Good Morning! First, the weather: We keep getting edged by snow. First, we get some big, fluffy, beautiful flakes that refuse to actually accumulate; Then they turn into black ice on the roads; Then we get promises of snow in the future. Well, expect more of that this week. Highs in the 40s, lows in the 20s, and occasional snow frolicking.
Okay, let’s start with the Trump of it all.
RFK Clears the First Hurdle: This morning, the Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines (14-13) to move the nomination of RFK Jr. to the full Senate. The party-line vote wouldn’t typically be surprising in this loyalty-testing environment we’re in, but one of those Republicans is Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy, a physician who specialized in treating liver disease. (Read: a person who at least theoretically believes in science.) Just before the vote, Cassidy, who was considered a potential deciding vote, tweeted: “I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning….With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.” This morning, carrot sticks and fascism beat vaccine science.
DOGE Goes After DOE: According to the Washington Post’s sources inside the White House, Trump is drafting an order that aims to “eventually” dismantle the Department of Education. In a surprising moment of self-awareness, the order acknowledges that the DOE can only be shut down by Congress, so in the meantime, the admin has instructed the DOE to “diminish itself,” WaPo said. Elon’s DOGE is already on it, putting dozens of staffers on administrative leave, and pressuring staff to quit voluntarily. As a little glimmer of hope: both Dems and Republicans told WaPo that it’s extremely unlikely that Congress would ever summon up the supermajority required to actually defund the DOE. At least we agree on one thing.
“Chaotic and Vindictive”: This week, the Trump administration warned more than 1,100 EPA employees who work on climate change, reducing air pollution, and enforcing environmental laws that they could be fired at any time. According to NYT, an email was sent to staff members who’d been hired within the past year and have probationary status. The paper reported that many of those employees were part of the Biden administration’s effort to rebuild the agency, after it had been depleted by Trump in his first term. “EPA is at the center of the bullseye for President Trump’s vindictive purge of public servants,” said Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, a group of EPA alumni. In an interview with the Times, she called it “the most chaotic and vindictive transition in the history of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Stepping Back for a Sec: If you’ve been feeling disoriented and overwhelmed by the steady onslaught of executive action by Trump—well first, that’s by design. It’s Stephen Miller’s “flood the zone” philosophy in action. But it’s getting hard to see the forest for the trees. NYT’s chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, took a helpful step back to look at the scope of what’s happened in the last two weeks. Spoiler alert: your feelings are valid. Baker called the admin’s style “a Gatling gun approach to governing,” where “Trump has left virtually no corner of Washington untouched as he seeks to tear down the old apparatus and refashion it to his liking.” According to the advisers that Baker spoke to, this onslaught isn’t expected to slow down, so plan for a long haul, and take care of yourself. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Joe Kent is Back?: No matter how many times southern Washington rejects him, former Congressional candidate Joe Kent keeps coming back like a coiffed punch-me clown. Trump’s former “Young Guns” is back in the news as Trump’s nominee to direct the National Terrorism Center. “As a Soldier, Green Beret, and CIA Officer, Joe has hunted down terrorists and criminals his entire adult life,” Trump wrote. That is—except for all those years when he was busy losing elections to Democrats in red districts. Except then.
UW Gets a New Prez: Yesterday, the University of Washington Board of Regents announced that they’d selected Robert J. Jones as the 34th President of the UW. Currently the chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he plans to join UW on August 1. This will be the third large, public, research university he’s run. He is a respected authority on plant physiology. Jones is replacing Ana Mari Cauce, the first woman to run UW, and Jones will be the first Black person to run the university in its 164-year history—but that detail was notably absent from the messaging on the university’s website. Should we read into the fact that a university that “receives more federal research dollars than any other US public university” isn’t touting a diversity win? You tell me.
Sara Nelson Racks Her Brain: In our favorite proof-reading error so far this week, someone on City Council President Sara Nelson’s team accidentally left placeholder text in an email touting that her reelection campaign had “raised more than over [sic] $100,000 in record time.” A few paragraphs into their victory lap, they wrote: “Under Nelson’s leadership as President, Council passed fifteen pieces of public safety legislation, added mobile medication units bringing treatment to hard-hit areas, increased resources and partnerships for a safer, more vibrant Downtown, and [something more left-leaning].” Some poor schmuck pressed send before anyone could come up with one single left-leaning thing Nelson did. It’s like that one time you misspelled “detail-oriented” on your resume, but, you know, worse.
