Weather: Today will be mostly sunny with a high of 64 degrees, which means the goddess Ishtar is in a good mood, just not good enough for 70. Go outside, bask in that filtered nuclear radiation we call sunshine, and remember: the planet’s still spinning… for now.
100 Days of This Shit. Trump marked his first 100 days by dancing to “YMCA” in Michigan, grinning through the lowest approval rating of any president in 80 years. In those hundred days, he’s gutted the government to make room for billionaire-led privatization, weaponized antisemitism to justify mass detention and deportation, and pushed strategy-free tariffs with zero investment in the infrastructure needed to bring back manufacturing jobs. He’s deporting children. Tearing families apart. Sending people to El Salvador prison camps without due process. Slashing cancer research. Eliminating food safety rules. Resegregating the federal workforce. Scrapping USAID—setting the stage for 25 million preventable deaths worldwide. And it’s only been 100 days.
Meanwhile, in California: Kamala Harris is expected to speak out against Trump tonight as she inches toward a run for CA Governor. But don’t expect a bold stand against authoritarianism from someone who campaigned with a Cheney and voted to fund the genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, Tim Walz is out on a self-described “listening tour,” sharing that Harris chose him in part to help “code talk” to white guys. Who says DEI is dead!?! And while the political class postures, 55,000 LA County workers are on strike. After being offered zero percent cost-of-living raise—even as the county pours millions into a new downtown skyscraper—clerks, janitors, healthcare workers, parks staff, and social workers are shutting it all down. Libraries, public restrooms, clinics: closed. It’s the first time SEIU Local 721 has gone countywide. “This is the workforce that got LA through wildfires, pandemics, and every crisis in between,” said union president David Green. “We’ve had it.”
Bird Flu Crisis: The US is dangerously underreacting to the spread of bird flu, warn virologists from the Global Virus Network. Since March 2024, the virus has hit all 50 states and Puerto Rico, leading to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry and infecting over 1,000 dairy herds. It’s already killed one person and sickened 70 others, all from animal-to-human transmission. Experts say it’s only a matter of time before the disease spreads between humans unless the US ramps up its response. With a high mortality rate, the clock is ticking on us avoiding a full-scale pandemic.
Columbia Student Freed: Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi walked into what he thought was a citizenship interview—and the government threw a bag over his head like he was in a goddamn spy novel. Why? Because he dared to protest genocide, and apparently that now qualifies as a “national security threat.” A judge thankfully freed him this morning, calling it McCarthyism 2.0.
SPD on Hiring Spree: Seattle’s police department is on a hiring spree—60 new officers so far this year, and they’re aiming for 200 by the end of 2025. Because, obviously, the best way to fix systemic issues is to just hire more people who are part of the system. They’re offering massive bonuses and fast-tracking recruits to fill the gap left after the 2020 protests. And in a stunning move for diversity, they’re aiming for 30 percent women in the force by 2030. Because, when you’re getting your neck stepped on by boots and tear-gassed during protests, it’s great to know at least the people doing the stepping and gassing are as inclusive as possible.
Finally, hockey equity! Look, I could care less about hockey—I mean, I do care less, I’m actively caring less right now—but I’m all in for equity in sports. So consider me tepidly thrilled that Seattle just landed a Professional Women’s Hockey League team. The team’s called “PWHL Seattle” for now, which isn’t so much a name as it is a Wi-Fi password. But they’ll be wearing emerald green and cream—basically if a matcha latte laced up skates and came to fight. They’ll play at Climate Pledge Arena with the Kraken and the Storm, making it the most woke arena in America: zero emissions, 100 percent chance of fan-led chants of “defund the refs.” And yes, we’re already warming up our passive-aggressive hockey hate for Vancouver, because nothing brings people together like sports-fueled regional resentment.
Funding cuts coming to Higher Ed: Washington’s public colleges are about to get hit with some major funding cuts because when there’s a budget deficit, why shouldn’t education be one of the first things on the chopping block, I guess? The University of Washington is bracing for a 5 percent funding reduction, and Washington State University is scrambling to figure out how to stretch its resources to keep serving students without totally falling apart. Meanwhile, a new law (SB 5785) is about to slash financial aid for students—especially those at private schools—and leave many students without the grants they rely on to get an education. Of course, this disproportionately affects students of color and low-income students. Way to sure the people who can least afford it bear the brunt of the financial “sacrifice.”
