Good Morning! Today is our last day in the 80s for a while. We’ll slide into the weekend with some perfect Seattle weather in the high 70s, and it’ll last through the first half of next week.
Let’s do the news.
Who Wants to Build Trump’s Fighter Jets Anyway? More than 3,200 machinists in Boeing’s St. Louis-based defense division are threatening to walk off the job on Sunday and halt production of their military planes. Boeing, who totally isn’t worried about their stock prices, reminded Seattle Times readers that this was just a tenth of the size of last year’s strike in the PNW that tanked their productivity. They also want you to know that this won’t affect production of Trump’s vanity project, the F-47, which is their newest defense contract.
Out-of-State PAC Money Rolls into City Council Race: Stranger Staff Writer Nathalie Graham reported yesterday that the National Association of Realtors, a Chicago-based political action committee, already spent nearly $70,000 on mailers for Council President Sara Nelson’s bid to stay on the Seattle City Council. That adds to the more than $400,000 war chest Nelson already has for her campaign to hang onto her council seat. To counter that out-of-state spending, her best competition, Dionne Foster, got some support from Seattle’s progressive PAC, helpfully named Progressive People Power (or P3). As a rule, they don’t get involved until the general, but the Nelson/Foster race got them in the mix early.
Toe-to-Toe: New polling from the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) showed Foster four points ahead of Nelson with likely voters, once they were provided the information in the voter pamphlet. Those four points are within the margin of error, so statistically, it’s a tie. But with Nelson’s record-low approval ratings, I’d bet she’s feeling nervous.
Meanwhile, in the other city-wide council seat, NPI polling found that Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck looks likely to win reelection pretty comfortably, despite the Seattle Times’ refusal to endorse in that race because, as they said, while the candidates were “an interesting group of hopefuls” (a sitting council person) and “very nice,” none of them met their criteria for an endorsement (good). It seems like Republican candidate Rachael Savage sees the writing on the wall, so she’s taking her whole campaign message and turning it into a citizen initiative to ban homeless camping in Seattle and force people to choose between treatment and arrest.
The Shield Tax Is Working Its Way Through Council: Yesterday, City Council heard public comment and voted on 17 amendments for the progressive tax code overhaul called the Shield Initiative. Introduced by Councilmember Rinck and Mayor Bruce Harrell, it would eliminate or lower the B&O tax for small businesses, raise the tax for Seattle’s 2,300 highest-grossing companies, and raise $90 million in the process. Public commenters overwhelmingly spoke in support of the bill (the only exceptions being the extremely pro-business Downtown Seattle Association and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce). A huge number of people working on food access showed up, because under a Trump administration, this initiative could literally be the difference between people eating and not. Council should vote on the full initiative on Monday, just shy of the deadline to get it on the November ballot, and let the people decide.
Nuclear Fusion in Everett? The Everett-based company, Helion, announced that it broke ground on the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant. The only problem? It’s not clear if they’ve actually figured out how to turn fusion into power. Maybe that’s a problem for Future Helion.
Fernando’s Going Home, for Now: Fernando Alves Rocha, the theater manager at Juanita High School in Kirkland, is expected to be released on a $10,000 bond. He’s been in the Northwest ICE Processing Center for nearly two weeks after immigration officers arrested him in his driveway. They claim he overstayed his tourist visa in 2018. His attorney told KUOW that Rocha filed an asylum application a day before his visa expired in 2018, and that he’s had a valid work permit since his asylum application has been pending.
Our Hometown Counterterrorist: Remember when Joe Kent, Trump’s “Young Gun,” was running for Congress in Southern Washington? Well, the former Green Beret and friend to White Supremacists was just confirmed by the Senate as the country’s top counter terrorism official.
Trump’s Tariff Tantrums: The deadline for tariffs to come crashing down on every one of our trade partners is tomorrow, so there’s a lot of tariff news: Trump has escalated the fight with Brazil, raising their tariffs to 50 percent and slapping sanctions on the judge that’s investigating Bolsonaro (because dictators look after their own, sometimes); the Administration settled on a 15 percent tariff rate with South Korea; and countries are agreeing to buy more US fuel than they need just to get Trump off their back. And then there’s Canada. Trump said this morning that it would be “very hard” to make a trade deal with our neighbors to the north if they dared to follow in the UK and France’s footsteps and recognize Palestine’s statehood.
