Comments

1

Never would have guessed that god would send disease to smite the evangelical president but he would be saved by abortions.

Wild man.

3

You didn't mention Charles that Rantz's article caused the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture to clean up its vile hate speak. That's a good thing.

Nancy Pelosi is the second worst politician of all time. Her 25th Amendment shenanigans is just going to create a sympathy vote for Donald.

5

Meh. Times change, neighborhoods change. I do hope they keep the pink elephant sign, however. What sort of horrible person doesn't like a pink elephant? In any event, it also has cocktail connotations Charles, and we know how you love your cocktails. Maybe that will make you less bitter about it.

We have four cars: A Ford F-150, a Ford C-Max, a Mercedes convertible, and an Audi SUV. The convertible lives across the mountains, and the Audi is used mostly for state occasions. I drive the C-Max, and Mr. Vel-DuRay loves his truck. Luckily, our single family home has ample parking for all these vehicles - both garaged and non-garaged.

6

The 25th Amendment makes specific provision for Congress to create a commission to replace the role of the cabinet in implementing the Article IV determination. But Congress has never bothered to create such a commission.

I guess if one thinks such a commission is a good idea on merit, the unusual circs of a demented president with a cabinet comprised entirely of slobbering toadies and temps is iron hot enough to strike.

7

@2. The difference is that the right doesnt just express their hate, (and I have no shame expressing hatred for unchecked homicidak maniacs in case you didn't notice), they act on it and enforce it with the law.

8

@3. A sympathy vote? Now you are just parroting Biker for attention. Have a plunger.

10

There goes the ~radical left~, taking away the freedom of good americans who just want to literally take the government into their own hands. Don't worry though, trump will probably pardon them once he wins a second term...

11

And I don't get the hostility to the elephant either. A city that spends so much time dark and rain-shiny should at all times be looking to maximize its neon content.

12

Hating on the pink elephant car wash sign is as joyless as a blind date with Mike Pence.

13

@7: Yeah, just like Stalin, Castro, and Mao.

14

@12. I think it is less the aesthetics and more the passive acceptance of deadly car culture. A super drunk woman killed a young woman whose soul I loved who was truly good, one of the few called to service. When you see the senseless deprivation of life that comes from unregulated negligent fucks and recognize it is permitted due to a profit incentive for everything from care sales to torts to insurance to healthcare and pain med profits, you might get mad too at a symbol of shiny vanity. But I don't see it that way because I walked everywhere.

16

@13. Nice irrelevant whataboutism. Try FDR or LBJ for the proper presidential analogue. But I am referring to the constituency, not the authoritarians, from the KKK to McVeigh.

17

They broke my heart for the last time when they blew up the Kingdome. All things with form must end someday. So I'm not sentimental about the elephant as such, but I do like a good neon sign.

18

At least one of the accused kidnappers was an anarchist, are anarchists on the left or the right now?

19

My small life delights in these missives. Waita Hako.

21

@18 I know, right - and from the pictures, looks like he wore those big black plugs in his earlobes.

Nothing MAGA about that!

22

I've lived in Seattle for more than 30 years, and I've never once used the Pink Elephant car wash. So it isn't a big surprise it's going out of business. It sits on a prime piece of real estate, and I can't imagine it takes in much money. I would agree that one less car wash is no loss to the city.

But I'll miss the sign.

I've driven (or bused or biked) past it a thousand times. It never fails to make me smile. It's such a delightful image. It's pink. It's neon. At this point it's become a kitsch classic noir. How can you not like that sign? Hopefully MOHAI will take it.

23

@20 Tell that to the side advocating for civil war if the election doesn't go their way.

24

@21. A fair critique, but I guess what we need to worry about in the contemporary setting is both.

26

Radical left: everyone should have healthcare and police shouldn't murder people

Radical right: let's kidnap and kill people and blow up stuff

28

@24 I was being facetious, sorry that wasn't clear.

It just seems dumb to sit around trying to divine to what degree these were Trumpist nuts. Whitmer didn't say they were taking orders from him - she complained that the way Trump talks about these issues influences society at large, undermining trust in institutions etc. This manner in which Trump (and the wingnut movement generally) interprets all policies they disagree with as tyranny or whatever.

