Guerilla Stop Signs Removed: A street safety vigilante took power into their own hands when they installed three unsanctioned, unofficial stop signs at the notoriously-blind intersection of 14th Avenue East and East John Street. It’s a spot where that steep slope of John Street finally crests and where people are trying to get to Safeway via all modes of transportation. Plus, now that Safeway has shuttered its more-pedestrian-friendly entrance on 15th Avenue East (remember when you could just walk into a Safeway via all of its entrances?), everyone is funneled into the entrance attached to the parking lot. It’s a messy intersection, one the city doesn’t seem to think of as much of a problem since they removed the three stop signs.
But Maybe It Worked: The guerilla stop signs did prompt Seattle Department of Transportation to gather data on that intersection and see if stop signs would be necessary.
Duke’s Closes Alki Location: Duke’s Seafood on Alki Beach will close immediately, ownership announced. The restaurant never recovered from pandemic and West Seattle Bridge closure-induced lows. Duke’s still operates six locations in Bellevue, Green Lake, Kent, Lake Union, Southcenter, and Tacoma. If you want a restaurant with sweeping, unobstructed views of the Seattle skyline—it’s for sale. Unfortunately, I doubt it’ll be a bargain.
Buying a Home? In This Economy? King County saw an 11 percent increase in homes-for-sale last month. The prices keep climbing. The median sale price rose 3.3 percent to a laughably-high $977,500.
Existing? In this economy? The stock market remains abysmal. In fact, it’s even worse than yesterday because China’s 34 percent tariffs on US goods went into effect. I’m just going to quote the Associated Press for these market updates. Here they are: “The S&P 500 was down 2.8% this morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,049 points, or 2.6, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.2% lower.” It’s bad out there. Meanwhile, Trump doubling down. He says his “policies will never change.”
Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq crater after China announces first retaliatory tariffs
finance.yahoo.com/news/live/st…— Yahoo Finance (@yahoofinance.com) April 4, 2025 at 6:41 AM
So Much for Job Growth: Despite federal layoffs, US employers added 228,000 jobs last month. We’ll see how this forced global recession impacts things in coming months.
International Duck Has Visa Revoked: The Department of Homeland Security cancelled an international University of Oregon student’s visa without warning for unspecified criminal charges. The university is trying to figure out how to respond.
The Weather: Ignore Mudede. Today, with its sunny skies and low-60s highs, will be glorious. Last week, it seemed the whole weekend would be glorious, but it does not appear to be anything special anymore and instead will be cloudy and rainy. Enjoy today.
The Economics of Mass Deportation: A new report out of the Washington State Budget & Policy Center found that undocumented immigrants are vital to our state in many ways. We have around 1.2 million immigrants here, which includes 619,000 non-citizens and 325,000 undocumented immigrants. On an economic level, we depend on our immigrant population, especially when it comes to state funds. Our undocumented immigrant population contributed around $1 billion in 2022 to our state economy in the form of state and local taxes. According to the report, if even 10% of our undocumented immigrant residents in Washington are deported, Washington state would lose $100 million per year in revenue. That’s not even considering the contributions they make to providing goods and services. Industries such as farming, restaurants, care and domestic work, and construction rely on immigrant employees. Mass deportation is cruel, senseless, anti-American, and bad economically. You’ll hear more on this from Marcus Harrison Green later today.
Don’t End Up Like a Case on The Pitt: Wear a helmet if you ride an e-scooter or an e-bike. According to Harborview Medical Center, last year 163 serious injuries from e-scooters or e-bikes came through their doors. Many of them were head injuries. E-bike and e-scooter injuries went up 37 percent from 2023.
Also, On That Note: No one spoil last night’s new episode of The Pitt. I missed it. I’m loving the return of episodic, appointment-viewing for television, but it is terrible for spoilers in this social media landscape. Can’t we have at least a 24-hour embargo before people start clipping things and blasting them on every platform? This is why it’s terrible that there’s really only one text-based social media platform these days (Bluesky). The influx of video everywhere else sucks. Numbs the brain. Spoils the shows.
