Protest the Blue Angels…
Do they believe they are actually going to accomplish something?

Protest the Vietnam War...
Do they believe they are actually going to accomplish something?

@1: They'll raise awareness. I am aware some people will protest the BAs. It will make the news.

If a streetcar goes in on 1st, open 3rd to cars 24/7 again. Or put the streetcar on 3rd.

Or don't. I don't really care about streetcars. I'm more concerned that some authority finally stops the pigeon-feeding ding dongs on Pike. A newly created pedestrian street covered in pigeon shit.

The First Avenue Streetcar has always been a bad idea, just as the mis-routed First Hill Streetcar has been a bad idea. Connecting these bad ideas to the South Lake Union Trolley will turn it into a bad idea as well.

Writers come and go, but it wouldn't be Seafair if it weren't for The Stranger having its annual neurotic breakdown about the Blue Angels.

I've heard all the arguments (The Pets! The people with PTSD! The Environment! The bridge is closed!) and I live directly under the flight path on North Beacon Hill. They're not exactly my cup of tea, but I don't mind them. It's only once a year. Also, I understand that I have chosen to live in a city and a region that is highly dependent upon both the aviation industry and the military, not only for jobs but for local business and philanthropy. Lots and lots of people look forward to the Blue Angels every year.

If you want to go after something, go after the stupid hydroplane races. Granted, Lake Washington is sort of trashy place, but the hydros can't be good for whatever aquatic life is still in the lake.

(P.S. Don't go after they hydros either. That was just an example)

Streetcars are an incredibly poor transportation investment: high infrastructure costs, inflexible routing, slower than the alternatives, prone to delays from obstructions, rails that pose a hazard to cyclists…

And what’s their upside? Greater capacity than a bus?? Have you ever seen a Seattle Streetcar with more than a handful of riders???

Not only do I hope the CCC is never built, I wish the city could acknowledge the SLUT and First Hill Streetcar were poor decisions made for dubious reasons and get rid of them.

Just wait until the Stranger writers figure out what is stored over at the Bangor Trident Base. Hint: something with orders of magnitude greater pollution potential than a couple jet engines.

@1 and @2: The difference between protesting Vietnam war and Blue Angels is the (visual) evidence: Vietnam war produced planes full of dead American soldiers (not to mention citizens of the country we, the USA, invaded), a tangible, whereas Blue Angels produce CO2, an intangible. The results of protesting can took years to see when there were planes full of Americans, expect it will take even longer when there are planes emitting CO2.

When are Stranger writers getting on Mastodon?

@2
And they didn’t.

@4
Raising awareness is what people say they’ve accomplished when they know they haven't actually accomplish anything.
When they’re done, the people who already agreed with them will still agree with them and the folks who didn’t still won’t.
The Blue Angels will do their shows and will move on to the next city.
Net result: Nothing Accomplished

@10 no idea, anyone need Blue Sky invites?

@11: some people might change their minds because they hadn't actually thought about it previously. not everyone is a well-informed internet cynic like you. some are ding dongs &/or flibberdigibbets. of course it won't stop Seafair. no protest will stop fireworks on the 4th either.

can you name any protests that "accomplished" something up to your high standards? the Act-Up AIDS protests in the 80s?

@13,

How long were we in Vietnam compared to Iraq & Afghanistan?

Since thousands of my Federal tax dollars are going to the military, I might as well get a Blue Angels sky show one week of the year to show for it. It’s more entertaining than the echo of gunshots up from Rainier Ave S.

@5 & @7
I’m mildly in favor of connecting the streetcars. But remember, this is Seattle - it’s not just important to follow a bad decision with another bad decision, it’s essential to take at least an entire decade to make that bad decision!
If you don’t believe me, wait for the follow up on ST3!

@23: Immediately after passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, LBJ said privately, “I’ve just handed the South over to the Republican Party.”

@22: A fully-equipped Taylor Swift costs as much as two Blue Angels squadrons!

@27: “…1968 Nixon didn't have any political baggage,”

Other than his endless red-baiting smears of his fellow Americans, of course. https://diff.wikimedia.org/2016/11/08/richard-nixon-campaigns/

Sir Toby -
"Don't change Dicks in the middle of a screw; Re-elect Nixon in '72!"

Pat, #30, I approve and will add "Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You!"

Anyone who thinks the Vietnam protests didn't make a difference should watch the recent PBS American Experience documentary, "The Movement and the Madman." They had more of an effect on White House decision-making than the marchers themselves ever imagined.

@36
Garb- my congratulations to you!

