Dear Mike

Hey Mike, So, after listening to a bunch of (ok, a few) old songs (Asexuals, Sham 69, DOA, Angelic Upstarts, Special AKA, 7Seconds) I leashed up the dog and headed out to check on the kids in the CHAZ. Not gonna lie: it did my heart good to see what amounted to the seeds of a squat (they don't have an actual building to occupy - they are asking for the city to hand over the East Precinct, and I'm honestly not sure how that will go) all over 11th & Pine. And it was pretty damn cool. Sloppy, but cool. Easily 50 tents parked in the park, loads of tents with free supplies, medical help, saintary supplies (tp and paper towel, for free! people had been lining up for hours just weeks ago to pay jacked up prices for that stuff!). I roamed around, taking in the graffiti, the art (the BLM painted down Pine street, honestly, it was really great) I talked briefly to a girl setting up a free book exchange/library, I went up to the precinct and listened to people talking aobut plans, a

Hi Mike. So, it just keeps getting worse, so maybe it's getting better? Watching people come to terms with how fucked up America is has become paralyzing for me. It's a goddamn good thing I don't have a job to go to, because I don't think I could cope with that right now. So much residual rage from all these years of being poor. I mean, yes, I'm not black, so some things are better for me, but there are loads of ways this fucking materialistic, consumer culture hates anyone who differs from the accepted norm. Last night, at 11th & Pine, the thing I expected to happen finally did: a guy drove a car into the crowd. All of it captured on video - you can see he chickens out (thank god) and halts the car as a (black) guy who had been chasing him down the street catches up to him and punches him through the window of the car. The driver shoots the guy in the arm, and he falls back. Driver gets out, has a glock with multiple cartridges taped to the handle, and I kid yo

Good morning Mike. So, day 7 of protests here in Seattle, and today it looked like DC in '88 (and stuff I've seen and been told about from '87) - the protestors, most are young people who live in Capitol Hill, holding the line at 11th and Pine 24/7 now. Last night there was music, dancing, poetry, and light projections. The signage has been creative and plentiful. The kids are supplying each other - they are definitely taking their cues from the kids in Hong Kong. The cops are on a shorter leash, but still getting caught displaying their disdain for dirty hippies. And by dirty hippies, I mean anyone who doesn't look like Molly Ringwald and Emilio Estevez in Breakfast Club, or those loons from Duck Dynasty. That being said, there is a definite commitment I haven't seen before, and I have to guess it is coming from being in lockdown for so long. This is gonna be a summer for the ages, for sure. The soundtrack is a bit different, but the anger, the frustration, is real

Hey Mike, I dunno where to even start, but how about with this: George Will calling for a purge of Senate Republicans. This coming minutes after the Mango Mussolini has declared that he's gonna activate the military to put down the protests and looting that have been happening in the 4 days since George Floyd was murdered by a cop, which of course happened after two other basically public lynchings, which have been happening our whole lives, but toss in a pandemic, which has put tons of people in limbo, and boom goes the dynamite. Right at this moment (5pm, 6/1) helicopters are overhead - and 2 blocks from my apartment (city hall) the streets are filled, again, with protesters. I feel like a pathetic wretch of a person not being out there, but my knee is fucked up, and, well, I've been trying not to get too upset. Being face to face with confused kids and angry cops isn't gonna help, and I'm probably days, or maybe months from a heart attack or somehting anyway. The poi

Hey Mike. So, I took a couple weeks to move into a new apartment: same building, same floor of said building, but on the other side - so my windows now face the Sound and Smith tower, and not just overlook PSQ's  bus tunnel entrance and the non-stop parade of humanity that exists in spite of all efforts to eradicate it here in downtown. Seattle's protests are three days behind Minneapolis' but you know, it's rainy and cold here, and the kids have to put down their Animal Crossing to get in on the action. Protest is a young person's game (mostly). Anyway. So, remember when I said I was waiting for the action to start? Well, it turns out that when you keep a nation penned up in their homes, delete their jobs, and then continue on with the same racist and classist bullshit, people will be driven to action, and that action was chaotic, and yet, sort of encouraging? Look. Remember the WTO stuff? Remember feeling like the people who were rioting probably didn't have m

Hey Mike, Seriously, it just gets weirder and more ridiculous (I'd say scary, but I'm not really scared, just anxious for the action to start, really) yesterday the Mango Mussolini held a presser (like he does every day now - every day feels more Orwellian than the last, and our 2 Minute Hates, are 90-minute Rages from Dear Mango Leader, yikes, even typing that creeps me out) in which he started spitballing about "injecting very strong light" maybe even "ultraviolet light" into bodies to kill the virus. THEN came the real fun, the part where he could potentially kill his own constituency, given their predisposition to do whatever he suggests. He suggested "injecting (a) disinfectant or cleanser of some kind" that would kill the germs. Mike - he can't even discern that his consultants were discussing how to kill germs on surfaces. He, like a toddler, immediately says we should shoot people full of bleach. The spooky part is, he's mentioned t

Hi Mike, So, this was a thing in the media today, and I literally have been thinking it for several weeks now, and then just when I had convinced myself that I was being paranoid...here it is: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/trump-coronavirus-liberate-michigan-minnesota-virginia-lockdowns-tests.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s1&fbclid=IwAR2OtZXWtwCpkrFPIWqZLXEXKGkGTicTUxXFvfK5d7sI8Fuwas39zlEGL-4 Because that's what's gonna happen now. I was joking with a neighbor (and I've said this to a couple people), but I honestly think only anyone with a passing understanding of anarchist theory/punk rock would appreciate it: I really did not expect anarchy to unleash itself like this. But there you go. The economy is plunging, the State/Corporate Overlord is having to pay us to stay alive because they need the labor to stay in their rich, privileged bubble. I feel like they might have misjudged the immediacy of the internet though, and to have basi