In our midweek missive: Republicans just won’t stop trying to kill affordable health care (and thus several million Americans); a local social-justice activist vs. useless “purity” obsessions; tentative victories in eco-lawsuits; the end of the CD’s indie supermarket; and helping the homeless feel “at home,” if just for a moment.

PARK(ing) Day is here again, and talk radio just complains about the  precious car spaces being taken over for temporary human use. Our big weekend newsletter also mentions black guys who like Jenny Durkan and a white guy who doesn’t; a teen convicted for “sexting” (but with complicating circumstances); goats becoming un-welcome in Olympic National Park; and the “priorities” for Bruce Harrell’s mayor-ship (which could end today).

We’ve got our second mayor of the year, will get a third, and may get a fourth in between. MISCmedia MAIL covers this, as well as why Seattle shouldn’t bend over backwards to appease Amazon; how design and power intersect; a “re-brand” for PCC; and an elementary school not getting a “Satan Club” after all.

We won’t have Rep. Dave Reichert to kick around any more; Washington’s one of 15 states preparing to sue over the DACA decision; and wildfires continue to destroy forest lands and choke up the skies. But let’s also talk today about something REALLY important: the new Seahawks “alternate” logo, and the fun online commenters are having with it.

As for-real football season commences, an area high school tries to “go goth.” We also observe a new purse for the female-identifying Seahawks fan; more complaints about the school-funding deal; how an Idaho town de-Nazified itself; and the pre-gentrified days of Bumbershoot.

One of the principal engineers behind the now-razed domed stadium passed away, having outlived his creation by 17 years. Our further Thursday topics: tribal rights to privately-held art works; a WSU prof decrying neo-Nazi images on campus; a fired cop’s legal settlement; and whether Amazon should spin off its most profitable asset (in order to keep it profitable).

Today’s big weekend MISCmedia MAIL starts off with a remembrance of the great retail store of my youth, now become the great retail store for fandom folk from everywhere. It goes on to mention Paul Ryan’s not-that-persuasive speech at Boeing; whether an eco-group does or doesn’t have a racially-insensitive name; more Moon/Durkan verbal sparring; and the drive to protect website visitors’ IDs from White House demands.

A local artist’s putting up realistic-looking street signs, to gently remind folks of their worth. Today’s other subjects include a reminder of what real “national unity” will look like; stats on Amazon’s near-complete takeover of Seattle; a major Euro automaker potentially opening a US HQ here; and a lot of apartments on a really small lot.

Apparently, we have to explain (to both the far-right goons and the mayor) that the Fremont Lenin statue, in its present space and context, is a snark against the man it depicts. Our other weekend-newsletter topics include spy-cam drones vs. wildfires; solar cells in ink on plastic wrap; a lawsuit over Costco’s golf balls; and one past Republican who stood up to the hate-mongers.

Seattle’s big, annual arts-travaganzas have come and gone, with subjects of identity and resistance scattered throughout. We touch upon that in Monday’s missive, as well as the sad decline of the hydros; alleged “shaming” harassment at an officially “inclusive” fandom convention; a phony Starbucks “meme” graphic; and how much Nikkita Oliver may have already changed local politics.

Thursday’s MISCmedia MAIL starts with good news: Pieces of the ferry Kalakala were saved, and may come soon to an art installation near you. Also: cracks start appearing in the Legislature’s state-budget kludge; STD cases are on the rise; a tiki bar gets targeted by “cultural appropriation” charges; and one guy had a really dumb idea how to get the best view of the fireworks.

Another week, another police shooting of an innocent African-American. This time, it was a pregnant mother shot in her home, in front of the children. And somebody thought a “mammy” mascot costume would be perfect for the Solstice Parade. In less horrific news, Amazon dives deep into “brick and mortar” retail; electric conservation leads to higher rates; and a Pioneer Square rebuild gets stalled.

The Fremont Solstice Parade, even more than last year, was essentially an anticlimactic epilogue to the hundreds of body-paint bicyclists.

Even the arrival this year of “The Resistance,” a single overriding topic of protest in all its branches and aspects and sub-topics, as the right wing sleaze machine takes near complete control and rushes out an all-fronts attack against literally every good thing in our society (from government aid programs to social civility itself), failed to bring out more volunteer street-theater performers, marchers, musicians, etc.

Last year, there was talk that parade organizers would crack down on the nudes in hopes of attracting more participants in the parade itself, participants who might not want to be part of the same spectacle as all the poons and peens on public pubic display.

That didn’t happen. But the underlying issue remains.

The parade could fade out and die along with the original hippie generation out from which its aesthetic was formed.

•

Oh, and the parade got “trolled” by an entrant who showed up with a seven-foot costume puppet of a stereotype black “mammy” figure in a rasta hat.

According to some social-media commenters, the (apparently white) guy who performed in the costume was asked to leave the parade’s Friday-evening prep session. He then crashed the Saturday-afternoon event after it had already started, before again being shooed away.

Still, the Solstice Parade’s organizers have managed for almost three decades to keep motor vehicles, corporations, politicians, and even written signs out of the spectacle. But this thing looked just enough like a regular Solstice giant mascot costume that the guy got to strut it down a large segment of the parade route.

(After all, hippie graphic aesthetics used to include plenty of one-dimensional “ethnic characterizations.”)

•

Also troublesome for the parade’s future, it can’t store its floats and costumes in a city-owned warehouse space any more. (Slog) (PI.com)

The third year of MISCmedia MAIL begins with a few random memories of my time on this earth. It goes on to discuss an historic big painting you’ve got to see; Boeing’s research into pilot-free planes; an Islamophobic rally moved from Portland to Seattle; and the usual zillion event listings.

MISCmedia MAIL raises a glass of Real Soda in Real Bottles to the enactment of the sugary-pop tax. Other observations view the incredibly shrinking Store Formerly Known as the Bon Marché; local corporate giants vowing to keep fighting climate change; big stuff coming to the Seattle Art Fair; and what you probably haven’t heard about the Evergreen State College controversies.