Our air quality sucks. A recent report revealed that Seattle’s air quality is the equivalent of inhaling into a barbecue pit every time you take a breath. The city just ranked 9th worst in the U.S. for short-term particle pollution, which is a fancy way of saying, “Hey, want to take a deep breath of wildfire smoke and industrial fumes?” And, of course, half of America is now living with air so toxic, it’s like Mother Nature’s version of a deep fryer. Meanwhile, the White House is considering weakening pollution rules, which is exactly what we need—more smog and fewer rules. Makes perfect sense, right?
Literers, Beware! State lawmakers voted to more than double a fine on litterbugs. Starting this summer, if you get caught tossing a grocery bag’s worth of trash, you’re looking at a $125 fine—plus a potential $93 for leaving it on the highway. So basically, you’ll be paying more for your trash than you do for your streaming services. But this isn’t just about keeping our state pretty. In 2022, Washington had nearly 38 million pounds of litter dumped every year. That’s almost five pounds per person. We’re shelling out $12 million a year just to clean up after people who treat the roadside like their personal dumpster. If you’re chucking trash out your car window, I don’t feel bad for you—I feel bad for the squirrel that has to live next to your empty Taco Bell bag. Seriously, get a grip and use a trash can.
Volcano primed to erupt! So there’s an underwater volcano off the coast of Oregon that’s acting up, and it might erupt for the first time in years (so far, it’s erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015). Scientists are seeing some signs—earthquakes, magma buildup—but don’t freak out, they’re not expecting it to cause the next Pacific Northwest apocalypse. It’s not like a land volcano that’s gonna send shockwaves and tsunamis; this thing’s got water on top of it, so it’s more like a minor inconvenience than a catastrophic event. Still, if it blows, it’ll be a rare chance to witness something the world’s barely seen, so let’s just sit back, relax, and watch nature do its thing.
Be grateful for the sun. From the film itself to the soundtrack, I can’t get enough of Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece Sinners, so I’ll leave you with this lushly haunting track from the movie that’ll make you grateful for seeing the sun no matter what unique hell the day has in store.
“Trump marked his first 100 days by dancing to “YMCA” in Michigan”. Great job, just think what he’ll do in the next 3 and a half years, I can’t wait! The deportations being carried out are so far on a par with Obam’s and only point out how failed our policy has been over the past 30 or so years. Keep up the good work!
Only 1,361 more days of this
The video Trump played at the Michigan rally will make your skin crawl, if you have a conscience. The crowd chanting USA-USA-USA as they watch immigrant hate porn is truly disturbing.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lnydd6rhcm2d
From The Wall Street Journal: “…overall the S&P 500 index is down 8.5% since Inauguration Day.”
(Accompanying graphs show it’s the worst First Hundred Days performance in decades, and the only one ever to come close was that other failed CEO, G.W. Bush, in 2001.)
TS Writer’s hating on Sports is so tired. But Hockey wasn’t called “Sportsball”, so thanks for that small mercy.
Does anyone know why YMCA is apparently his theme song? It’s like his campaign and Presidency hired a cheap wedding DJ to do their soundtrack.
How did you miss this?
https://x.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1917331380297478530
“it’s great to know at least the people doing the stepping and gassing are as inclusive as possible.”
Yes, the women SPD and other minority officers will be none too glad to stop your Molotov cocktail throwing and Tesla keying.
Tomorrow there is a march and demonstrations at both Cal Anderson and Seattle Center for May 1. Why no mention of either of these in the Stranger? They both seem to be under reported and not all that organized but any demonstration is important and we should be hearing about them (including why these events are so under the radar).
One of the downsides to being a rich asshole surrounded by yes men is that no one tells you when your de facto campaign song is about sucking dick at the gym
@2: he has been quite clear in both word and deed that he has no intention of ever leaving office. The old habit of waiting four years for the next election to take out the trash won’t work this time.
@10: It was “Hold on, I’m coming” until Issac Hayes Jr. filed a lawsuit, then he went back to “YMCA”.
@8:
At least you have the guts to admit this new cadre of SPD recruits won’t be doing anything useful, like going after actual criminals instead of the imaginary criminals who firebomb Cybertrucks in your head, I’ll give you that.