Assault and Rape Charges for Russell Brand: United Kingdom police charged comedian and actor Russell Brand, 50, with “one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault.” Four women brought the charges against Brand, who in recent years has become more of right-wing social commentator.
Enjoy this The Onion article from 2023:
Nation Could Have Sworn Russell Brand Was Already Convicted Sex Offender
— The Onion (@theonion.com) April 4, 2025 at 6:50 AM
RFK Jr. fires Health and Human Services Department Comms Teams: Instead of making public health more transparent like he promised, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing the opposite. In Tuesdays spate of layoffs, seven employees in charge of communicating the health department’s work and its guidance to the public lost their jobs. According to these people, the communications offices of five HHS agencies housed in the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health have lost pretty much their whole staff.
Oopsie: RFK Jr. now says that the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts, where around 20 percent of Department of Health and Human Services—or 10,000 people—were laid off may have been a mistake. He may reinstate some roles. I suggest he reinstate all roles and also leave his. Just a thought. Not sure he has many of those himself.
Meanwhile: Dr. Oz will lead Medicaid and Medicare programs. Thanks for nothing, US Senate.
Laura Loomer Calls the Shots: Far-right conspiracy theorist and white nationalist Laura Loomer told Trump to fire six National Security Council officials after an Oval Office meeting where Loomer “vilified the staff members by name,” writes the New York Times and attacked their loyalty and character. Trump then fired them. Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, was powerless to prevent the firings, showing that Loomer, who is a 9/11-was-an-inside-job truther, wields more power than he does. Trump denied Loomer played any role in this, but said she was a “very good patriot and a very strong person.”
Here’s Who Was Fired: From NYT: “The people fired included Brian Walsh, the senior director for intelligence; Maggie Dougherty, the senior director for international organizations; and Thomas Boodry, the senior director for legislative affairs.”
A Song for Your Friday: Heard this in a coffee shop the other day and it brought me back to 2011 when I listened to it on repeat.
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sorry
wormmy
no ‘last comment’
for You, eh? well, so be it.
“You’re
every bit the
Hamas sympathizer… ”
–@ tensorna on April 10, 2025 at 5:22 AM
fuck
you, you
lying Cunt.
@99
Oops!
my Mistake~
I replied in Haste:
“You’re
every bit the
Hamas sympathizer… “
–@tensorna on April 10, 2025 at 5:22 AM
fuck
you, you
Lying cunt.
@kristo: Can’t admit you read @92 and still have no answer, eh? Yep, that’s the highest level of courage one should expect from a terrorist sympathizer.
Have fun quoting Johnstone again; I certainly am enjoying the result. (Just don’t say I didn’t warn you about the consequences.)
the trumpf maladministration
is now going thru social media
sites looking for “pro-Hamas” com-
menters — if they Suspect You, expect
a one way-trip to Gitmo, or wherever the fuck
this
is REAL.
and
Wormtongue
when you called Me
a “Pro-Hamas” Supporter
“Hamas Sympathizer”
WHICHEVER THE FUCK
which I’ve NEVER Been
YOU Are ENDANGERING ME.
You
and your
Sockpuppets
NEED TO BE BANNED
from
This
Site.
@102: ‘the trumpf maladministration
is now going thru social media
sites looking for “pro-Hamas” com-
menters — if they Suspect You, expect
a one way-trip to Gitmo, or wherever the fuck’
First, you provided no URL or quote from anyone, anywhere, to support this self-important paranoid fantasy.
Second, if you had, it would have made Johnstone’s worst output read like a book authored by Dr. Yitzhak ben Israel, Prof. Emeritus of Near Eastern History at Oxford.
Third, you should now be happy to learn Slog is not a “social media site.” (You’re welcome!)
Fourth, you really, really need to stop pretending you didn’t already read, and obsess* over, every last little word I wrote @92, and instead quote from there what I actually did write. (You should know by now that I won’t engage your opinions about what I wrote.)
Fifth, what I actually did write @92 was based on Johnstone’s post, to which you had given a URL. You added your usual encouragement, to go there and read more of her wonderful, wholesome, reasonable, educational writings. So you now fully own her description of shooting children as a “…means to pursue justice.” Even her words, “You can disagree with the decisions Hamas made on that day [10/7],” implies there could possibly be disagreement that shooting children in their homes is wrong. Good luck telling everyone you don’t sympathize with the Hamas terrorists who went and did exactly that.
