Weather: Who’s trying to have a frozen margarita on a rooftop tonight? WHO? Okay, maybe not frozen, but with the sun in full view and temperatures in the low 60s, I think outdoor drinking weather is truly upon us. Maybe Friday we can spring for the blended drinks since temperatures will be in the mid 60s. Check an actual weather website because this shit is subject to change as I’ve learned from spreading weather misinfo in Slog AM in the past. 

Around town: Of course, there’s other things to do around Seattle that do not involve a $16 alcoholic beverage in the sun. Check out EverOut for the best recommendations for how to fill your free time. Tonight you could go see indie rock band Sheer Mag at Vera Project or 4/20’s Eve Eve Comedy Show at the Crocodile. 

Eruption in Indonesia: Indonesian officials have ordered more than 11,000 people living within six kilometers of Mount Ruang to evacuate as the volcano erupts. 

SPD: Wednesday afternoon, Seattle police officers shot and killed someone while trying to make an arrest at a hotel in Tukwila. In an obvious attempt at gaining public sympathy to justify the killing, the Seattle Police Department would only say that their investigation involved the “Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force,” and that their target “produced a fire arm” and was killed “after a struggle,” the Seattle Times reports. The TV news only cared about the story because a bullet grazed a cop. 

Classic CONSERVATIVE City Council: Yesterday, the Land Use Committee rejected Chair Tammy Morales’s Connected Communities pilot program, which would loosen zoning restrictions for affordable housing in the midst of a housing crisis. Her committee colleagues Council Members Cathy Moore, Maritza Rivera, and Tanya Woo voted no, and Dan Strauss abstained. 

Not over: Personally, this vote really pissed me off. The “gentle density” conservatives grew smart enough not to outright oppose density and appropriated the language of social justice to help them accomplish their exclusionary goals. Instead of saying they hate density because they want to keep their neighborhoods wealthy and white, they say they oppose density for fear of displacement. Yesterday, Moore, Rivera, Woo, and Strauss showed their asses by opposing a bill designed to promote density and affordability specifically for communities at high risk of displacement, including “refugees, immigrants, communities of color, LGBTQ+ communities and people experiencing homelessness or at risk of economic displacement,” which would mitigate the very apprehension they pretend to have. On paper, they should all be bending over backwards to co-sponsor this legislation, but alas. I linked their contact info because the bill will still go to full council April 30, so there’s still time to convince them.

Round and round: Okay, remember how earlier this month Israel killed some Iranian officials at a consulate in Syria? And then Iran did a lil retaliation? That really could be the end of their dick measuring contest tbh, but, according to the AP, Iran’s president vows to launch a “massive” attack should Israel strike back even the “tiniest” amount. 

Foreign aid: The AP wrote that President Joe Biden announced his strong support yesterday of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to send $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel, and $8 billion to Taiwan. For scale, that one-time aid package, a drop in the bucket for the US’s continued support specifically to Ukraine and Israel, could forgive more than 40% of medical debt for Americans. Just saying!

Fuck Google: Last night, Google fired 28 workers who protested the company’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government. In an internal memo, Google’s head of global security wrote “If you’re one of the few [employees] who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again.” The group leading the protests at Google, “No Tech for Apartheid,” said that the firings were clearly retaliatory, and I agree! Like, no shit. 

Asylum update: A few weeks ago, I wrote about the failure of the City, County, and State to get a group of migrants into longer-term housing so they can get their work permits and start making their own rent money. Just as Seattle seemed prepared to sweep them from the tennis courts where they established a makeshift camp, some donors swooped in and paid for some hotel rooms. When that money dried up, the Low Income Housing Institute helped extend the stays. Yesterday, King County awarded $2 million to nonprofits to help the asylum seekers. The Seattle Times has more information.

NO on 2117: According to Northwest Progressive Institute, the growing campaign to stop I-2117, which would repeal the Climate Commitment Act, unveiled a new website and campaign video yesterday. If you’re unsure whether ultra-wealthy farmer cosplayer Brian Heywood and that Star-of-David-mocking State GOP Chair Jim Walsh repealing a critical tax on major polluters is in your best interest, then take a look at the campaign’s introductory video. I trust most Slog readers already hate these fuckers and their slew of bad ballot measures, so maybe send it to mom or something:

Big money: Not only did the No on 2117 campaign drop a new site and video, they also flexed some high profile donors. Bill Gates and Tableau Co-founder Chris Stolte each donated $1 million. Though it doesn’t show up on their campaign finance filings just yet, No on 2117 claims big-time polluter Amazon also threw in a good chunk of change. As the Washington Observer wrote on substack, “The company’s involvement here is especially notable because it spent millions to defeat a similar carbon-pricing scheme on the ballot just six years ago.” Growth.

Day three: Former President Donald Trump will be back in court today for a third day of juror selection in his hush-money case. The jury pool is under intense scrutiny because, like, how do you live in New York City and not have a major bias for or against Trump?? The court picked seven jurors so far—an information technology worker, an English teacher, an oncology nurse, a sales professional, a software engineer and two lawyers, but the case still needs five more people. Maybe they should just bring in the Stranger Election Control Board? We’ll do it.

Tonight: I don’t like to inundate Slog readers with Ms. Swift, but her new album Tortured Poets Department drops at midnight (9 pm for us on the West Coast!!) and also this song felt like it applies to my life rn lol.

Hannah Krieg is a staff writer at The Stranger covering everything that goes down at Seattle City Hall. Importantly, she is a Libra. She is also The Stranger's resident Gen Z writer, with an affinity for...