Yeah dweeeebeeee you’re pretty weak these days. All the transphobic laws that passed and I don’t think I saw a single “yippeee-oh-boy” out of you all week. Were you by chance out on JK’s transphobia yacht smoking stogies with them? And keying Tesla’s only makes them look meaner, which is a good thing because they are a crappy car. I’d buy an ugly Tesla over a pretty Tesla any day.
So, you bemoan more cops but applaud stiffer penalties for littering. Who should be doing enforcement of the new litter law?
The “leftists” at the Stranger bemoan Trump’s scrapping USAID, an agency long criticized by actual leftists as a CIA front.
100 days of Trump pissing off and freaking out the people we love to hate. Carry on, Mr. President!
“But don’t expect a bold stand against authoritarianism from someone who campaigned with a Cheney and voted to fund the genocide in Gaza.”
And this sums up why Harris lost – purity politics. Harris was far, far from perfect but it isn’t even close how much better things would have been under her leadership. Even if Gaza is your primary concern, things are much worse under the orange piece of shit (and for everyone else, things are also way worse).
@17: The Stranger’s own most recent chance to take “a bold stance against authoritarianism” came when Sawant stumped for Trump. The Stranger not only took the hardest of all possible hard passes on criticizing her for so doing, but instead, the Stranger actually repeated some of her previous self-praising statements about standing up for the poor, working class, etc.
I just googled “USAID as CIA front.” The first, and seemingly most credible link to return is a freaking reddit thread. Good times.
12 i thought this was a joke but it’s real, and when you factor in his little ‘jerking off the ghost’ dance he does it almost breaks my brain, but it supports my theory that the maga/manosphere alliance is the product of repressed homosexuality at a scale we haven’t experienced since the red scare. Roy cohn has been dead for decades but his spirit will haunt us for generations to come.
“But don’t expect a bold stand against
authoritarianism from someone who
campaigned with a Cheney and
voted to fund the genocide
in Gaza.”
omg Marcus!
tS’s PRO-Genociders’ll
have you Strung Up on their
very Own Petards before suppertime
they may Hate tS
but they Never
miss an Issue
and it’s All for
our Own
Good.
@15 “So, you bemoan more cops but applaud stiffer penalties for littering. Who should be doing enforcement of the new litter law?”
You think an armed state agent is necessary to address litter? Like, do you think a guy with a gun should also come for people who don’t return library books on time? Kids who don’t eat their vegetables? Does every possible violation of the social contract, no matter how minor, require a paramilitary response? Copaganda seems to have melted your brain.
@17 I think what you meant to write was “And this sums up why Harris lost – incompetent campaigning.” The idea that no matter what the Democrat does people are obligated to vote for them bizarrely denies the candidates any agency. Why even bother campaigning or having any policy platform at all if that’s how you feel? “Kamala/Walz 2024: we aren’t gonna do shit for you but at least we’re not Trump so do what you’re told and vote for us you stupid pathetic fucks.” And anyone who doesn’t get blamed and ostracized for somewhere between four years and indefinitely.
@20: Indeed – Jeremey Strong’s performance as Roy Cohn in ‘The Apprentice’ is worth a watch.
Tensorna Watch Update: “…the Stranger actually repeated some of her previous self-praising statements about standing up for the poor, working class, etc.” Unfortunately for centrist grifters, K. Sawant is the only politician in recent memory who succeeded in getting a raise for the service delivery class in health & human services – you know, case managers, in-home aides, CNAs, residential counselors, the most essential class of worker? It isn’t boasting to claim this, it’s an established fact. If K. Sawant ran Seattle, it would be an affordable car-free city, and the capitalist class that raised the rents by >150% across the metropole in 2016 would have been sent packing.
There also wouldn’t be homeless encampments all over the city, but since indigent persons wouldn’t be housed in a prison or a labor camp, I doubt that would satisfy Tense & Ornery and their ideological confreres on SLOG. Note: for someone so addicted to accusing everyone else of being conspiracy theorists, Tense & Ornery seems to regurgitate their own prop-fueled paranoid ideations onto the digital page with remarkable frequency. However, they used to say that Ms. Sawant was “literally stumping for Trump,” and they now tend to omit the “literally,” so perhaps there’s a glimmer of intelligence in that ever-churning centrist brain somewhere.
This is best phrased as a null hypothesis, I think:
Question: What is the likelihood that K. Sawant’s support the economic survival of the essential worker class had any positive impact on D. Trump being re-elected to Prez in 2024? Null Hypothesis: there is a statistically zero likelihood.
