Weather: There’s a 30% chance that it’s already raining. That’s not a real number, just a Mean Girls reference. I’m out of original jokes this morning. Please forgive me. Not everyday can be my day. Anyway. Today, Seattleites can expect rain, rain, rain from about 7 am today until tomorrow morning. That’s a lot of precipitation! But with temperatures holding steady in the upper 30s, don’t worry about snow.
Boycott alert: UFCW 3000 members shutdown the Macy’s at Alderwood Mall on Monday when nearly 200 union workers staged a strike over unfair labor practices. Now, workers are calling on you to stop shopping at Macy’s in solidarity until the company addresses their concerns about health, safety, retaliation against workers, etc. More than 20,000 shoppers have already pledged to keep their money out of Macy’s wallet. I did not know that Macy’s had 20,000 shoppers!
🚨🚨🚨STARTING NOW🚨🚨🚨
We’re asking YOU to boycott @Macys.DO NOT shop at ANY Macy’s in our jurisdiction (WA, northeast ID, and northern OR) until workers’ concerns are addressed!!
Say no to corporate greed. Stand w/workers. Pledge your solidarity: https://t.co/KIi50lHAJ0 https://t.co/rjfw24FkXy
— UFCW 3000 (@UFCW_3000) January 17, 2024
Can’t even do “good guy with a gun” correctly: The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a 600-page report on the 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The report called the police response to the shooting a “failure” due to poor coordination, inadequate training, and shitty execution of active-shooter protocol. The cops’ utter incompetence caused significant delay to identifying and stopping the shooter, which allowed him enough time to kill 19 children and two teachers, and injure 17 others.
Putting the “L” in recall: Remember last spring when a small group of loud right-wingers said they would collect signatures to recall Lynnwood City Council Member Josh Binda, a young, Black progressive, over some kinda silly rookie mistakes? Well, they failed. Hard. While the campaign said they collected 1,050 signatures, they failed to turn any into the Snohomish County Auditor. If the campaign is telling the truth, then they garnered less than half the 2,400 signatures required to get on the ballot. Binda seems happy, but the campaign promised to “return.” So ominous!
I’m beyond grateful to announce that the recall attempt to remove me, the youngest BIPOC elected in Washington state history, by the Racist GOP from office has officially failed! Not a single signature was turned in by the deadline. 🙌🏾 I’m immensely thankful to my community and… pic.twitter.com/7iFncbB7Yc
— Josh Binda (@JoshBinda) January 17, 2024
Supreme Court: The conservatives on the Supreme Court could overturn the Chevron decision, a 40-year-old precedent that obligates courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous law, bolstering their power to regulate industries. Conservatives on the court argue that the rule gives the executive branch, which manages the agencies, too much power, and liberals argue that not relying on these experts would make courts into policymaking bodies. For example, without Chevron, a judge would decide whether to consider a cholesterol-reducer to be a “drug” or a “dietary supplement,” said Justice Elena Kagan. Kagan would rather an industry expert at the Department of Health and Human Services decide that.
Vacancy: The Seattle City Council has to fill a seat left vacant by progressive Council Member Teresa Mosqueda. Over the weekend, business appeared to pick its darling, failed candidate Tanya Woo. Last night, the MLK Labor Council endorsed School Board Director Vivian Song, previously pegged as organized labor’s best shot. Tonight, the eight finalists will (hopefully) get grilled in a community forum, so we can see if Song is worth the hype.
Tsk tsk: There’s about a million reasons to oppose Woo—she’s not a frequent voter, she said (and retracted) some questionable stuff about trans kids in sports, and she’s a total NIMBY. But there’s one scandal to Song’s name. As her School Board colleague pointed out in their meeting last night, Song does not live in the district she represents on the board. Her colleague accused her of breaking voters’ trust. The Stranger’s been wise to her house hopping since 2021. Not a great look and you probably should not hold an office you are not qualified to hold! But, on the bright side, she can move all around Seattle if she scores the citywide seat. HAHA. But if Song’s scandal really bugs ya, maybe tell the council to appoint Mari Sugiyama or Linh Thai! This should not be a point for Woo among progressives!
Iran: Pakistan launched airstrikes into Iran early Thursday, killing at least four children and five adults, according to the AP. The strikes, allegedly targeting a separatist group known as the Baloch Liberation Army, come two days after Iran fired airstrikes into Pakistan to kill other Balcoh people in Jaish al Adl bases.
Yemen: For the fourth time in a week, the US fired missiles at the Houthis, a group that controls most of Yemen. The Houthis are trying to fuck with international trade by launching missiles at ships in the Red Sea, including a US-owned ship the group hit on Monday. According to the Houthis, they will stop once Israel stops its genocide against Gaza.
DoorDash? More like dork ass! The overlords at food delivery app DoorDash gave Ashley a lil warning last night. In a message to customers, they announced they’re adding a new fee to Seattle orders in response to the City Council passing a law to make the bosses of the gig economy exploit workers less. Just flagging this because DoorDash and other bosses will likely lobby the new, more business-friendly council to water-down or repeal the worker protections the last council fought for. Something to watch!
doordash doing politics pic.twitter.com/9NfqetBke9
— Ashley Nerbovig (@AshleyNerbovig) January 18, 2024
Oh behave, Trump lawyer! A judge “bench-slapped” former President Donald Trump 14 times yesterday in the first day of testimony in E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit against him.