64 replies on “Slog AM: City Council Keeps “Red Tape” for Affordable Housing Construction, Google Fires 28 Protesting Workers, and ‘No on I-2117’ Campaign Launches”

  1. @52, @54: So, Johnstone’s belly-flopping down the same slippery mental slope which got Garb banned from here, eh? You really shouldn’t encourage either of their self-destructive tendencies.

    Of course, even Johnstone has yet to accuse the IDF of gang-rape, so maybe she can still depart said slope laterally, instead of joining Garb, going face-first all the way into the mud hole at the bottom. (I really hope he’s doing better now.) Otherwise, it’ll be Protocols* for the remainder of her way down.

    (Aforementioned pesky lack of gang-rape must really be grinding on you moral-equivalency folks by now. How do you stand it?)

    *Got an over/under on when she joins the impressively-large number of unimpressive readers who’ve paid royalties — or at least tribute — to the last Tsar’s secret political writing service?

  2. oh wormmy!

    you say the

    Darndest

    things!

    meanwhile

    [belatedly]:

    Israel

    Wins Oscar

    for Best Performance

    as ‘Victim’ in Ongoing Genocide

    “We want to thank the producer of this performance, Israel Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Families like mine for blocking humanitarian aid at every checkpoint as hundreds of thousands of Gazans starve to death.

    My talented actor colleagues who are always there to play dress up in the underwear of mothers we’ve murdered with me to destress from this high-stress performance

    as the one and only True

    Victim in this harrow-

    ing drama.

    And, of course, I want to thank all my friends abroad who suspended their disbelief enough to believe that there could ever be any rational reason to slaughter this many innocent people, most of which are women and children.

    Thank you!

    Thank you!”

    Before Israel’s big win tonight, they got to high five castmate the United States when they won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in the same production of Ongoing Genocide for its role as “Enabler.”

    At press time, England was receiving a lifetime achievement award for fucking over and fucking up more cultures and countries for generations than any other country in the history of human civilization.

    more, savagely:

    https://theneedling.com/2024/03/10/israel-wins-oscar-for-best-performance-as-victim-in-ongoing-genocide/

    good olde

    Jolly old

    England!

    good for Them!

    & – OUR Tax Dollar$

    Hard at work! . it’s

    about Time we

    won an Award

    for Some-

    thing.

    carry on

  4. @57: No mention of Iran getting an award? From funding Hamas’ rape gangs, to their farcically failed and immediately foiled attempt to attack Israel directly, to most definitely not retaliating as Iran had most definitely promised to retaliate after Israel easily bombed one of that regime’s inland air bases with utter impunity — Iran’s malicious clown show, while not always harmless, did everything it possibly could to remind the world that Israel still Iives in a dangerous neighborhood, with bullies who want to destroy it.

    And, after all of that effort, Iran doesn’t even get one single mention?

    Boycott those awards!

    (Protesting is important and good, right? So, I PROTEST!! You’re welcome, you’re welcome; please, not so much adulatory applause, just send money…)

  5. ah

    Yes

    WMDs

    Makers’

    their Orgies

    Of Destruction

    Biggest dickusses vs

    Ball bustin phallusses

    Capitalistic $urplusses

    Holy terror rained down

    Upon masses awaiting a

    God some god ANY god

    to Come Save them from

    the wickednesses

    of their fellow man

    but whattabout

    The womenfolk?

  6. @58: I hope Garb is getting some much-needed rest, and finds peace. Continuing as he had been doing here was helping no one, least of all him.

    @60: “but whattabout

    The womenfolk?”

    Most of the women whom Iran paid Hamas to rape are still dead.

  8. Garbby can

    get excited it’s

    true he’s a passionate

    person whose buttons’re

    pushed by a master manipluator

    if i read you correctly who seems to

    be here solely to make this thing go Away

    he’s one of the

    truest Spirits

    i’ve met in

    so many

    Decades

    plus

    he can

    see right

    Thru you wormmy.

  9. @63: Enter the search terms “Garb” and “subhuman” into the Stranger’s search engine. You can immediately see he had little hesitation in using that term to describe actual human beings here with whom he disagreed. He persistently could not disagree without becoming disagreeable, and as a result, he repeatedly engaged in the hateful personal attacks which, it appears, finally got him banned.

    The man-made humanitarian disaster in Gaza should inspire passionate dialog, but Garb very easily moved from disagreement with other persons, to denying those persons’ very humanities. That’s not helpful to anyone, and especially not to Garb. One cannot degrade others without first degrading oneself, and Garb seemed trapped in an ever-downward spiral of such successive degradations. Again, I hope he’s doing better now.

    Oh, and I like how Garb let me push his buttons, even though he could see right through me (?!?). You really don’t think very highly of him, do you?

  11. @65: Readers can and should take that as a bit of projection / subconscious confession from you. Your insult to a person who can no longer defend himself here was really low, even by your subterranean standards.

    Garb was having problems, and one persistent symptom of those problems finally got him banned. So he’s not here to defend himself, and knowing this, @63 you describe him as such an incredibly hopeless patsy, he let an obvious “master manipluator [sic]” push his buttons. You may even be such a total incompetent with handling the words, that you actually believed you were paying him a compliment and insulting me; whereas in reality, you did exactly the opposite.

    With friends like you, Garb needed no external enemies.

  12. “You may even be

    such a total incompetent

    with handling the words, that you

    actually believed you were paying him

    a compliment and insulting me; whereas

    in reality, you did exactly the opposite.” oh

    Wormtongue at

    Least you’ve come by

    your Nickname honestly.

  13. @67: Again, the opposite is true: your name-calling uses property you have stolen from its rightful owner. Therefore, neither I, nor anyone else, can claim to have acquired it “honestly.”

    Don’t try to involve me in your thievery.

Comments are closed.