I'm guess that people might hav change of heart re: the Blue Angels and other exhibition flybys once one of the goes down in a populated area.

This happened not so long ago, at Hillsboro, outside of Portland, btw.

Protests WORK
if they Didn't
why would
Red States
bother out-
Lawing
them?

and why might
Propagandists
try & persuade
us otherwise?

& there's a
PASSEL.

@7 - mostly agree on streetcars. Although we need to keep the SLUT for comedy value and to support the T-shirt industry.

Jan. 6 Prosecutors
Ask for Protective Order,
Citing Threatening Trump Post

In seeking a judge’s order, the government was drawing attention to the former president’s longstanding habit of attacking those involved in criminal cases against him.

But the Truth Social post was more direct than his past comments, in a case where a key aspect of the indictment describes how Mr. Trump’s repeated and false public claims that he was a victim of widespread election fraud led to the violent attack by a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Trump has often ignored such warnings and continued to post threatening or spiteful messages with impunity.

--by Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman
Aug. 5, 2023

more at
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/us/politics/jack-smith-trump-threat-social-media.html

a rat
cornered
rabid infectious
& hell-Bent on de-
stroying Democracy

there is no Low
too low for the
trumpfster to
go. be GONE
don.

Will someone please wake me when the global train wreck that is Donald Trump, a.k.a., the Orange Turd, officially gets cornholed for life in the federal pigpen and / or drops dead and cornholed for eternity in Hell? I am truly sick of the media circus and criminal insanity.

@30 pat L and @34 collingswood: Those slogans should be on t-shirts!

@36 Garb Garblar: Wow, Garb!

@45 kristofarian: "there is no low
too low for the
trumpster to
go. Be GONE
don."
Agreed--and the sooner the Orange Turd and its neofascist billionaire pals and insurrectionist tools get properly flushed down, the better.

@auntie Gee
Yep. lock him Up
turn off his access
to all computers and
NEVER let Out the I,djt

if he thinks he can
destroy Democracy
& just walk Away he's
got another thing coming

oh and let's not
Forget his Ac-
complices.

Nathalie, your kitty is just too darned cute (but you already knew that)!

How about we save art and music and declare the GOP dead?

@6 Catalina Vel-DuRay: I feel your pain concerning excessive jet noise. I grew up on Fidalgo Island across Skagit Bay from Whidbey Island. As sound carries over water, so does the roar of naval jets at NAS Whidbey. The local area was a wonderful place to grow up, but jet noise started getting really bad (sonic boom level) upon the use of Stealth F-14 Tomcat Growlers. Our family beach house was right in the flight path. I can't imagine living in Oak Harbor or Coupeville, where I've heard people's front windows and kitchen cupboards rattle constantly. Any complaints and they're stiffly informed by base officials that it's "The Roar of Freedom". How do U.S. Navy flight deck crews manage to avoid going deaf on aircraft carriers?
My parents eventually sold the beach house in 1995, building a final retirement home seven miles away, further inland. To their dismay, their newly built country house was also in the NAS Whidbey flight path.
Re: the Blue Angels and SeaFair--it sounds like you don't mind it where you are, though. And as you point out it is only once a year, and thankfully not on a daily basis.

@47 kristofarian: +1 WORD. I'd love the Orange Turd's last days to equal those of the character, Fatass, in Shawshank Prison (re: The Shawshank Redemption, 1994):
"I AIN'T SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!!!"
Then Captain Hadley, portrayed by Clancy Brown, can take it from there.

One small confession, though---the film itself is a bit violent for my comfort zone. I really only watch it for Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd Redding ("Red" to his friends).

@21 STII: It was 19 years too long. I know Tricky Dicky was former President and 5-Star General Dwight David Eisenhower's Veep, but we should have listened to Ike. He was right in predicting that the U.S.'s involvement with the foreign military industrial complex would prove to be a costly mistake.

@15
Protests that have had real and lasting success?
I would say the civil rights protests of the 1960s had a positive and last effect on society.
I include in that efforts that lead to greater acceptance of homosexuals in society as well as the womens rights protests.
Outside of those, most protests I’ve seen or read about have had at best a minor impact.

Nathalie, I recommend a fitting Queen song to play upon the Orange Turd's conviction and sentencing: Another One Bites the Dust. Once DJT goes down it will only be a matter of knock over the dumb-i-noes until the entire GOP, their lawyers, bodyguards, fixers, and every other hopeless bootlicker down to the most gullible of MAGAts faces mass extinction. Film update at 11! I'll bring out the good red wine, dark chocolate, and popcorn.
I hope it happens soon. The rest of the world and younger generations can't afford to wait.