“It Was Mayhem”: For once, we’re not talking about mayhem in the federal government. We’re (weirdly) talking about Girls’ High School basketball. In the final seconds of a Garfield vs. West Seattle game in January, several players got into a fist fight. Teammates tried to separate them, coaches and parents got involved. Players got suspended for a game or two. It was a bummer. But then the video got onto Twitter, and commenters got real gross and racist about the two teams from predominantly Black schools. Then Barstool Sports weighed in with their not-so-subtle dogwhistles about how girls’ basketball might need “enforcers” now. And yesterday, almost a month after the fight, the Seattle Times demanded “answers” from SPS. What answers? We’re really not sure. But we’re pretty sure we already know more about these minors’ lives than we need to. But in case you’re wondering, West Seattle won that game, 48-39.
Gaiman Gets Sued: Remember the New York Magazine cover story detailing fantasy writer Neil Gaiman’s alleged history of sex crimes? It was a week before the inauguration, which was a whole-ass lifetime ago. This week, a woman filed a lawsuit for sexual assault, saying he raped her multiple times while she worked for his family as a live-in nanny. The suit also included claims of human trafficking, claiming that he coerced her into forced sexual encounters with him as a condition of her employment.
RIP Shelley: Wildrose co-owner Shelley Brothers passed away this week. She dedicated her life to keeping one of the country’s only lesbian bars alive, and became a local celebrity simply by being herself, unapologetically, in that space. The Rose is holding a celebration of life for her on February 16th. Go pay your respects.
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Congrats to RFKJ for receiving confirmation approval from the Finance committee. When he is finally confirmed by the whole Senate, we can start Making America Healthy Again. I’d start by removing the ability to purchase anything other than single ingredient, minimally processed foods with SNAP benefits. Hello, fresh beef. Goodbye Pepsi. Did you know that 85% of SNAP dollars go to purchase highly processed foods and that a majority of SNAP recipients are overweight or obese?
Of course the Department of Education should be disbanded immediately. The quality of public education in this country has declined markedly since the Dept. Of Education was created. Leave public education to the States, that’s what I always say.
Goodbye EPA probationary employees. Don’t worry about “Climate Change” so much. Exactly zero percent of the devastating predictions have actually come true.
Why would UW need to message about Jones being Black? Does a certain skin color make you a better or worse at your job? He was a meritorious hire, given his previous experience. Great job President Jones! Welcome to Washington.
“This morning, car-
rot sticks and fascism
beat vaccine science.”
uh-oh Hannah
our grammar Nazi’s
Not gonna cotton to your so
Loosely tossing that word around
expect months of overly-tiresome
tediousness untethered to this
or any current reality – yet
another Distraction in
furthering fascism
“It’s like that one time you
misspelled “detail-oriented” on
your resume, but, you know, worse.”
does this mean
we’re gonna
finally get
our Edit
button?
THNX
Hannah!
Disappointing to hear about the allegations against Neil Gaiman. My daughter and I enjoyed reading Coraline together and the Sandman stories were excellent.
Tell me though, do we automatically assume he’s guilty like we did with Brett Kavanaugh or do we wait for the evidence like we did for Joe Biden?
It’s hard to keep straight.
“Exactly
zero percent
of the devastating
predictions [re Catastrophic
Climate Disaster] have actually come true.”
see: atmospheric rivers, California
Firestorms — it’s Always smoke season!
Hurricane too; ‘500-year-floods’ on an Annual basis
you’re
”right”
as Usual
babyback
but keep ’em
comin’ anyways.
Thank you for not linking to Twitter on today’s Slog!
The gaiman allegations have been public for years. You’re allowed to believe whichever allegations you like for whatever reasons but I would suggest that if there are multiple corroborating accounts, you should trust the allegations. And if you have a single allegation, their consistency and their willingness to go on the public record to risk perjury or defamation charges should be decisive in your decision to believe them. If you apply those standards to gaiman, kavanagh, and biden you won’t be struggling to keep anything straight.
@4
we assumed
Kavanaughtius
Maximus was a
lying liar who just
Happened to Love
his beers more than
he respected women
but the FBI*
was too damn
Busy to Investigate
allegations against a
reich-wing apparatchik
and we DID get
Promises of Retribution
& a well-stacked USSC rubber stamp.
*Federal Bureau
of What?
Ah, the perils of Stranger sports coverage! In the high school basketball item Slog wrote that the schools are “predominantly” Black (no, West Seattle HS-4.6% and Garfield HS-29.6%, according to the state OSPI website). And, Garfield (not West Seattle) won the game, 48-38.
Bring back the real Hannah. Make the Slog great.
@10 Don’t be a pathetic simp.
@10 – I think Hannah has good instincts for journalism if she peruses it. Although her views were often annoying to me, I saw her make progress in depth and comprehension and in how to tell a story.
@7,
I suspect you’re underestimating the Saxman’s potential to struggle and be confused.