Can a gay girl get an amen? I have not seen the new Mean Girls movie, despite previously referencing the OG version. I don’t think I will see it until I can get it for free because I heard it sucks! But I do like this song.
What? An Iran vs Pakistan war- and we’re not part of it? God, we are slacking!
@1: looks like they’re both attacking each other’s Balochis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochistan
If the DoorDash surcharge goes to protect workers, isn’t that a good thing?
Just stop using Door Dash and get your own damn food.
@4,
Was gonna say the same. Given people, I want as few of them involved with the handling and procurement of my food as possible.
@4
I call it Amazon delivery for Democrats: You want something delivered- get it yourself!
Uber Eats also added a $5 fee, they just didn’t announce it, it’s broken out in the total now. Instacart also announced they will add a fee in response.
@4, 5 Apparently I’m old and or have privileged transportation? I think that food tastes better in a restaurant. If I’m bringing it home, I want to do it myself so that it takes the minimum possible amount of time in transit. And only people with food handler’s licenses handling it besides me.
@8: plus all the packaging, ugh. little <3″ plastic containers, poly-lined cardboard that can’t be composted, paper sacks, plastic bags.
anyone driven down north B’Way at night recently? the center turn lane is filled with the double-parked vehicles of food delivery drivers.
One of the main reasons the company that flogs the once-respected brand name Macy’s closed the downtown Seattle store (Other than their complete incompetence at marketing and the fact that Amazon made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, especially considering that aforementioned incompetence) was because the downtown store was unionized, and they prefer to hire people they can boss around.
Macy’s has been dead to me for a long time.
If I’m already spending $30-$50 minimum for food deliveries already, $5 is just a drop in the bucket. It was always a luxury anyway, picking up the food yourself is always an affordable option. That being said, I know there is a small population of people with mobility issues who rely on services like Instacart for grocery shopping. It would be nice to see an exemption for those users.
If you’re so mad that Door Dash is passing along the tax/fee on to the customers instead of paying it out of their corporate coffers… maybe you should buy your own food or stop pushing companies for ~better~ benefits. No company is ever gonna eat another fee if they can just pass it along to the consumer instead. That’s business, baby.
The announced surcharge is sleazy politicking.
The surcharge itself is not. This Stranger whining (and of course, it would be the “Hannah” performance art collective) is just another example of typical Seatle lefty vote in benefits you want other people than you to pay for. The majority of the voters elected the people who voted this in, which raised business costs. It’s not the responsibility of the DoorDash customers in Findlay, OH to subsidize paying for the benefits we voted in for our regional DoorDash staff. You voted for it, you pay for it.
BTW – I support all of the benefits, I just don;t whine they have to be paid for.
@15 Not to nit, but I don’t think Hannah brings up the surcharge notice to “whine” but to point out that Doordash and similar businesses are actively smearing this regulation and will more likely lean on the newly minted moderate city council to revert the legislation.
I got that Seattle doordash notice and I am not in the county or even area code
neither judges nor legislators are in the slightest position to be able to make technical decisions. Legislators will be spoonfed technical positions by lobbysists, and judges will have mercenary lawyers misrepresent what expert witnesses tell them.
@12 Catalina Vel-DuRay: At the rate Macy’s is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if the store at Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham is next on the list of closures.
@18 You are so right about that. The whole gamut of government operations will be affected if Chevron goes down. It really can’t be overstated. Acceptable levels of environmental contaminants in your air and water. The ability of agencies to swiftly respond to natural or public health disasters. Which types of providers are covered under Medicare and whether brand name drugs face and generic competition. Who needs to get permits to fill in wetlands. Whether certain federal consumer protection agencies can even exist. Not to mention averting a global climate catastrophe and the next mass extinction event. To think Congress can make these decisions in a way that better protects the public interest in a post-Citizens United environment is absurd. Government would be handcuffed from doing much of anything effective, and fully exposed to pay-to-play legislative malfeasance as you noted. But these arrogant justices and the Federalist intelligencia think they know best. They either don’t know or don’t care what it takes to implement even well-crafted federal legislation.
“To think Congress can make these decisions in a way that better protects the public interest in a post-Citizens United environment is absurd.”
–@periwinkle
yeah but they
Don’t think that:
they just wanna be
Rid of the Nanny State*
that disrupts corporate Profit-
eering & penalizes the Invesrtor Class
from maximizing Shareholder Value a God-
Given RIGHT in the richest country in History.
it’s not about
Right or Wrong
it’s about the God-
Given Rights of Capitalism.
which may prove a
little Troubling for more
than a few of tS’s Commentariat.
*the Deconstruction
of the Administrative State
–Steve Bannon, pardoned ‘Wall
Builder” who bilked MAGAts outta
Millions & then pardoned by fellow
Fascist the disgraced El ratto trumpfarto
It seems to me the simple solution is not allowing corporations, nonprofits, etc. play the contractor scam – if you’re working on behalf of someone, you should be treated as an employee under the law (if the courts could hold big tech to this standard, not sure why Uber, Doordash, etc. should be immune). Gig work is a lie that needs to die.
@22
Yes,Kristo, here in the good old USA it’s profits, profits Uber allés!
When is fascism not fascism?
When is a bribe not a bribe?
Just ask our Supreme Court!