don’t like it, and can elect people who’ll repeal it, it’ll get repealed. But so far, advocates of these sorts of laws that have generally been reelected, and when they haven’t been, it’s for other reasons.

Rather than quarantine yourself from a large part of the state — one with outsized economic and cultural influence — you can embrace it. We’re doing great things, and in many ways it’s transferable to the rest of the state. I guess, if your economic ideas are more dated than your movie references, maybe Seattle is a problem. But if you actually look at what’s happening with the $15 minimum wage and the sick leave / safe leave laws, you can see why other places might want to imitate it.

Spokane Sick Leave/ Safe Leave Law

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Spokane is moving toward having its version of a sick leave/ safe leave law. It would be require employers with fewer than 10 people to have 3 days of sick leave and employers that are larger than that to have 5 days. While Mayor David Condon has vetoed it, it did pass 6 to 1. So it’ll likely still pass the council.

I have to say, I’m really glad that they’re passing something, but this makes me pretty nervous:

Calling the law “arbitrary,” Condon said his decision to veto also came from a lack of clarity on how the city would enforce the new requirements, or how much it would cost the city. He suggested he prefers incentives to requirements.

“I’m more of a carrot than a stick type of person,” Condon said.

Here in Seattle, we’ve had a tough enough time enforcing our sick leave/safe leave law with mayors who ostensibly support it. I hope he’ll enforce it when it does become law, but if you want to contact him and make sure, you can do that here. If you want to contact the city council and ask them to override the veto, you an do that here.

Also, just like in Seattle, this is a sick leave/ safe leave law, not just a sick leave law. News reports I’ve been reading about this don’t mention it, and they really should.* I couldn’t figure out exactly what qualifies people for safe leave on Spokane’s website, but all their material is pretty clear that it’s a part of the law. If anyone has more details, I’d love to know them.

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