Conservative KIRO News Radio is now concerned about a report by Washington Health Benefit Exchange that “showed 66,000 people in Washington dropped their Affordable Care Act (ACA).” That’s close to a 25% drop. Since Trump took office, around 100,000 people in this state lost their protection from the accidents of life; they can’t afford to go to the hospital if something suddenly happens, and something bad always happens to the body sooner or later to a body, otherwise it wouldn’t be a bloody body. This is a moral catastrophe of the first order. Conservatives, who often claim to be the followers of “the man from Galilee,” are entirely responsible for this. And, of course, it’s “the meek” who must suffer because of these “thoughts and prayers” white Christians. No one else is to blame. Forty-two percent of those who lost coverage were “under 34, with black and Hispanic residents” bearing the brunt of white American Christianity.
Praise Father God, Amtrak Cascades will resume its service to Portland, the busiest part of its line in the Pacific Northwest, after a fire on August 2 threatened to collapse a warehouse onto the tracks near Union Station. The Seattle Times reports that trains will resume partial service today to Portland; the next day, all trains will carry the people to the great dives and strip clubs of Portlandia. Many of us feared it would take forever to revive the life of this crucial part of the line. But Lord, you showed us your mercy. Praise by thy name.
Trump has declared, on Truth Social, that the Strait of Hormuz is now “NEW U.S. Territory.”
What to make of this declaration of madness? It recalls the final scene of Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God. But that conquistador, Gonzalo Pizarro (played with insane intensity by Klaus Kinski), wasn’t nearly as nuts as Trump at this point. Some of Pizarro’s declarations on the doomed ship, attacked by monkeys and indigenous arrows, proved to be correct. There is no such hope to expect from Trump’s drifting ship.
What Americans have to realize is the American Empire is now a thing of the past. If the US is lucky, it will continue as a tri-polar world: China, Europe, and North America. The last will require the US to open its borders to Canada and Mexico and create, possibly in Washington, D.C., a kind of Brussels. So sorry to say this, but American Awesome is now receding in the rearview mirror. Get used to it.
Recall that excellent line by the British R&B trio Loose Ends: “It’s all a mystery to me.” The Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat is somehow saying something similar about a river in Spokane that’s not “rivering”: “…for now [it’s] a mystery [to me].” On August 9, a mile of Spokane River went dry just like that. The same thing happened last year, and no one, not even scientists, has any idea why? Can I provide a clue, pretty please? In 2024, the GOP candidates were all about that cheap gas; this time around, it’s the Democrats. No one in mainstream politics is saying no to gas. It’s only about its cost, which, in terms of social costs (the harm it does to the environment and humans), is way too cheap. If we wanted our dying rivers to rise and live again, we should be paying around $20 for a gallon. (By the way, the Spokesman-Review is not in the dark about what’s what. The Spokane River is dying because of climate change caused by capitalism. What is Westneat on?)
Speaking of rivers dying in the capitalocene (we must not call it the anthropocene because it blames humans in general and not a historically specific culture of humans, one that has as its substance the unlimited accumulation of value—and I use the word “substance” to mean that which is necessary for a certain thing to be a thing—for this climate catastrophe). Anyway, there appears to be no rain coming our way today. Expect a high of 79 today.
Creamed in Milwaukee: If Nathalie were here, and not on vacation at some reservoir, she would despair over the Mariners’ blowout loss to the Brewers 22-0 at American Family Field in Milwaukee. Never in franchise history have the M’s gotten their plump, juicy, brand-sponsored asses kicked this bad. According to the Seattle Times, 36,870 cheerful fans watched this torture scene, which began with the grim portent of a tornado warning.
Guys, the Mariners, I don’t know if you are reading this, but I know losing sucks. But losing really, really catastrophically bad—tying the MLB record for getting pantsed and stuffed into the proverbial locker, joining the illustrious Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Guardians—is something else entirely. It is very funny. As your good friend and starting pitcher Bryce Miller said, y’all still have a chance at the Series. I have only this to say…
Since we’re talking disasters, the professional nerds at the Washington Department of Emergency Management, Department of Natural Resources, and others, modeled an Alaskan tsunami caused by a 9.2 quake along the Alaskan-Aluetian subduction zone—a much more likely scenario than the Big One—and found that a wall of water would indeed slam into our coastline, inundating our islands and charming beach towns with ferocious speed. What they didn’t expect to see were significant impacts on the inner coast of Puget Sound. At least folks would have more time to scramble up the hills in the event of an Alaskan quake than when the Cascadian subduction zone decides to do the tantarella. If you live in the drowning part of the state instead of the burning part of the state, experts urge you to find out how to receive emergency alerts. Also, get yourself a NOAA radio, which can be programmed to alert you to a tsunami’s presence.
Classes at California high school Wheatland Union were canceled yesterday after a bomb threat made by an AI-generated voice. “[This is] consistent with a pattern of hoax threats targeting schools across the country,” reports FOX40. Automated robo bomb threats have shut down schools in Georgia, in Vermont, and in Kansas.
UPDATE: Classes at Wheatland Union were delayed today after a second threat.
WIRED reconstructed Flock camera’s next-generation AI system for monitoring the Shiny Happy People of America and confirmed it does more than track license plates*.
“The software, originally called Nightshift and more recently renamed OS Investigate, ships with 69 prewritten prompts that officers can select, review, or edit, and then submit to the AI. Officers can also input prompts of their own.
The suggested prompts sit in a cache of more than 450 files that WIRED found on Flock’s own website, served by its login pages to anyone who loaded them. The code describes 45 tools at the AI’s disposal, giving it access to plate scans and camera metadata, arrest records, case files, dispatch logs, ballistics results, and commercial databases that contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates.”
*Freudian slip: Google Docs, which includes an annoying predictive text feature, autocompleted this sentence as “confirmed it does more harm than good.” Broken clocks.
Meanwhile, a Washington judge did her part for this technological revolution when she ruled that the Grant County Public Utility District can take land for data center power lines. Grant County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Richardson did not decide whether the utility had followed the “required negotiation and appraisal procedures,” reports the Times, but said it didn’t matter or invalidate the county’s decision to condemn nine properties in the way of the power lines. Unless the parties wave a jury, jurors will decide how much landowners will be paid. One plaintiff claims that Grant PUD valued her property $600,000 less than it was worth.
Frank Beard, the drummer of ZZ Top, and ironically, the trio’s only relatively clean-shaven member, joined the 77 club yesterday. Beard was in hospice care when he died at his ranch in Richland, Texas, not too far from the waterpark where I spent two blazing summers lifeguarding in high school. ZZ Top singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons said in a statement that he lost a true collaborator, and Texas lost a true son. A solemn yee haw.
To reflect, here’s Charles’s favorite ZZ tune: “Blue Jeans Blues.”
