Betsy DeVos, perhaps plotting the demise of public education, perhaps thinking of Jesus nude on the beach, perhaps resting in the comfort of a vacant mind, perhaps about to puke. Courtesy of Betsy DeVos A strong, well-funded public education system is our first and perhaps only real hope against the rising, dismal tide of ignorance. […]
Rich Smith
Rich Smith writes about politics, books, and performance for The Stranger. You can hear his impersonations of Bernie Sanders and Jeff Sessions on Blabbermouth, and you can read his poems at www.richsmithpoetry.com
Posted inBooks
George Orwell’s 1984 Is a Best Seller Again, But His “Politics and the English Language” Is Just as Important
Read it while you still can. Getty Images The New York Times reports that George Orwell’s 1984 is “rising to the top of the Amazon best-seller list in the United States,” and that, since last Friday, “the book has reached a 9,500 percent increase in sales.” I’m glad we’re revisiting Orwell’s dystopian story, but sad […]
Posted inArts
Laurie Frankel’s Fabulous Child
In This Is How It Always Is, the Northwest Author Combines Domestic Drama and Trans Kid Fairy Tale
In This Is How It Always Is, the Northwest Author Combines Domestic Drama and Trans Kid Fairy Tale
Posted inCannabis
Jeff Sessions Dodges Question About Whether He’ll Go After Legalized Weed
Still not sure what time it is on weed’s doomsday clock. The Stranger During the Senate hearing to nominate Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Senator Leahy of Vermont asked if Sessions if he wouldn’t enforce federal laws that ban marijuana. Sessions rolled out this primo bit of obfuscation: I won’t commit to never enforcing the […]
Posted inPolitics
Watch: Jeff Sessions’s Confirmation Hearing
It’s Jeff Sessions’s confirmation hearing day! So far, the longtime senator and former Attorney General of Alabama who was too much of a racist for a Republican-led committee to approve his nomination to Reagan’s federal court is performing about as well as you’d expect him to. Sessions’s responses to questions so far can be split […]
Posted inNews
Merry Christmas! Trump Is Advocating for a Nuclear Arms Race
What do you give a country that has everything? More nuclear warheads. Andrey VP Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski asked future press secretary Sean Spicer for clarification regarding the president-elect’s recent pro-nuclear proliferation tweet: The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding […]
Posted inHoliday
Christmas Is Bigger Than Trump. Don’t Let Him Steal Your Capacity for Awe
You can have my yuletide joy when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Jessica Stein Have you read Charles Mudede’s piece “How Trump Turned Christmas Films into Horror Films“? If not, go read it! Then come back here. He makes such a moving, convincing case about the horrors of Christmas in the Trump […]
Posted inPolitics
The Hamilton Elector Movement Seems to Have Failed to Stop Trump
Despite numerous letters and vigils, electors don’t appear to be rallying around the ghost of Alexander Hamilton. FrameAngel / shutterstock.com Following the events of 11/9, Washington elector Bret Chiafalo and Colorado elector Micheal Baca founded the Hamilton Electors movement. Citing Federalist No. 68, the two believe Hamilton and the founding fathers established the electoral college […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Amazon Plans to *Disrupt* the Bodega Industry with “Amazon Go”
Just a guy feelin’ great about purchasing his individual food unit. LADO / Shutterstock.com Thank GOD. I was just about to write a 20,000-word thinkin’ piece about how dangerously close human beings have been getting to their food sources lately. But luckily, Seattle’s own Amazon dot com has stepped in and saved me from my […]
Posted inPolitics
Trump Gives No Meaningful Indication that He Will Avoid Conflicts of Interest in Office
Trump would have to give up his castles to run the country in a technically ethical way. Eric Urquhart / shutterstock.com Another morning, another dribble of vague tweets from the president elect about an issue clearly beyond his reckoning. This one is an announcement that he will announce the fact that he will leave his […]
Posted inUncategorized
“Professor Watchlist” Calls on Students to Expose Professors Who Promote “Anti-American Values”
“DO MY HOMEWORK?! I beg your pardon, sir, but Donald Trump didn’t do his homework before the debates, and look where it got him.” dotshock / shutterstock.com Today in proto-Fascistic gestures that would have been dismissed as the infantile merely three weeks ago, conservative “nonprofit organization” Turning Point USA has launched a website called Professor […]
Posted inUncategorized
Bernie Sanders Extends Olive Branch and Raised Fist to Trump
Obstructionist-in-chief? Juli Hansen / Shutterstock.com Democratic leadership is proceeding with caution, which makes all the sense in the world. In 2018 the party will have to defend 25 seats in the senate, and the Republican majority will likely create workarounds to any obstructionist actions. Though the political cautioneering seems smart for now, it’s also dispiriting, […]