@22: The Uncommitted movement, the Abandon Harris movement, and Sawant all campaigned extremely well against Harris. And they got what they wanted: a boycott of the election by liberals, sufficient to deny Harris the presidency.
We told all of those campaigners, and the Stranger, and you, that a loss for Harris could only mean a victory for Trump. But you wouldn’t listen. So now you’re victim-blaming some of the persons who actually tried to prevent Trumps’s election.
Too bad that all of your victim-blaming will never erase what actually happened, eh?
@25 no, “victim blaming” is when you accuse Palestinians of bringing about their own modern-day Holocaust at the hands of state terrorist Netanyahu and his ethnofascist regime
@22 when the option is wannabe authoritarian or any half assed stuff shirt who still believes in core principles of democracy, then I don’t give a shit how bad the campaign, candidate, etc. – it’s still better than the alternative (you seem to miss this point repeatedly). I once wrote a flaming bag of shit would get my vote over Trump because I’m not a toddler and I understood the damage the orange piece of shit would do (and even I’m amazed at how much worse he’s been).
Canada’s recent election should be the blue print for the midterms – anyone but the republicans (in their case it was anyone but the conservatives). Liberals ran a freaking technocrat and still reversed early polling that had them down by nearly 30 points.
If progressives want to run viable candidates, more power to them (Rinck is a great example) but if given the option between a Republican and anyone else, enthusiastically support the anyone else. Congress can and will be a check on the executive (and hopefully the judiciary starts doing more on their front as well).
@27 “Canada’s recent election should be the blue print for the midterms”
Europe’s recent elections should have been a blueprint for 2024 (anti-incumbent vitriol ruled) but Biden’s ego was more important to the party until it was too late. But sure, blame the little people.
@27. No one has missed your tragically overplayed “lesser of two evils” card. The problem is that you have no bottom line for the lesser. Currently your “lesser evil” is one of the top two genocidal political mashups in the entire world – since you’ve missed it repeatedly, I’m going to direct your mind back to the 2024 campaign days, when Killemalla handed Bibi billions of dollars to go commit mass slaughter. That money was used to install a jihadis-US puppet government in Syria; they have already initiated the genocide of Shi’ites (over 200 were arbitarily killed in a single mass shooting just a couple of months ago), and are promising to make good with the Zionist state. Surprise! Oh, and that first “civil war” that ravaged Syria several years back? That was sponsored by Obama; he went to Amman to hand over billions of US public funds to packs of 18 yos with kalashnikovs shouting “Allahu Akbar!” (Lindsey Graham went on record to call them “moderate rebels”). But of course, centrist commenters like buddhamat are never aware of these things, because they get their news from highly biased sources. So, buddhamat, how many right-wing genocides and regime changes does the DNC have to fund, how many human lives have to be lost, how much of our human civilizational heritage has to be blown to powder before you finally stop “holding your nose” and voting for human monsters who care nothing for you? I’ll bet there is no upper limit to how evil the DNC can be for voters like buddhamat, as long as they can be rationalized as better than the opposition. And I’ll bet that “better” never has any objective standards to which it can be held: as much as I detest Trump and his legion of idiot fans, he still hasn’t surpassed Clinton or Obama when it comes to genocidal horrors in the Middle East – heck, at least the Big Orange hasn’t brought his creepy wife on board to get in on the action, like Clinton did with his creepy wife.
I’ll bet buddhamat feels pretty stupid, now they know that the horrors occurring in Israel-Palestine, Syria, and Iraq are all their fault.
“I’ll bet there is no upper limit to how evil the DNC can be for voters like buddhamat, as long as they can be rationalized as better than the opposition.” –@Libretto68
the ‘d’nc
is about as
“democratic”
a corporation
as Walmart LLC
they Decide.
the Voters Concur.
or we get
Eltrumpfster.
Fucking TWICE.
maybe
even
thrice.
@26 that’s not victim blaming, that’s truth telling. The Palestinians have it their power at any time to live in a free society in peace with their neighbors. They literally wake up every day and instead choose violence. If they want the war to stop, release the remaining hostages. If they want to live in peace, acknowledge Israel has a right to exist and abandon their pursuit of killing all Jews. We both know that will never happen though.
