I think the royalty is silly, but it's their country. What does the US spend every 4 years on the presidential inaguration? The UK events are once-in-50 yr costs.

The millions spent on UK royal events is just one big marketing expense. Cities, states and countries spend in 10x that per year on tourism promotion etc and get less coverage than these 2 events did.

I don't understand why no one in Feinstein's family or inner circle is putting an end to this atrocity. It's gross and cruel. This woman has no clue who or where she is and they're Weekend at Berniesing her all across the country. It's not like the seat is in danger of going red. Thank you for your service lady, now get on the cart.

«More on Sen. Diane Feinstein's brain»
Even in her lucid years Feinstein was prone to moronic, ego-driven mistakes.
Recall when she alerted the fugitive Nightstalker killer to get new shoes because law enforcement have his shoe-prints?

"He paid them $2,000 per fire. During one attack, the arsonist chucked a molotov cocktail into a factory window and destroyed 110 bouncy castles."

that's less than Twenty bucks
per incineration! where can
one get Quality Subcon-
tractors like That these
Days? fucking trumpf
wrecked Everything

at Least he's
no Desantos.

2 - They probably are - these things take time

Los Angles county has the largest Catholic population in the US which would make them a sizable portion of the Dodgers fan base. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are an intentional mockery of Catholicism. Its not really surprising that someone gave a decision to center them at a baseball game a second thought. There is plenty of room in LA for them to do their thing elsewhere.

@5 disagree. Put out a resignation letter today. She won't know the difference.

Senator Feinstein has always been a partisan voter, so it’s not like her current health issues have really changed anything.

@4
Dear kristo -
Here on Beacon Hill/ Rainier Valley we get incinerations - for free!!
The business owners and townhouse developers aren't real enthused about it, though.

I should think the
Insurance Corps'd
be a bit Concerned
as well Pat L -- have
they no Night Watch-
peeps? no Cameras? those
Pro Bonoers're gonna Ruin an Industry

a Trade nearly
as Honest as
"Politics" as
practiced
Today:

remember
there's NO Such Thing!
as* Insider Trading in 'our' Congress

*illegal

"All of the laid-off workers
are women and women of
color. This is a bad look… "

I concur.

as the P-I
Crosscut &
Seattle Weeklys
go so to does the Stranger?

so howzabout Real Change
https://www.realchangenews.org/

and the So. Seattle Emerald* rags?
https://southseattleemerald.com/

have you a
Crystal Ball?

*'We're Hiring a Managing Editor!'

Biggest bummer of the day - the passing of Andy Rourke of the Smiths.

There's a universe of drag culture more fitting for baseball than these tired old sisters from yesteryear.

Shame about the lifeguard situation because swimming is a wonderful summertime treat and fabulous summertime exercise. Perhaps young people don’t need summer jobs like they used to. Perhaps the pool (ha) of young people physically fit enough for the task has shrunk. Perhaps people are so scared of UV-related skin cancer that they are saying “no way” to being out in the sun everyday even with SPF 50 – which you have to re-apply often for it to be effective.

How did we ever do it back in the day? Lifeguards were magazine cover fit, and by mid-summer they were mahogany-colored except for their white teeth and the zinc oxide on their noses. They weren’t all handsome, but like firemen, they were all cute. Not saying that those guys (and lifeguards were only young white men back then except for maybe the YWCA and at certain resorts for black folk like Val Verde) didn’t run into skin cancer issues later in life. Some say the sun wasn’t as intense then and the ozone layer was thicker, but that never prevented me from getting some rather severe sunburns along the way – me being of Welsh/English ancestry, pale, freckled, never meant for a day hotter than 70 degrees. How I ended up in the very hot and humid South was none of my doing. Never saw a person-of-color as a lifeguard (but how could they have been when they weren’t sadness allowed in our pools?).

Back to the present: A summertime without a pool, lake, or ocean? Unthinkable. Offer people more money to lifeguard.

Uh-oh. I guess it’s time to do some spring cleaning and make ready our Pink Panther Room here at Uncle Bauhaus’s Magical Electric Spa for Will Aghajanian. He’ll be singing, “Meow!” I tell you. We have some pretty strict laws against animal abuse and cruelty here in California now (I don’t eat mammals but hooray about the SCOTUS decision regarding pork production). If someone can prove he did those things to cats, he’s going behind bars.

