Is the union screwed? by Vivian McCall Alex Garland’s Civil War, a film that premiered at South by Southwest this month, imagines a near-future where the collective “Western Forces” of Texas and California are engaged in a second American Civil War with a United States government led by a three-term president, placing viewers with three journalists chronicling what appears to be a climactic end to the union.  Critics assume the premise exploits the boiling tensions months ahead of a round-two election with an autocratic-minded insurrectionist, but writers such as Peter Debruge at Variety ..read more

The political over-representation of white churchgoers is so considerable that it's hard to call the US a democracy. by Charles Mudede This has been on my mind since reading Gene Balk's recent post, "Seattle is the least-religious large metro area in the US." Our city might have a high percentage of people who "never attend church or religious services" because post-gentrification (Seattle is now gentrified) Blacks make up only "6% of the total population." Balk points out that, on a national level, a whooping 65% of Black Americans are in church on the regular. They are the most religious peo ..read more

People should be marching in the streets to address public safety in Seattle, but not for bad solutions. by Rich Smith Over the weekend, Susanna Keilman, a failed Republican state legislative candidate from Pierce County, organized a rally at Fourth Avenue and Lenora, the site where Cordell Goosby allegedly shot Eina and Sung Kwon last week. Eina, who was eight months pregnant, died from her injuries. Doctors delivered the baby girl at Harborview, but she died, too. Sung survived the shooting to the extent that anyone can survive the death of a partner and an expected child. Goosby, who cops s ..read more

Ha ha. by Stranger Staff This afternoon, a grand jury indicted Donald Trump on as-yet-unknown charges related to him allegedly directing hush money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, making him the first former president ever to face criminal charges, according to the New York Times. ? The news comes somewhat unexpectedly, as sources told CNN this morning that the jurors had clocked out for a break scheduled to span all of April. They must have just dropped off the indictment on their way out the door.  The general consensus among legal thinkers on the left and the rig ..read more

Cars frequently crash into buildings in Seattle. Where's the outrage? by Charles Mudede The importance of this post cannot be underestimated. It's by Seattle Times staff reporter David Kroman. Its title: "How often do cars crash into buildings in Seattle? Way more than you think." Now, recall the superb Pixar film Monsters, Inc. It's set in a society whose economy runs on the screams of children. The work of the monsters is to go into the rooms of children at night, make them scream, and these screams power their monstrous world. Read Kroman's article and you will find that much of our own eco ..read more

On lobster rolls, the Elephant Car Wash, and the Lusty Lady. by Charles Mudede On December 15, 2022, Amazon completed the installation of one of the two iconic Elephant Car Wash signs. In 2020, the Seattle-based electronic commerce corporation, which plans to lay off 18,000 of its workers sometime soon, "asked the owner Bob Haney for the sign and he gave it to them." It was the smaller one. The larger one went to the Museum of History and Industry, the home of another iconic sign, the Lusty Lady's pink-lettered marquee. (The pink Lincoln Toe Truck is also in this museum.) Lusty Lady, a women-r ..read more