As a reminder, 147 out of 193 UN member states recognize Palestinian statehood. We’re the problem.
Gazans Are Starving and Capitalism Still Rules: Most Gazans depend on aid drops for sustenance at this point, but there are still some operating markets, selling limited produce, pantry staples, and some looted aid package materials. There, a kilo of sugar is more than $100. Baby formula is $51. Let me say that again. Baby formula for starving infants is $51.
This Is Fascism: Another Ivy League university has paid off the Trump administration in exchange for being allowed to exist. Brown University agreed to make $50 million in payments to state workforce development programs over the next 10 years, and said they would comply with the Trump administration’s overall ideology, including bans on transgender athletes participating in collegiate sports. Because our federal government is the mob now?
Uh Oh, I Agree with the NYT Editorial Board: The New York Times editorial board took a shot at the Supreme Court this week, calling them out for their lack of transparency around their rulings about the Trump administration:
Federal judges are not elected by the public. Nor are they supposed to make decisions based on their ideological preferences. Our political system instead vests them with the power to decide whether the president, Congress and other lawmakers are enacting policies that are consistent with previous laws, court rulings and, above all, the Constitution.
For these reasons, the credibility of judges depends on their ability to offer public explanation for the legal basis of their decisions…Clear explanation is especially important for the Supreme Court, which sets national rules that lower courts must follow. When the court fails to make these rules clear, confusion can set in.
The current Supreme Court is creating precisely this problem by issuing many important rulings as brief, unsigned orders on its so-called emergency docket. On this docket (also known as the shadow docket), the votes among the nine justices are not public, and the majorities typically offer little explanation for their decisions. Yet the justices have used the emergency docket this year to hand down a series of rulings allowing President Trump to expand executive power and alter the structure of government.
Preach.
I’ll be at the Death Cab for Cutie anniversary show tonight, and Nation of Language is opening for them. So I’ll ease you into the morning with one of my favorites:
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Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
I strongly disagree making Brown University make $50 million in payments but banning transgender athletes participating in competitive physical collegiate sports is a good thing, actually.
“she’s taking her whole campaign message and turning it into a citizen initiative to ban homeless camping in Seattle and force people to choose between treatment and arrest.”
Thanks for this information. I’ve been torn between two bad choices, Ray Rogers or Rachel Savage. While I generally would not vote for either a christian street preacher or a crystal hawking new age wing nut these are strange times. Savage’s support for a ban on homeless camping might be the deciding factor in me voting for her.
Any idea where one can sign this petition? Banning homeless encampments should absolutely be on the ballot, I think it would have a great chance to pass.
It’s hard for me to believe there’s really someone out there that wasted their time designing, and their money printing, that ugly stupid sticker, but then again, it’s in Seattle.
Thanks for confirming that Hamas is looting aid to Palestinians and selling it on the black market at outrageous prices. I’m not sure that helps the Palestinian effort however, considering Hamas is the democratically elected leadership of the Palestinian people.
Also, who cares what 147 other nations believe about a two state solution. We are sovereign and we make our decisions based upon our best interest alone. While I once supported a two state solution, it seems clear that Hamas will never get on board and the Palestinians aren’t interested in moderate leadership. So basically, GTFO.
Personally more mystified there are people willing to spend 6 figures on a triangle shaped refrigerator on wheels that can’t handle 6 inches of snow but sure the sticker is a little over designed too
“But with Nelson’s record-low approval ratings, I’d bet she’s feeling nervous.”
Hannah should click the link she provided. The numbers have sharply turned since the “record-low” days of May. Specifically, Nelson’s approval rating has jumped from 19% to 29%, and her disapproval has dropped from 40% to 34%. In fact, Nelson, Harrell, and Davison are all seeing rising approval ratings now:
https://civicheartbeat.org/job-approvals-over-time
In other local news there was yet another suspicious fire this morning, this time on North Beacon Hill, just a bit south of Chez Vel-DuRay.
New residential construction, one of those DADU things with several units. Burnt to the ground, with a fire so hot it melted the adjacent units siding, and set the original house on fire.