29

@28. Sorry, my 24 was directed at 21a (Bess)

30

@20 Completely agree. I'm sick of the media pushing that these crazy people are left or right wing when that is not the issue. If you look at the political compass (I know it is flawed/simplistic) anarchists can be left or right and it doesn't matter. You are dealing with authoritarian vs anarchist movements where 95% of population is relatively close to the centerline.

31

@26 -- man, when you put it like that
the Cognitive Dissonances must surely Rattle...

also -- Trump Suggests Gold Star
Families May Be to Blame for His Infection

The president, who is counting on support from military members and their families, suggested for the second time in a week that they might have spread the coronavirus at the White House.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-gold-star-families.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

are You a trumpf supporter, too?
have you ever seen the underside of a Bus?

32

@26. Or, you know, burning down mosques, shooting Sikhs, mailing pipe bombs to people of color, sending anthrax in the mail, and executing protestors. The list is interminable. And please, Civil War is the wet dream of the far right helter skelter psychos as a fundamental component of their eschatological ethos.

33

Of course the 25th amendment thing won't change anything. Pelosi is trolling, messing with the head of a buffoon who is out of his gourd on steroids. I can't condemn her for that, other than it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

34

As well as caging kids, rampant antisemitic violence, le roof-esque mass murders fed burger king by sympathetic cops, and running down joggers and lynching folks. And they like to shoot their own churches too, howbow dah

35

And, you know, willfully exacerbating a pandemic in the name of God!

36

https://youtu.be/VGHRgkxeZUs

37

Anyway, I had a really good fucking day and I refuse to let shitheads ruin my life and happiness any longer or self-immolate in my own quixotic implosion.

Vote or DIE!!

38

@26 - Still, they meet to shake each other's hands on the darks side of the moon.

40

It takes a real fucking Grade-A asshole to say good riddance to the Pink Elephant car wash sign.

41

@37 No, because:

https://youtu.be/Mei0MJc59WU?t=5253

42

Mr. Mudede, how perfect that your photo of the doomed carwash sign caught a car in a "BUS ONLY" lane!

43

Fox 13 news -
Seattle character ruined since settlers coined 'New York Alki bye and bye' slogan.

46

Jesus, this is some seriously dumb rhetoric, even for you Charles. I live just over the water outside of port orchard and run a small catering business out of my house. I could NOT live where I do and have my livelihood WITHOUT a car, and neither could most Americans(and no, all of America isnt going to move to, like, one of three cities or whatever urbanist fantasy you have expressed prior). Also, increasing housing through new building increases supply and causes prices to drop and thus is nothing to be sad over(new apartments). I know that sounds condescending but you and your socialist followers always seem really confused, or just naive about basic, non-controversial economic theory.

48

This is the real news:

Early voting continues to smash records:
Per the US Elections Project
Voters have cast a total of 8,138,401 ballots in the reporting states.

https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html

50

@3 - I doubt it moves the needle either way one iota at this point, but it does smack of being nothing more than a silly stunt with less than 4 weeks until the election. And I generally like Pelosi.

51

Chuck even of we started now with unlimited funding at a China style break neck pace it will still be a couple/few generation before there is a significant impact on automobiles. King County can’t fund enough capacity to take an appreciable number of cars off the road let alone serve all the populated areas. You and I will be long dead before any of that happens. If it happens.

52

@46:

No doubt farriers, blacksmiths, and carriage-makers everywhere are grieving in sympathy with your plight...

53

@52 as all these things became obsolete due to the emergence of the car what is the thing that is going to drive the car into obsolescence? Charles only proposes eliminating cars in favor of walking, biking or mass transit all which work in a dense urban environment however there are great many people who don't want to live in that environment.

55

For anyone going on about the evils the automobile and how it murdered their friend/family member, you sound as dumb as a Republican.

56

Don't be so hard on Jason, Charles. When The Stranger first put up a flare for contributions last spring, he encouraged his listeners to chip in. He thought the city should continue to have an alternative viewpoint (to his own).

57

The Dems should have been impeaching/invoking the 25th multiple times over the last few years. Yes, it's symbolic. So was the Republicans trying to overturn Obamacare 50 times... until it wasn't.