@31 you’re like a human centipede for imperialist propaganda, the shit flows in and the shit flows out
@26: “…you accuse Palestinians of bringing about their own modern-day Holocaust at the hands of state terrorist Netanyahu and his ethnofascist regime.”
Of course, you provided a URL and quote from me, saying that.
Or my saying anything like that.
Or my blaming the situation on “Palestinians” instead of “Hamas.”
Good luck with that, we know you won’t even bother trying to find any quote of me saying anything like what you wrote. You engage in these cheap, drive-by slanders because you don’t have an actual argument, and you know it.
@29: And so we have a president who has openly spoken of deporting the entire Palestinian population from Gaza. Do tell how that’s so much better than even your wildly-exaggerated claims of what “Genocide Joe” and “Killer Kamala” did.
You guys just hate the Democrats, full stop. Trump is worse in every way, and will hurt even more innocent persons, but you don’t care. Per Horseshoe Theory, you’re even going on about how evil Hillary Clinton is, partying like you’re Republicans in 1999. Because there’s no difference between you and them.
Wow, thirteen12… still can’t accept reality? Can’t accept that purity politics from the far left served up Trump the presidency on a silver platter? You have no right to complain about anything Trump does given your stance. Nothing. Take a seat and zip the lip.
@17 and @18 Yep… perfectly stated.
@34 Kamala made a choice to court imaginary Republicans of conscience at the cost of alienating progressives. It turned out to be a fatally stupid choice for which she and her team bear sole responsibility. Stop trying to blame people other than those whose actual job it was to win the campaign for them not doing so, you pathetic simp.
@32 lol well if you’re going to resort to name calling I guess we know you got nothing else.
@35: Wasn’t the priority during the campaign to win over the middle and undecided rather than winning progressives?
@24: “It isn’t boasting to claim this, it’s an established fact.”
Then you should have no problem supplying a quote and URL establishing that ‘fact’. (What’s the line? Oh, yeah: “I don’t need to hold your hand while you do it.”)
‘However, they used to say that Ms. Sawant was “literally stumping for Trump,” and they now tend to omit the “literally,”…’
Wow, look — you put those words into quotation marks, as if you had actually provided real quotes. But you didn’t. Or the URLs. So please do, and please don’t ask for me to hold your hand whilst you do it.
@29: “I’ll bet there is no upper limit to how evil the DNC can be for voters like buddhamat, as long as they can be rationalized as better than the opposition.”
Instead of bashing your straw man just to lose a wager, how about you address the evil we’re talking about right here: Trump. Do tell us how the Democrats are no better than Trump. Pick any issue. Or any number of them.
@35: Again, the Uncommitted Movement, the Abandon Harris movement, and Sawant all worked to reduce the number of votes Harris got, they succeeded, and their actions had nothing to do with Harris recognizing there are actually a very few sane Republicans out there. It was persons absolutely obsessed with All Gaza, All The Time, and that you’re now trying to erase their incredibly destructive fanaticism, shows just how desperate you are.
@36 CDizzle posted this the other day:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/29/israel-security-agency-extremist-government-war
“The truth is that our hostages in Gaza have been abandoned in favour of the government’s messianic ideology and by a prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu who is desperate to cling to power for his own personal gain. Our government is undermining the democratic functions of the state to shore up and protect its own power. It is forcing us into a perpetual war with no achievable military objectives and which can only result in more loss of life and hatred.”
When the former head of Israel’s Security Agency, and 70% of Israelis, can see that the Netanyahu government is responsible for the prolonged conflict it’s objectively embarrassing for an American to not be able to figure it out. If you’re going to continue to lap up propaganda you should expect to be treated with nothing but contempt.
@35 yes, exactly, the campaign/DNC made a strategic choice and bear the culpability for its failure.
“When the former head of Israel’s Security Agency, and 70% of Israelis, can see that the Netanyahu government is responsible for the prolonged conflict it’s objectively embarrassing for an American to not be able to figure it out.” –@thirteen12
blind
or merely
Manipulative?
from Caitlin’s Newsletter:
Israel’s Backers
Keep Whining That
They’re Losing Control Of The Narrative
Amnesty International is now calling Israel’s mass atrocity in Gaza “a live-streamed genocide” due to the way this nightmare is unfolding right in front of us on the screens of our devices around the world, and public support for Israel is plummeting in the United States.
