Seattle's going to revisit this day forever. Credit: CB
Seattles going to revisit this day forever.
Seattle will revisit this day forever. CB

Freedom: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other Facebook products broke today, becoming unavailable to users for around six hours due to “networking issues.” The world reportedly heard sighs of relief. Let’s do this again sometime.

Facebook’s fumble came at a terrible time for the company: Even before the epic crash, this morning’s headlines were yelling about how “Facebook is weaker than we knew,” referencing the Wall Street Journal‘s recent investigative series on the company, the “Facebook Files.” And then there was the Facebook whistleblower who made “bombshell allegations” to 60 Minutes over the weekend.

With Facebook, we’re seeing “a kind of slow, steady decline that anyone who has ever seen a dying company up close can recognize,” the New York Times‘s Kevin Roose wrote this morning, a few hours before the company’s stocks tumbled. Market Watch called it a “very, very bad day” for Zuckerberg’s devilbaby.

We’re revisiting June 8, 2020 again: Why did SPD decide to pack up their shit and abandon the East Precinct last summer, and who made the call? KUOW partially answered that question in July, reporting that Assistant Chief Tom Mahaffey led the department as it abandoned the precinct. Today, the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) dropped 26 pages of its findings from their investigation into that call. They specifically looked into allegations that then-SPD Chief Carmen Best and Mahaffey “failed to take responsibility for their respective commands, did not adhere to laws or policy, used improper discretion, and were unprofessional,” reads the OPA’s summary.

Ultimately, the OPA didn’t sustain any of the allegations and defended Best and Mahaffey’s performances last summer. “In OPA’s opinion, the evidence indicates that SPD command staff and, specifically, [Best and Mahaffey], made the best decisions they could under trying and overwhelming circumstances,” reads the report.

Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who filed one of the allegations with the OPA, told the Seattle Times today that she believes the findings “fail to get at the questions I asked OPA to review.”

Council President González described OPA’s report as showing “SPD treated responsibility as a ‘hot potato’ that no one wanted to get caught holding.”

You can read it all here.

Drop it like it’s hot: Drone light shows are the latest thing, and while (light-show) drones are not as dangerous as fireworks, the lil’ spaceships can still plummet from the sky, as they did over the weekend in Zhengzhou, China. I think the sky-chaos looked kinda pretty.

No one reported injuries, but there were lots of freaked-out spectators. It’s unclear what caused the drones to drop.

William Shatner will ride Jeff’s rocket: Kent-based Blue Origin confirmed today that the 90-year-old Captain Kirk actor will travel to “space” with a VP from the space company and two other astronauts. They lift off next Tuesday, October 12, from West Texas, and Shatner will become the oldest person ever to visit space. The feel-good news is a sharp contrast to the other headlines Blue Origin’s been getting.

Data diddling: Seattle mayoral candidate Bruce Harrell says he loves the data, but the data doesn’t seem to love him back.

Saturday Night Live is back with a new Biden. The show built back better, replacing Jim Carrey’s indescribable Biden with a Biden played by new cast member James Austin Johnson, known for his Trump impression.

How’d he do? Vulture called it an “incredible debut.”

A second term from Trump would be about “revenge,” predicts former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who joined everyone and their MAGA grannies who say Trump will run again in 2024. “Everybody’s showing their fealty to him. He’s on his revenge tour, for people who dared to vote for impeachment,” Grisham said on Good Morning America this morning.


“And I want to just warn people that once he takes office if he were to win, he doesn’t have to worry about re-election any more,” Grisham continued. “He will be about revenge, he will probably have some pretty draconian policies.” Grisham is the same person who recently alleged a Trump aide would play Cats the musical when Trump threw tantrums to soothe him.

What’s Trump waiting for? Probably the 2022 midterms to pass, and then he’ll announce his run for reelection. Here’s a big article on it from the Washington Post today:

Some of his advisers were concerned that Democrats might use his announcement in their effort to frame the midterm elections around his candidacy, potentially boosting their own turnout and hampering his plans if Republicans fall short next year. Advisers also argued that he could be more effective electing like-minded Republicans next year if he was not an official candidate himself.

“The biggest point we drove home was that he doesn’t want to own the midterms if we don’t win back the House or Senate,” said one person familiar with the conversations.

The arguments won Trump over, for the time being at least. Instead of a presidential campaign announcement, Trump, 75, has settled on a strategy of winks and nods. As some in his party worry, he is acting like a candidate for public office, and making clear he intends to be one again, without actually declaring so himself.

It’s about to be 5 to 7 degrees cooler than normal: We’re getting a cold front, Seattle!


Sadly, the heaters are on and the happy lamp is lit in my house—it’s good weather for horror movies though.

Andrew’s out: Failed NYC mayoral and USA presidential candidate Andrew Yang wrote a letter announcing he’s officially out of the Democratic party this morning, though he’s been on a PR campaign promoting his “Forward” party for a few weeks. Coincidentally, he’s peddling a new book, also called Forward.

ICYMI, Rent creator Jonathan Larson created other musical projects during his 35-year-short life: Most notably tick, tick…BOOM! Netflix is making an adaptation of it. Andrew Garfield stars as Larson and Lin-Manuel Miranda directs in his feature directorial debut. I have musical theater hives, so I haven’t finished the trailer Netflix dropped today, but here it is.

Chase Burns is The Stranger's former editor. He's covered everything from gay luchadores to chemical weapons to Isabella Rossellini's favorite pets.