Dems have to learn to play the game. Dems have to learn that symbolism matters. Messaging matters. Letting your constituents know that you actually give a fuck and that you understand how completely fucked up this all is, and you don't give a shit if you offend Republican Nazis or "independent" dumbfucks, and that you show you understand it's completely and totally unacceptable - these things matter.

58

@53:

You know what's going to drive the car into obsolescence? A global climate catastrophe combined with a global pandemic or series of pandemics. Once enough people are killed by either/both of these - and at the rate we're going it's only a matter of when, not if - there won't be any fossil fuels flowing and whatever stocks are left will either be rapidly depleted or else go sour (automobile grade petroleum has a shelf-life of just a couple of years; aviation fuel maybe a year or two more at-most) those old-timey skill sets will be back in high demand. With luck I won't be around to experience "living in that environment", but it's entirely likely our children and grandchildren will.

But hey, thinking about the future of human civilization, let alone actually doing something to stave off what we all know is coming - even if we won't admit it to ourselves - is for losers, amiright?

59

@58 you're totally right except for the part where the answer to the problem can't be worse than the problem itself. If you eliminated motor vehicle travel or made it prohibitively expensive without an alternative all the things you mention above will happen as well on a much faster timeline. I don't know many people who argue that it wouldn't be better to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels the issue is how do you do it without destroying the world's economy in the process.

60

Might be happier if they were replacing the sign with more art or some other collective good. Probably will just be more condos. I have a right to my feelings. Seattle looks more and more like a strip mall every day.

62

@59:

If the result of our inaction is the eventual, inexorable downfall of human civilization back to a level approximating the Dark Ages, then any current inconvenience for the sake of avoiding that dystopia is most certainly NOT "worse than the problem itself". That is, unless you think the prospect of your progeny eking out a short, brutal existence in the equivalent of a pre-industrial society is an acceptable price to pay for you to be able to drive a half mile for groceries and take-out today.

Fast or slow, we're still heading down that road. At least if it's a slow progression we might eventually find the will to do something about it.

64

@62: Please get real. The weaning from fossil fuels needs to take a 45 degree decline, not 90.

65

The elephant sign is cool. Here is an article about the woman who created it: https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/seattles-queen-of-neon/. On the other hand, the car wash area itself was boring. What a big waste of space. It really shows how much things have changed (there was a time when property around there was very cheap). Ideally the sign would be in a big park somewhere (like the sculpture park) but MOHAI is OK. At least people can see it, close up, and admire it, instead of glancing at it from a moving vehicle, or hurrying past because the area around the elephant is so ugly.

66

Ah, the "this one thing is worse than this other thing, so we shouldn't do anything" contingent with their infallible "logic"...

67

@66 Comte, I know there's a mix of trolls and people like myself suggesting that "cars are evil" is stupid, so I don't want to get conflated with the dumbfucks, but I'm certainly not suggesting "we do nothing". I'm just saying that the concept of SOV's is not Hummers or nothing... electric vehicles, smaller vehicles, self-driving vehicles, taxes, tolling, etc.

Most of our "car" problems are a result of poor human behavior that we've done almost nothing to improve over the last century. But they are fixable, without eliminating the "car".

68

@61: Begone, Randall Patrick McHerpes, before you draw flies.

@67 Pretty in Pink: While I understand what COMTE is saying, regarding fossil fuel over-dependency (which the current Trump / Pence Evil Empire is only willfully making worse) destroying the Earth and all inhabitants, thank you and bless you for your spot on comment. Agreed and seconded. Well said and summarized.
I am blessed with a classic economic convertible that has been in my family for most of my life. I couldn't part with this mechanical member of my family: a car full of love, happy vibes, and family memories, and save for pleasure trips when I don't use public transportation :)

69

@57 -- Bingo, PiP. Dems gotta Step the fuck Up.
Here's a smidge of a spot-on critque of Senator Harris at the debate:

"Most astonishing was Harris not nailing Trump/Pence and Mitch McConnell for blocking the House-passed stimulus and relief bill (last May under Speaker Nancy Pelosi) that is desperately needed by tens of millions of Covid-19 impacted Americans and by hard-pressed millions of small businesses.

This callous trio is willing to keep furloughed or laid-off workers from receiving $600 a week until January and stall the delivery of aid to hard-pressed local agencies, schools, healthcare facilities, the Postal Service, and other stimuli to a sagging economy.

