Iraqis protesting against their government last month. A similar scenes are now playing out at the US embassy in Iraq. Credit: Erin Trieb / Getty Images
Iraqis protesting against their government last month. A similar scenes are now playing out at the US embassy in Iraq.
Iraqis protesting against their government last month. Similar scenes are now playing out at the US embassy in Iraq. Erin Trieb / Getty Images

Crowds attack the US embassy in Baghdad: “Protesters broke into the heavily guarded compound of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday and lit fires inside to express their anger over American air strikes that killed 24 members of an Iranian-backed militia over the weekend,” the New York Times reports, in a story that’s leading all the major news outlets this morning. (And also Fox.) “Inside the embassy, US diplomats and embassy staffers were huddled in a fortified safe room,” the Washington Post reports. While outside, the protesters chanted, “Death to America!” At this point, the Post says, tensions have “eased somewhat.” President Donald Trump, of course, is tweeting.

For people as old as Trump, this probably brings up memories of… the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Read up on it in this recent AP timeline commemorating the 40th anniversary of that particular embassy storming.

And for people who still remember 2012, this may also bring up… Benghazi.

The driver shot on Highway 509 on Sunday has died: He was shot in the face, the Seattle Times reports, and the Washington State Patrol “is searching for a suspect as it also investigates other shootings along local roadways.” Other shootings? The list over the last couple of years is longer than you might think.

A call for doubling the federal minimum wage: The New York Times editorial board writes that “millions of workers are being left behind because 21 states still use the federal standard, $7.25 an hour, which has not risen since 2009 — the longest period without an increase since the introduction of a federal standard in the 1930s.” One part of the argument for raising the federal minimum wage: states like our very own Washington, where, as noted yesterday, the minimum wage has been rising due to state government, local government, and activist intervention. “Workers in the rest of the country also deserve a raise,” the Times says, pointing out that amid all the state-level minimum-wage increases, national job growth remains “strong.”

Still mad about Bret Stephens? Hamilton Nolan has a modest proposal regarding people who get paid by media companies to have opinions all the time. “Fire all the full time columnists,” Nolan writes, “and run op-ed sections on a freelance basis. Use their bloated salaries to hire reporters!” It’s nothing personal, Nolan says. The former Gawker writer and current Splinter writer knows all about the challenges of “waking up every day and desperately scrambling to fill a blank page with words,” and in the process he thinks he’s figured out why so many paid opinion-peddlers “suck” (“Tom Friedman sucks. Maureen Dowd sucks. David Brooks sucks. Ross Douthat sucks. Richard Cohen sucks, Charles Krauthammer sucks, Kathleen Parker sucks, George Will sucks, Dana Milbank sucks, and almost everyone at the Wall Street Journal sucks and should be in prison for crimes against the people…”). The answer, Nolan believes, involves focusing on the fundamental question that lies beneath “this grand panorama of suck.”

How many fresh, interesting ideas can one person come up with? Put more plainly, how fast can even a good writer who does have fresh interesting ideas come up with them?

Fortunately, I know the answer to this: Twice a month.

Seattle’s New Year’s Eve fireworks may be canceled: Blame “gusty winds,” which may end up causing the Seattle Center to call off the annual tradition of shooting fireworks from the top of the Space Needle.

Low snowpack in Washington is causing concern: “Officials say Washington’s snowpack is less than a year ago and similar to the start of 2015, the state’s last big drought,” reports KOMO.

The year in charts: How much new border wall has Trump actually built? How many federal judges has he installed compared to other presidents? Whose job growth numbers are really better, his or Obama’s? Answers here.

And Barack Obama’s favorite music of 2019: Featuring Lizzo, Alicia Keys, and Lil Nas X:

(Also on offer: his favorite books, movies, and TV shows.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, SLOG! In case tonight’s Space Needle fireworks are indeed canceled, here’s how they looked in 2018:

Happy New Year’s Eve! Today’s EverOut picks are: Jet City Improv’s New Year’s Eve Extravaganza, an electro-rock blowout with Thunderpussy, Bear Axe, Constant Lovers, and Trash Fire, and New Year’s Eve Fireworks at the Space Needle. See more on our EverOut Things To Do calendar and our guide to a cheap & easy New Year’s Eve.

More in NEWS

Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.

The AI Wars Come to Ravenna

There’s a contentious election in a normally sleepy North Seattle legislative district, with out-of-state money pouring in. Blame the robots.

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...