Sixth, the current ‘administration’ ever tried to do anything like realize your self-important paranoid fantasy, well, go see how excellently they’re implementing their policy on tariffs and trade. (Which, BTW, they do actually care about.)
Seventh, I’ve never run sockpuppets here, nor anywhere else. When problems with my personal IT meant I had to create another account to continue commenting here, I appended the acronym for “new account” to my old nym. That ensured everyone should know it was me.
Eighth, you should know by now that lots of different individuals can eloquently disagree with you, whilst you’re stuck with folks like ‘bob, whom even you describe as having made blatantly false statements. (Why these two contrasting facts can easily co-exist is maybe something you should ponder.)
*As I noted @95, one of your claims to not having read it was posted at 4:41 in the morning (!), Seattle time.
“You added your usual encouragement,”
at No Point
did I say I Agreed
in Totality with Every-
thing Johnstone writes*
“to go there
and read more
of her wonderful,”
so, Now, you, Wormtongue
are Endorsing Everything
Johnstone writes as
“ wholesome,
reasonable, edu-
cational writings.”?
“So
you now
fully own
her description
of shooting children as
a ‘…means to pursue justice.'”
what utter fucking Claptrap.
*and do Not
in Fact AGREE
‘with everything
she writes in her
column.’ your ability
to twist words’s Earned
you Tolkein’s ‘Wormtongue’
and you wear it exceedingly well.
you can Fuck Off back
to Westchester
for all I care,
you Lying
Cunt.
in Spite of your incessant and insidious
claims to the contrary, I’ve called out Hamas
as a terrorist organization numerous times on these pages
and have NEVER BEEN A SUPPORTER OF HAMAS
as you so slanderingly have claimed
you
on the Other hand
Have Been an Avid Supporter
of Israel’s ONGOING GENOCIDE
likely costing
Kamala the
Presidency.
but
whattabout
Bernie you’ll whine:
WHATTABOUT BERNIE!?
Fuck off wormmy.
Join Francis.
from Notes From The Edge
Of The Narrative Matrix:
The Pope Has Died,
And The Palestinian People
Have Lost An Important Advocate
Pope Francis has died after using
his Easter Sunday address
to call for peace in Gaza.
I don’t know who the cardinals will pick to replace him, but I do know with absolute certainty that there are transnational intelligence operations in the works to make sure they select a more reliable supporter of Israel.
They’ve probably been working on it
since his health started failing.
Anyone who’s been reading me for a while knows my attitude toward Roman Catholicism can be described as openly hostile because of my family history with the Church’s sexual abuses under Cardinal Pell, but as far as popes go this one was decent.
Francis had been an influential critic of Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza, calling for investigation of genocide allegations and denouncing the bombing of hospitals and the murder of humanitarian workers and civilians.
He’d been personally calling the only Catholic parish in Gaza by phone every night during the Israeli onslaught, even as his health deteriorated.
In other words, he was a PR problem for Israel.
I hope another compassionate human being is announced as the next leader of the Church, but there are definitely forces pushing for a different outcome right now.
There is
no shortage [of]
terrible men who could
be chosen for the position.
–by Caitlin Johnstone; April 21, 2025
the top comment
on the article:
‘My
money
is on his
replacement
being a rabid Zionist
—— bets on”
–@Suzanne Proctor
oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-pope-has-died-and-the-palestinian
small wonder
the Wormtongues
of the world all feel the same.
@92; @95;
Et Fucking ALL
& speaking of “snarling”:
If October 7
Justifies The Gaza Genocide,
What Acts Of Violence Will The Gaza Genocide Justify?
If you believe that all the violence and destruction in Gaza is the fault of Hamas, then by your own logic you must also accept that the coming wave of violent extremism and antisemitism which is going to ensue from the incineration of Gaza will exclusively be the fault of Israel.
I said this on Twitter the other day and Israel supporters got outraged and shared screenshots of my post shrieking with indignation [wormmy?] that anyone would say such a thing, which is funny because I’m just reading their own line of reasoning back to them.