Helping UK families with food, rent, and utilities isn’t as sexy or doesn’t pull in tourists like burying Granny in a solid gold casket, I reckon.

Very few people who are gay or an ally will get the Sisters. People like Rubio, who live in a bubble I don’t even want to go near, are horrified still by gay culture. “Will & Grace” is as far as they will go, maybe, although Marco (Little Nixon) might not tolerate even that much. I offend Catholics when I say this, but really, regarding its history and deceit, why do you want to be a member of that club? I just have to shrug my shoulders and ponder for a moment the power of brain-washing from an early age.

It pains me that the remarkable career of Sen. Feinstein (and the good she has done) is now diminished as she has chosen this as her finale.

Happy weekend, all.

sadness

application removes my asterisks

Is the implication that the Crosscut layoffs would be less egregious is five white males had been let go? What if all the new hires are women of color? The need to view everything through a racial lens diminishes real racial injustice.

@2, 7, 8: it's just some mild Encephalitis, along with some normal dementia, you AGEIST HATERS. as evidenced by the NYT article, she can still tap dance around direct questions like any other Senator.

@5: there aren't many left - Pelosi's eldest daughter is essentially her caretaker now.

@12: 100%. Only 59.

@5 not only that - my first thought upon reading about The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was to recall that half of the gay/lesbian folks I know have been cruelly damaged by Catholics and the religion in general in their childhoods. I imagine if they are sports fans they would prefer to enjoy themselves without enduring Catholic symbolism.

I meant to respond to @6! sorry.

Hard to believe that Crosscut has lasted this long. They are a sad echo chamber of wokeness, and have long disallowed comments and even balanced stories on hot topics.

I stopped reading them long ago. Someone should do a story on the many failing non-profit entities that have gone full-on woke, alienating their more well-heeled constituents and donor base, who want balance in their actions and coverage. Where do we start. in no particular order and by no means complete:

Land acknowledgements/loyalty oaths before performances and events and on websites. We know that there were people before us. What purpose do these serve?
A double digit percent of stories on KUOW seem to be race and gender featuring, and always in one direction with journalists doing handwringing rather than objective reporting. And pregnant "people" rather than women has been the preferred language. Their most recent fundraising efforts included hourly reminders of their short-fall from goal. Unclear whether they raised their bar or have lost donors or both as they are opaque in discussing budget and spending on air. And I read that NPR is also hurting. No surprise based upon their coverage of late.
ACT Theatre's en masse resignation of their guilt ridden board, to what end? And the theatrical manifestos and stilted programming that follows, there and elsewhere.
Oregon Shakespeare loses their woke and failed ED, and is begging for cash from alienated donors.
Hugo House self-anointed agitators demand the resignation of the longstanding executive, causing the only real harm that has taken place to the community at this place in recent history.
Multiple non-profits engaging in continued failed actions and rhetoric on the vagrancy issues here, couching it as a housing issue. Looking at you Seattle Foundation, United Way and others.
The list goes on of orgs that bite the donors that feed them, often older, relatively affluent and perhaps white, who have enough wisdom and life experience to see the failures for what they are, and are willing to let these organizations flail and fail is that is what it takes to return to accountability and credible performance.

The coverage of Crosscut's actions speak loudly, with complaints about the color of those let go rather than the budgetary issues that led to the need to do something.

Many of us want to support non-profits and do. But we look to delivery of outcomes, fiscal responsibility, messaging, donor respect and more. In the end, even non-profits need to make a profit, oops, I mean a surplus - if they are to keep the lights on.

“Doesn't Britain have real problems they could spend money on instead of using it all for this protracted game of make-believe that is having a monarchy in 2023?”

Brits would probably be more amenable to ending their monarchy if their only non-monarch in the last thousand years hadn’t banned dancing.

But seriously, Britain’s unwritten constitution requires someone to wear the crown for state events, so one branch from a family of otherwise nondescript Brits has been turned into the human equivalent of pampered zoo animals for this purpose. This would probably qualify as a human rights violation if done for any other purpose.

@23 - Except in this case, the zoo animals could always open their gilded cages and walk away. Maybe go be Starbucks baristas with a few Seattle Mariners or something.

That said, I agree with the statement that it is their country and as long as a majority of them (getting to be a slimmer and slimmer one) want to keep the institution, who are we to criticize? They aren't the boss of us anymore.

On another note:
Maybe I'm just too jaded at this point in life, but the Bouncy House caper made me chuckle. It's like a plot hatched by a mustache-twirling bond villain...a dumber than usual one, but still.