@4 nobody serious thinks Hamas is behind the looting, not even US government analysts:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/usaid-analysis-found-no-evidence-massive-hamas-theft-gaza-aid-2025-07-25/
@2 “While I generally would not vote for either a christian street preacher or a crystal hawking new age wing nut”
Unless either of them proposed jailing homeless people then you’d be all in. Much like any other conservative you’ll support whatever looney toon promises to be meanest to the people who make you uncomfortable.
re: #4: Literally none of the US’ foreign policy is democratically decided. There is no “we” here. The majority of US voters vote against their own interests due to relentless “lesser of two evils” propaganda – that’s where the majority of “public support” for endless wars-for-profit comes from. If the US foreign policy were put up to a popular vote, it would be voted out in a landslide.
@1 Please take yourself out with the trash.
@7: That’s frighteningly awful – it was just a couple of blocks away from friends of mine as well
https://komonews.com/news/local/2-alarm-north-beacon-hill-detached-garage-fire-spreads-to-home-power-lines-down-searching-the-building-seattle-fire-department#
Having Joe Kent on a counter-terrorism task force is like having Matt Gaetz chaperone Junior Prom.
“Because our federal government is the mob now?”
Elections have consequences.
The debtor is the lenders slave and the grantee is the grantors slave.
That is why political parties fight to win elections. So they can give out money and legal sanction to foster their aims and the aims of their supporters, and take away money from causes they don’t like and opponents they don’t like.
Progressives are just pissed because MAGA is better at the spoils game, and overcoming Constitutional checks than they are, not on any principle.
All the more reason to have more separation of power. Once you control the Presidency, apparently you are a dictator for four years.
Imagine if the Senate hadn’t amended its rules to exempt Appropriations from the filibuster. We wouldn’t have the so called, “Big Beautiful Bill”. We would be better off.
When the Democrats had the trifecta of the Presidency and both Houses of Congress, Progressives were calling for repealing the filibuster because it thwarted them from using their majority to cram their agenda down the losing side’s throats.
Now those Progressives are wishing that the filibuster applied to more stuff, and there were more procedural checks against total power to the victor of the last election. If they wished that all the time, not just when the other side was kicking their ass, then they would be principled.
The good news is Trump’s popularity and favorability numbers have been dropping since his election. The bad news is the Dems numbers have fallen even more over the same time period.
@4 there’s nothing democratic about Hamas’ “elections.” They’re internal only, led by a secret council that was technically elected by other Hamas members (again, no public input here), but they in no way shape or form represent the overall will of the Palestinian people. There’s absolutely no external democratic legitimacy to them and that’s before we even talk about the Palestinian Authority and their feelings on Hamas. The fact that you think otherwise just adds to the list of things you understand fuckall about.
@12, Yes it is. Word.
“Let me say that again. Baby formula for starving infants is $51”
So are those profiteers committing genocide as well?
@14 – Wikipedia (the encyclopaedia of leftist propaganda) disagrees with you. The voters chose Hamas. Fatah disagreed with the results of the election. After a violent split, Hamas took authority over Gaza and Fatah took authority for the West Bank. If you understand the situation so damn well, why don’t you mosey over to Wikipedia and make an edit.
@9 – what the hell are you talking about? US foreign policy was absolutely on the ballot in 2024. You are correct, the voters are sick of the endless foreign wars. That is why they chose Trump.
@13 I”magine if the Senate hadn’t amended its rules to exempt Appropriations from the filibuster. We wouldn’t have the so called, “Big Beautiful Bill”. We would be better off.“
Or imagine if Harry Reid hadn’t amended Senate rules to end filibusters on judicial nominations. We wouldn’t have Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, or Barrett.
@18,
The Senate simply shouldn’t exist and certainly shouldn’t be endowed with the power to determine who sits on the SC as the final check on appointment. It’s a fundamentally undemocratic institution based on outdated principles that gives disproportionate power to rural white idiots who also happen to skew religious and conservative. It sucks butt.
@17 first of all, holy shit you think Wikipedia is leftist propaganda? JFC that’s a new one.
Second, there hasn’t been an open election in the Gaza Strip since 2006. The Gaza Strip section of the Elections in Palestine Wikipedia literally says – and I quote – “Following the Fatah–Hamas conflict that started in 2006, Hamas formed a government ruling the Gaza Strip without elections. Gazan Prime Minister Haniyye announced in September 2012 the formation of a second Hamas government, also without elections.” Gaza has literally been an authoritarian Islamist state for almost 20 years.