Israel’s backers are losing control of the narrative because there’s only so much that PR spin can do to convince people they’re not seeing what’s right in front of their eyes.
If you’re strangling someone right in front of me there are no words you can say to me to convince me I’m not seeing someone being strangled, no matter how skillful you are at manipulation.
Actions speak louder than words. Talk is cheap. A picture is worth a thousand words. These aphorisms exist for a reason.
In February, US Senator Lindsey Graham told the press at an event in Tel Aviv that in the Arab world “Israel has won the war on the ground, but they’ve lost it on television,” lamenting that “all they see is morning, noon and night attacks on the Palestinian people.”
The Arab world is seeing attacks on the Palestinian people morning noon and night because that is what’s happening. That is what the entire world is seeing.
Past a certain point there is only so much that mountains of verbiage can accomplish when people are seeing history’s first live-streamed genocide playing out right before their eyes.
Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. The average human life is dominated by mental stories, so if you can control the stories they are telling about what’s going on, you can control the humans.
Losing narrative control is losing real power.
That’s why
Israel’s supporters
are growing increasingly anxious.
–by Caitlin Johnstone; April 30, 2025
more:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israels-backers-keep-whining-that
Speaking of
Losing the Narrative
nyt:
How Photography
From the Vietnam
War Changed America
The images changed how the world saw Vietnam, but especially how Americans saw their country, soldiers and the war itself, which ended 50 years ago this month.
The war — and its images — changed America, aggravating divisions, exacerbating distrust and making it harder for the country to agree on America’s historical and future role in global affairs.
We are all living, in some ways, in Vietnam’s shadow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/world/asia/vietnam-war-photography-impact.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes
precisely Why
Israel has murdered
Hundreds of Journalists
Humanity
hasn’t Time
for these Horrors
not
Once they’re
Revealed to Us
and now
Israel’s Starving
Palestine to DEATH
on
OUR
TAX $$$.
do
You
Approve?
@39: If Netanyahu now uses the hostages as an excuse to prolong war, then it sounds like Hamas should immediately release all of the hostages. That would deny him this excuse for brutality, it would show Hamas is indeed serious about relief of suffering in Gaza, and put the proverbial ball in Netanyahu’s court.
From this, it follows that everyone who cares about Gaza will urge Hamas release the hostages. Oh, look: it’s May Day. What exactly did you write on your “free the hostages” sign, and at which of many demonstrations today should we expect to see it? Don’t be shy!
“yes, exactly, the campaign/DNC made a strategic choice and bear the culpability for its failure.”
Don’t you just hate it when campaigners won’t admit their campaign has utterly failed, and neither take responsibility for their failure, nor propose a better course of action?
“We’ve marched, we’ve shut down traffic, we’ve written countless emails to our local, state, and national representatives … and we must continue doing all that work in the name of all that is right and true and good.”
Yeah, that really sucks, doesn’t it?
(https://www.thestranger.com/elections-2024/2024/08/07/79637812/seven-takeaways-from-washingtons-2024-august-primary)
can the Wormtongue
not twist Anyting
Beyond Com-
perhension?
Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism
Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism, you say? Sure, that makes sense. How someone prays and what religious beliefs they hold is exactly the same as supporting apartheid and genocide.
You can’t even tell them apart; the last time I tried to pray the rosary I got confused and bombed a children’s hospital.
It’s true: there is absolutely no difference whatsoever between opposing a political ideology and opposing the existence of a small religious minority.
That’s why it is universally considered racist to criticize an opposing political party. That’s why anyone who tries to engage in a political debate is immediately arrested for committing a hate crime.
Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism. If you don’t support the idea of dropping a western settler-colonialist state on top of a pre-existing civilization and then defending its status quo of apartheid, theft and abuse by any amount of violence necessary, then obviously you support the idea of exterminating millions of Jews in gas chambers.
If you don’t want anyone to commit genocide against Palestinians, then that means you want to commit genocide against Jews. There is no third possibility.
Don’t think we should be sending billions of dollars worth of military explosives to be dropped on hospitals, residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Gaza?
That means you harbor extremely negative emotions toward a small Abrahamic faith.
Think it’s bad to deliberately starve millions of people who are trapped in a giant death camp? Then that means you want to start loading Jews onto trains.
Think it’s wrong to wage a systematic extermination campaign against an entire people because they are a different ethnicity?