“Doesn't Britain have real problems they could spend money on instead of using it all for this protracted game of make-believe that is having a monarchy in 2023?”

They can do both, and have been.

Looking at Crosscut’s site right now. It’s got a bunch of hard hitting content from Wilford Brimley, a.k.a. that “Mossback” guy, about Frango candies people would buy at the Frederick & Nelson department store that went out of business in 1992. You can still buy the same damn candies at Macy’s today, and how is any of this news? WTF?!

The bouncy castle arson seems strange at first glance, but makes sense once we recognise that Australia has levels of systemic corruption and organised crime that rival some of the more notorious developing nations.

Along with accountability and regulatory failures that rival the US.

And this extends to the bouncy castle sector, as just last year, one of them took off in the wind, killing five children and seriously injuring four more. Unfortunately, this was not the first tragedy, nor likely the last, in the neoliberal paradise that is 2020’s Oz.

We (Earty) owe
a Ginormous Debt
of Gratitude to Rupert
'uncle Snoopy' Mudroach
for giving us FOX to UK Brexit
& to the Auzzzes Global Warming
cum Catastrophic Climate DISASTER

& to his up & cumming Progeny
Lackssoul soon to follow in
daddy's Corrupt footsteps

were we to be Rid
of them the World'd
likely Celebrate till the
Cows come home or the
damn Chickens back to Roost

they make Rush Limpbah and
the Newt Grinsrich look like
fucking Choirboys.

@Morty
rookie cops'
total clusterfuck:
This American Life

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/115/first-day/act-two-0q

welcome to
Planet
Earty!

@27///28
well not You
karl* the Fungus
amungst us . but it's
Good to see you and your
Sadistic sense of 'humor' here to
Brighten our Days & darken derr Schlogg.

*y'all were
Awesome in
Sling Blade &
the one you drove
your daddy's Car up
& down the Drive like
a Pro! you're a Natural!

breaking news:

Police in Australia Use
Stun Gun on 95-Year-
Old Woman

The Australian police are investigating why an experienced officer used a Taser on a 95-year-old woman who had approached him “at a slow pace” while holding a steak knife.

The woman, Clare Nowland, who is 5-foot-2 and 95 pounds, uses a walker and has dementia. She was left in critical condition after a senior constable used the weapon on her on Wednesday morning in the care facility where she lives, causing her to fall and hit her head, according to the police.

“At the time she was Tasered, she was approaching police — but it is fair to say, at a slow pace,” Peter Cotter, the New South Wales Police
--by Yan Zhuang

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/world/australia/police-taser-95-year-old-woman.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces-variants-diversify-time-cutoff-30&alpha=0.05&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=70609582&impression_id=6d586fb8-f6b1-11ed-8fae-f32aa39e83eb&index=3&pgtype=Article&pool=published-assets-db-4-ls&region=footer&req_id=94303990&surface=eos-most-popular-story&variant=0_engBandit

'soft on Crime'?
not These
cowboys.

@27 yeah, reading an art about that was one of the most Seattle things I’ve seen in a while - “equity” for pedophiles. She is obviously a lunatic.

The dumb myth that a barbaric monarchy pays for itself with tourism just won’t die.

Unlike Louis the XIV. Who is unnecessary for millions of tourists to visit Paris or Versailles.

@30 - That was fantastic. I'd say he missed his calling, though; he sounds like a natural story-teller who should be doing talk on NPR himself. It did say he can retire in 2 years, so...

Those pretty girls and a young cop-fella's desire to save the damsel in distress do seem to often lead to, well, let's just say substandard decision-making. I would likely have leapt in to save the day at 23 myself, but older and wiser me would have instead gone to the great length of calling Animal Control for her, err, them, myself instead of having her, err, them do it. That's damsel in distress-saving at age beyond 20-something.

Zohair, oh my. Just oh my. Maybe if you comment 20 more times they will be moved to action.

The only reporting The Stranger does is stuff like Rec league Softball stuff (which I really enjoyed reading). SLOG is just a compilation of news stories the Slogger of the day felt like sharing, its not a summary of all the news fit to print.

Your passion is moving, I hope you are doing ok though.

Dianne Feinstein is on the Judiciary Committee, where the Democrats have a one-seat majority. If Feinstein resigns, Republicans can refuse to hold hearings on any judicial appointments until she is replaced. The Republicans have already refused to accept any replacement. If Feinstein resigns, they will certainly block her replacement on the Committee, even after she's been replaced as a Senator.