As a lawyer and former California Attorney General, Harris avoided calling out Trump/Pence for breaking and bending the law and committing many ongoing impeachable violations of our Constitution.

While Pence kept touting “de-regulation,” Harris didn’t decode that deception by illustrating the many health, safety, and economic protections destroyed by the Trump/Pence regime that favors Wall Street over Main Street.

Where was the talk about the “kitchen table” necessities on the minds of Americans daily?

Harris stressed health care, but not full Medicare for All, and let Pence get away with lies about how clean our air and water are and the overall health of the environment."

an exerpt from Ralph's email to me.

70

apologies.
the rest is at
https://nader.org/

71

"Most of our 'car' problems are a result of poor human behavior... "
@PiP

not to mention massive Social Engineering by Big Auto, Big Oil and Big Highway

we've been Hoodwinked.

72

@58 nah Mad Max told me cars play a big role in our post-apocalyptic future lol

74

@62 -- Brilliant post.
Thank you.

oh, and, lookit, it's
trolling trolly Trolley troll
itself

come back from near-Death
(& Perdition) (like Fake "prez"!)
[!!!]! to haunt and mock its Evil Arch
Enemies oh so Bravely -- right on their
Homeground, no less! welcome back X-RAYEyes!
we missed your homegrown* Toxicicity! better get back
to bed, lil Buddy -- sun's comin' Up! soon! Sea ya! Don't forget

to write.

*like the Terrorists!

75

I so look forward to casting my vote for the Republican nominee for 2024 after this Trump aberration.

76

yeah, they just keep gettin' Better, don't they?

77

From (local boy!) Timothy Egan’s brilliant
What Makes Mike Pence’s Complicity So Chilling

The vice president will be remembered as the great enabler.

One comment on the article, above (helping illustate raincloud's Enabling of continuing to Enable and is fooly Complicit with its hole-hearted support of Today’s Toxic Republicanism) (with or without its standard-bearer Hair Furor):

I guess I'm naive, but I assumed that Republicans of good character would draw firm lines around the hate and lawlessness of this administration.

I've been astounded at the moral and intellectual vacuum on the right.

I sensed it growing with the Cheney adminstration, but I'm astounded how craven and empty GOP leadership is currently.

it's so hard to focus on ideological differences of merit when one side won't even support basic decency and honesty.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/opinion/mike-pence-debate.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/opinion/mike-pence-debate.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage#commentsContainer

78

"I'm astounded how craven and empty GOP leadership is currently. ...it's so hard to focus on ideological differences of merit when one side won't even support basic decency and honesty."

raincloud -- your best Bud's
in the nutshell wherest they Belong.

79

@78: Fail

If Romney had been elected in 2012, and reelected in 2016, the choice for 2020 would probably be between Hillary Clinton and Paul Ryan. And Ryan would probably win.

80

'fail' Yet Another Projection.

LOve your Historical REvisionism raincloud but ya don't Roll Back the Present to Get To the Future -- it's pretty fucking linear, chronologically speaking. Repubs ain't Going Back. that's just not what they DO: they ALWAYS Double Down. unless they're Trebling down duh. nah, extinction is what Suits 'em, now.

I'm voting for Attrition
and hoping the trumpf Plague
is the catalyst Planet Earth requires.

81

“A machine evolves by becoming more efficient, that is, more foolproof; hence the objective of mechanical progress is a foolproof world, which may or may not mean a world inhabited by fools. “
George Orwell

82

George Orwell

So overrated, and only mildly profound.

83

@82. You should sell yourself to an art gallery dubbed "The Dunning-Kruger Effect."

84

@83:

For your bathroom reading pleasure:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28971276

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/11/20/ive-enough-george-orwell/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/17/my-problem-with-george-orwell

85

I would love to be able to travel from say Capitol Hill to Ballard for a show without having to drive. But there's no possible way given Seattle's pitiful bus service. There's no service much past midnight. So my choices are to stay home, spend an hour on two buses one way, and then take a $20 cab ride home, or to make the 15 minute drive and pray to find a place to park. Seattle isn't NYC. For many destinations you can take a car (yours or someone else's) or you can stay home.


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