I’m disappointed that we didn’t even a mention that Hannah and Ashley have resigned, or an acknowledgment of the genuinely shocking allegations of journalistic malpractice described by Erica Barnett: https://publicola.com/2025/02/03/two-stranger-reporters-resign-concluding-investigation-into-ethical-breaches/
@1 Nutrition-related SNAP purchase restrictions may sound good in theory, but in practice they would force already super-stressed store clerks to assume the role of food cop. Violence both verbal and physical on a daily basis at supermarkets throughout the country would be the most likely result. But since cruelty is the point with Trump, we may soon find out for sure.
@CK
when our
Chaos hits
CODE f RED
our poor hair
Furor’ll be Forced
to Call out HIS Military
then it’s
adiosa
dear
tS
& some of this
Commentariat too
I’d suspicion. see you
on Greenland!
bring a Sweater!
& a mosquito net
It’s funny (in a stockholm syndrome kind of way, not the fun/lol kind of way) that people are more concerned with how poor people are spending their meager food allowances than the billionaires currently fleecing taxpayers to line their already overflowing pockets. They’re taking away benefits that are there for you if you ever have the misfortune of needing them. They are protecting their class interests at the expense of ours.
I will never understand why people of ordinary means are happy to bend over over and get railed by billionaires so they can make life harder for people who are within arm’s length of their own situation. You will never be a billionaire but you are one injury or debilitating diagnosis away from relying on food stamps and social security to survive. There are millions of people who think like this, many who are already dependent on the government to live, and the only thing they know how to do competently is vote away their benefits and their rights.
barth @17: “It’s funny (in a stockholm syndrome kind of way, not the fun/lol kind of way) that people are more concerned with how poor people are spending their meager food allowances than the billionaires currently fleecing taxpayers to line their already overflowing pockets.”
barth, it’s always worth noting that it’s the billionaires, not the poor, who can afford to unleash an army of disinformation operatives to cunningly exploit human psychology and advocate for their interests. Whether those operatives are hired apparatchiks or useful idiots we’ll never fully know, although I imagine that the former will eventually largely get replaced by AI. Of course, it’s also the billionaires, not the poor, who can afford to own media outlets.
President of WHAT??
@1 how many muscle ups can u do
@15 – there would be no more work or stress for grocery store workers. POS systems can easily be programmed to recognize which staples are SNAP eligible and which are not. (See WIC program for an example.) Are store clerks getting into knock-down fights for refusing to sell alcohol or tobacco products on SNAP? No of course not.
@17 – yes, I’m very concerned about SNAP. We subsidize poisonous foods and then we subsidize health care for the chronic illnesses that result. But go ahead and die on that hill you’ve climbed. You are in good company with Coca-Cola, Pepsi Co, et al, as they all share your position.
@20 – since I have no idea what a muscle up is, I couldn’t say. I do 100 push-ups every other day in sets of 20. Not all at once but throughout the day. And I walk about 25,000 steps per day. Thanks to the dogs mostly.
Remember when Michelle Obama was recommending healthier foods for kids, and conservatives were screaming that we were in Nazi Germany? I don’t think they really care about nutrition as much as installing every one of Trump’s stooges, who will invariably cave to industry lobbyists. Hell, no need for lobbyists if cabinet members just let Elon and his teenage boytoys loot every department.
@21 WIC is not a valid analogy to SNAP because WIC is a much smaller, more tightly controlled program in which each client has a caseworker who gives them a specific list of what they can buy. There’s no realistic way to scale that for SNAP’s tens of millions of recipients, and trying to do so would cost many times more than it would save.
Sure, the actual decision to process a SNAP transaction would be made via computer, but in most cases it would still be a human store clerk’s job to inform (and absorb feedback from) the customer. Yes, most customers would take it in stride but even if only one percent don’t, multiply that by the thousands of transactions that take place every day in a single supermarket, then multiply that across the whole country, and it’s not hard to imagine the problems that would arise. (And yes, conflicts do occur over the few prohibited items already.)
@21, The government isn’t going to make anyone healthy by micromanaging what people can buy with their food stamps but that’s beside the point. I can recall a time when conservatives claimed to believe in individual liberty but that’s also beside the point. The richest person in the world is fleecing the American public and making a mockery of the constitution and dipshits like you are too dumb to know any better.
@25, The government isn’t going to make people any healthier by trying to micromanage what objects they can buy either.
There is widespread evidence that excise taxes on sugary drinks and tobacco drive down consumption but “conservatives” are opposed to them or at least they were until yesterday (not that whatever they say should be trusted to indicate what they’ll do)
@17 reminds me of:
“To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, ‘It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but might as well be.’ It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: ‘if you’re so smart why ain’t you rich?’ There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.”
from Slaughterhouse Five
Sorry to split hairs here, Ed., but
DOE is the Department of Energy.
Department of Education was DEd,
but more recently referred to as…
ED, Ed..
Keep up the good work.
@21 word then shut tf up about health, you’re flabby and weak