18: Applies to rural idiots of color too, yo?
@20 – of course Wikipedia is leftist. It’s a well known fact.
But I see where you are coming from (the Elections in Palestine article). Still, I find the section you quoted hard to reconcile with the main section which says “the January 2006 legislative election was won by Hamas”.
I’m honestly interested in understanding your viewpoint so please respond. Thanks.
@19
All you need to do is get a Congress member or Senator to propose an amendment eliminating the Senate.
Then you merely need to get 290 House members and 66 Senators to send the amendment to the states where you will then need the legislatures of 38 states to also pass the amendment.
Easy peasy right?
Until that time we will just have to accept the reality of the Senate’s existence.
theincrediblek @20, I think our resident MAGA minion has you dead to rights on Gaza. To give a valid comparison, imagine we’re living in the United States in 2043. We’ll be looking back at our last free and fair election in 2024 that brought the Republicans into permanent power. And to those smarty-pants who point out that we will not have had an election since then, we can simply ask, “What’s so undemocratic about that?”
Donald Trump: “Elect me, and you’ll never have to vote again.” Promises made, promises kept.
“There, a kilo of sugar is more than $100. Baby formula is $51. Let me say that again. Baby formula for starving infants is $51.”
It’s not clear if that price for baby formula is for a kilo (like the price for sugar) but, if it is, that works out to $1.46 per ounce. At Wal-Mart, Enfamil Powder Baby Formula is $1.51 per ounce. So maybe not so outrageous as it sounds.
I’m not defending the genocide or the black marketeers. Just doing the arithmetic.
@8: Nobody serious thinks Hamas’ thievery of humanitarian aid from Gaza has ever consisted merely of a few truck lootings here and there, and certainly not the US’ premier source of economic investigations and news:
“The group [Hamas] has used the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods to build new income streams… This has included charging taxes on merchants, collecting customs on trucks at checkpoints, and commandeering goods for resale.”
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/food-aid-becomes-main-sticking-point-in-gaza-cease-fire-talks-18f2c614?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=1)
We can tell exactly who cares about the situation in Gaza by counting the number of times they have criticized Hamas for this.
@26: Apparently, Hamas has no leadership at the helm and couldn’t respond effectively even in good faith. So it’s solely now the IDF and Netanyahu being the forces of evil still blockading the feeding of the starving.
@27: “ Apparently, Hamas has no leadership at the helm…”
Yes, the IDF has tried to kill all of Hamas’ leaders, but apparently enough survived for Hamas to threaten violence against anyone helping private contractor GHF distribute food in Gaza.
Again, we can tell exactly who cares about the situation in Gaza by counting the number of times they have criticized Hamas for this.
@7 Catalina Vel-DuRay and @ 11 Phoebe in Wallingford: How horrifically awful, and unsettling to be so close to where you live. I’m sorry that is happening.
@28: Regardless of the culpability of Hamas, and regardless of any and all of the ulterior motives of all parties involved, the blockade must end to prevent further famine.
@30: Agreed, but refusing to admit Hamas bears a great deal of the blame for the situation does not help to resolve it. They’ll simply resume stealing the aid, and using the proceeds to prepare for their next attack upon Israel. Allowing that helps nobody but Hamas, who are already under pressure from their sponsors to disarm.
@32: Agreed as well, and all those are second tier issues that can be addressed after the blockade is lifted.
@32: No, those are issues causing the current situation. Hamas threats of violence against aid deliveries must end before aid can arrive, for obvious reasons.
@32: There are no issues preventing lifting the blockade. Threats of violence don’t meet the bar, for obvious reasons.
@34: Exactly. No problem in sending in aid workers just to be killed! That’ll get babies fed!
That’s risk the aid workers will be glad to take. Wouldn’t you?
@36: You first. (When you volunteer to escort the aid workers, please don’t forget to tell them how they’re glad to be risking Hamas’ violence. That will make your whole experience even better!!)
thank
Gawd
AIPAC
is so well-
represented
here by our dear
Wormtongue: it’ll NEVER
LOSE an “argument” when
it comes to Justifying Genocide.