Keeping Feinstein may be tacky, but blocking Biden's judicial appointments for the next eighteen months will do real and lasting damage to the rights of minorities, workers, women, trans children and others. Easy call.

(and BTW, stories like this - that tell you how sick she is without discussing the consequences of her resignation - belong on Fox News, not Slog)

@45 Bazinga If I know one thing about news, it's that the quality of an article is purely determined by the number of comments. If only more articles spurred more comments, society would be fixed.

@Morty
he reminded
me of you

@33
[the oft-banned
'karl' from the
sling blade]:

"@[Moi]

how Strange of You to Basically, More or less Defend and apologize For a child Molester And a non Profit
embezzler… "

where fukwit
did I "basically,
more or less de-
Fend & Apologize
for" Anyone? your
unhinged Rage has
blinded your already
sorely-Lackiing reading
'comprehension' once again
but you're still 'okay' at Fantasy

@bazzy
you and desantos
two cancel culturists
in a peapod / nutshell

don't Like it?
sail on Bye
or bitch &
moan.

@2 should read @46

Dianne said she's not going to run for another term, so be compassionate and let her serve the rest of her term with dignity and the reverence she so richly deserves for her many years of public service.

@46 That's not how it works. If Feinstein resigns and Gov. Newsom appoints a successor (which he would likely do the following day), that person would immediately become a full senator. This means Democrats would maintain a working majority, Republicans could not block committee appointments, and Biden's judicial nominations could move forward. What Democrats tried and failed to do was replace Feinstein on the committee without Feinstein's own vote (as she wasn't present to cast it). Feinstein really should go, and I think she will before this month is over.

@43-- better yet
you're a Cop you can
Order him up into No Man's
Lamd - send him up with a Heavy
Flashlight your Taser a small set of cuffs
and have him report back to you in 6 hours

that oughtta give you enough
Time for a Thorough
Investigation.

say that Reminds me
I've always Wanted
to be a Cop. do
they Sell actual
Badges?

I tease but it's gotta be
one of the Toughest
jobs on the Planet

From This American Life:
The first day inevitably means
mistakes, mishaps, fiascos. A true
story, told by a former rookie cop.

Squirrel Cop
tonnes more:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=this+american+life+squirrel+cop&t=chromentp&atb=v314-1&ia=web

"And he was just looking at us and shaking his head, like he couldn't believe that these two idiots showed up and did this to his house over nothing, really. And he just goes, you know, you really haven't done anything wrong. I can't point to any one thing that you did that I have a reason to get angry about. You really haven't done anything wrong. I mean, we did call you. But I just, I can't thank you for this. They call for a squirrel. They end up with $3,000, $4,000 worth of damage and a broken nose. And this is all within about five minutes.

Ira Glass: Could that have happened to you now, 13 years later?

Cop: There's always a new mistake to be made. I don't think I would make that particular mistake. I mean, you make plenty of mistakes. That's just part of that job. You just try not to make the same one twice. But there's such variety that you're going to make hundreds, you're going to make thousands of mistakes, until you really get a handle on what you're doing."

see also:
https://www.thestranger.com/radio/2023/05/18/78996512/ira-glass-doesnt-like-being-interviewed

AWESOME Show.

@22 You are why we need a Wokeness police that rounds up sleepers like you into reeducation camps until you are woke too!

@53: You could be sarcastic or not sarcastic, works both ways.

@43 -- likely Putin Stooges
paid by the nasty word
here to Eliminate tS
or at Least derail
Convo - Fasciis
don't Cotton
to any kind
of Leftist
Chit-
chat.

not @43
@53!

@54
"works both ways"... How does that work?
Since irony and satire seem to be dead, let's try not to kill off sarcasm too.

@54
My apologies, I misunderstood your point.
It has been a long week, and the brain ain't firing on all cylinders...

@4 - I think the rock-bottom arson rates further demonstrate how the GOP and their Aussie equivalents have unconscionably driven wages down below a living level.

@58: No worries bud

@46 I retract my earlier response. According to numerous experts in Senate procedure (including Hillary Clinton) indeed there are ways Republicans could block or at least seriously slow down a Democratic replacement for Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee. Still, she does not appear to be in the best of health, so Democratic leaders should be strategizing right now for her exit.