Then you, sir, are no different from the Nazis.
Anti-Zionism is anti-semitism. Cats are ducks. The Declaration of Independence is spaghetti sauce. The Bronze Age is a foot fetish. There are no differences between any two things. All things are exactly the same as all other things.
The human mind is incapable of making any distinctions of any kind. Turning left is the same as turning right. Drinking water is the same as drinking bleach.
Going to the supermarket is the same as killing your dad. This is how we all live our lives. Everyone knows this.
Everything I just said makes perfect sense. Anyone who disagrees is Hitler.
–Caitlin Johnstone; May 01, 2025
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/anti-zionism-is-anti-semitism
22: Asking a question about how new laws will be enforced while complaining about “the system” isn’t a full-throated endorsement of out-of-control cops.
You employ the same logic as Trump when people point out the requirement for due process for immigration enforcement and that’s taken as an endorsement for gangs.
@22, “You think an armed state agent is necessary to address litter? “
Yes. Unless the enforcer is armed, the littering law becomes unenforceable. The suspect can walk away or escalate force to a higher level than the enforcer, until they can leave unidentified and uncited.
Whether the literer is identified by name and cited is at the sole option of the person accused, not the state, unless the state can bring more coercive force to the encounter than the suspect.
45 in addition to being completely unhinged, this would be a massive waste of public resources and a senseless, potentially life-endangering risk for law enforcement to take over a minor nuisance infraction
@46, Then repeal the law. If its just a suggestion, to be voluntarily complied with, at the discretion of the person committing the alleged infraction, then is it really a law.
If its a law, then whoever is enforcing it, must be trained and equipped to respond to however the person facing the citation choose to respond on the force continuum. If the state’s enforcement officer isn’t, then whether to be positively identified so they can be cited, is solely at the discretion of the person facing the citation. Society has surrendered the ability to have people comply with the law or face the appropriate penalty for non-compliance.
There are many cases where someone apparently unarmed, escalates a stop for something innocuous like failing to use a turn signal, expired license plates, or failure to produce I.D. at a traffic stop where they were just going to get a warning, into a deadly force incident by using a deadly weapon against the enforcing officer. Because the consequence of not be able to respond with equal or greater force is so high (death) for the enforcement officer, they must have that capability, even if the probability of such an encounter is relatively low.
@44 why fall back to “just asking questions” when NotMyopic is here to help try to make your point that armed state agents are necessary for littering enforcement. Stick to your guns!
@48, Armed enforcement by the State is necessary for ANY law enforcement, or the target of that enforcement can evade enforcement by escalating their use of force until the state’s effort fails.
Every successful government on the planet can, and if necessary does, bring a higher continuum of force to efforts to enforce laws than the target of that enforcement. Those that don’t fail to enforce their laws and the state eventually fails.
Try not paying a camera ticket in Finland. I guarantee you that if you don’t, armed agents of the state will eventually come and seize you, or your assets, by whatever force is necessary. Keep all your assets in cash, in a safe, on your property, they will eventually show up with a warrant to seize the penalty. If forceful resistance is offered to protect that safe, the government will bring enough force to bear to overcome that resistance.
They also might wait until you die and try and get it then, from your estate; however, if your heirs are on the property, and offer the same resistance, then the same process will occur.
The fact that such a scenario doesn’t happen, is because only a tin hat lunatic doesn’t recognize the inevitability of the Finish State prevailing, once an asset seizure warrant is issued.
@49 “The fact that such a scenario doesn’t happen…”
So the conclusion of your acid dream about Finnish fine collectors is Finland doesn’t ever actually need to use armed state agents to collect fines? Exactly.
@50, They do use armed collection agents in the few scenarios that call for it. The point is they are rare in Finland because of high levels of social cohesion and compliance by the population.
In the U.S. we don’t have that. We have people who escalate stops for the most minor matters into armed assaults on those that police them. So then you need armed officers much more routinely, not as the black swan exception that proves the rule (e.g. Finland and Scandinavia). Even in Europe, the more likely police are to encounter armed resistance to government agents enforcing the law, the more likely they are to be armed. It varies from country to country depending on the countries level of social cohesion and norms around compliance with democratically enacted laws and norms.
@51 do you have an example of a fine collection by armed agents in Finland? Also, why do you believe Americans are less likely to comply with democratically enacted laws and norms?