I’m not the one
who says an act of violence
excuses any violence done in response to it.
I’m not the one who says history automatically restarts at the most recent act of aggression, thereby making any amount of retaliatory violence against civilians a justified response to an unprovoked attack for which the vengeful bear no responsibility.
This isn’t my position.
It’s theirs.
–by Caitlin Johnstone
Apr 22, 2025
some
comments on
Caitlin’s Powerful Essay:
And yet they repeat the lie like a skipping record.
–@ Adam Cheklat
[ring any Bells,
Wormtongue?]
One’s neural systems rebound into at minimum a crying-out mode when viewing the atrocities through the lenses of Gazan photojournalists. Crying out “horrific”, then “unconscionable”, then, “inhumane”, then “inhuman”.
This naturally leads to: “what effing monster could perpetrate such atrocities”. The neural pathways, then flooded with excitatory anger, answer: “Israeli Zionist demons”.
Sorry, it’s then only a small step to “why the hell do those fucking Jews think they have a right to kill and main innocent babies and children.”
Yes, some of us get the distinction –
Zionist Israeli fascists do not
represent all Jews (gratefully).
BUT –
if antisemitism arises
from their action, it is no damned surprise.
–@ Vincenzo L cafonevecchio
[gee –
ya Think!?]
Sadly, yes. Israel’s actions play right into the hands of those only too happy to blame “Jews” for all that is wrong with our world, as Jewish commentators like Katie Halper have pointed out.
–@ Jennifer Akdemir
oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-october-7-justifies-the-gaza-genocide/comments
“BUT –
if antisemitism a-
rises from their action,
it is no damned surprise.”
Fawking Bingo:
It’s absolutely
Logical.
and Totally fucking Tragic
and so Easily couldda
been fucking
Avoided.
But
HERE
we Are.
[con’t from Above]:
And
[nearly]
everybody
goes along with it.
I would imagine
if there were any decent people left
on this planet the fake semites will be dealt a fatal blow.
What
makes them
hard to deal with is
they are textbook narcissist.
Not only that
they have “collectivist narcissism”.
Because
they know
working in a group
makes there’s narcissism stronger.
It’s very good witchcraft
and it’s worked for
thousands of
years.
But you have to find their weak spots.
If you study their culture,
they really bring nothing
of value to society.
What entertainment?
Sports? Who cares?
These are not
things that
build a bet-
ter world.
What
we are dealing
with are collectivist sociopaths.
It’s completely and totally satanic.
–@ MaxxNY
oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-october-7-justifies-the-gaza-genocide/comments
from Caitlin’s Newsletter
Nobody Say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”
Nobody say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine.” Saying “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine” is very offensive to people who think genocide is good.
When you say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine,” you are hurting the feelings of the people who believe it’s fine to bomb every hospital in Gaza. So you must never, ever say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine.”
Who do you think you are, saying “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”? Don’t you know that by saying “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine” you are causing the people who applaud the deliberate starvation of an entire civilian population to become emotionally upset?
Instead of saying “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine,” you should try putting yourself in the shoes of the tender-hearted individuals who support the complete ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
They’re just minding their own business, merrily celebrating the carpet bombing of a giant concentration camp full of children, and then you come along and ruin their day by saying “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”? What a cruel and hateful thing that would be.
I mean, all they are doing is cheerleading the mutilation, evisceration and incineration of children, and the assassination of journalists and medical workers, and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the complete flattening of an entire region whose population they are methodically exterminating via bullets, bombs, starvation and disease.
{and Justifying
The FUCK Outta it]
It’s not like they’re doing anything nasty or disgusting like saying offensive words. Offensive words like “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine.”
So don’t say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine.” Under no circumstances should anyone ever say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine.” And they must certainly never say “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine” as many times as they possibly can, every single day until Palestine is free, and get everyone else to say it constantly as well.
–Caitlin Johnstone
April 25, 2025
more:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/nobody-say-fuck-israel-free-palestine
‘fuck Israel’?
Free Israel:
Fire bibi
or, if ya Gotta,
pardon his Ass
And Free Israel
And Palestine And
END This Fucking GENOCIDE.