What the hell is going on? North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for governor, had a rough day on Thursday. CNN found Robinson's account on Nude Africa, a porn site where he regularly commented on the forums. In those comments, Robinson talked about things like fucking and sucking his wife's sister as she pissed on him, peeping on women in the gym locker room when he was 14, enjoying transgender pornography, his identification as a Black Nazi, his apparent acceptance of a celebrity's abortion, and lots more. As a gubernatorial candidate, Robinson has expressed conservative views that are strongly anti-trans and anti-abortion. If you want to fuck your wife's sister in the ass and then connect with people about it on the forums of a porn site, that's fine, just don't be a disgusting hypocrite of a politician in your daily life.
Finding minisoldr: CNN traced the Nude Africa username, "minisoldr," back to Robinson by finding a variety of his other accounts, such as on Pinterest and YouTube, with the same username. Also, Robinson used his full name and email on the Nude Africa site. The best part is Robinson's vernacular is so distinct he ended up using the same weird phrases on official accounts and on the Nude Africa forum. Robinson denied he was "minisoldr." “This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said. “I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies.”
potentially one of the funnier parts of this story. imagine getting caught being an ultra mega gooner because you talk like a huge weirdo pic.twitter.com/uTyjNDlooU
— corvid friend (@ahabstanaccount) September 19, 2024
Robinson's no good, very bad Thursday continued: When his personal email address was found connected to an account on Ashley Madison, the website designed for married people to cheat on their spouses. This guy really needs to figure out a throwaway email for all his sex stuff.
Another Ashley Madison email: A reporter also found conservative freak Christopher Rufo's email connected to an Ashely Madison account.
Update: Email address belonging to conservative Chris Rufo found in Ashley Madison data dump 1/ https://t.co/uhckYSmd2c
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) September 20, 2024
No, seriously, what the hell is going on? Last night, news broke that New York Magazine's Washington correspondent, 31-year-old Olivia Nuzzi, was engaged in a romantic relationship with none other than 70-year-old roadkill-hoarding, brain-worm-having Robert F. Kennedy Jr. NY Mag placed Nuzzi on leave. A representative for Nuzzi said the relationship was "romantic and digital in nature, not physical," so it seems maybe they were only sexting? Unclear. RFK Jr. denied claims that the two had any sort of relationship and said he only met Nuzzi when she interviewed him for a profile.
A sex trafficking scandal and Matt Gaetz: A new court filing with three eye-witness accounts places Rep. Matt Gaetz in the middle of a 2017-era drug-fueled Florida sex party with a 17-year-old girl.
The weather: Cool and mostly cloudy today. Sip on a hot coffee. Wear a light sweater. Mourn the slow death of the year.
ICYMI: My newest column is out. This time I hit the greens with the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club. Give it a read! Tell me what to write about next!
SeaTac hackers hold data hostage: Last month, hackers targeted the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Now, they're holding stolen data hostage until the Port of Seattle, which runs the airport, pays 100 bitcoin, or about $6 million. The Port said it will not be paying the ransom. The group behind the hack appears to be the "ransomware gang" known as Rhysida. They're currently auctioning off the stolen data on a darknet leak site.
The Stranger's Genius Awards are back, baby! That's right, The Stranger's fancy award show for Seattle's most brilliant creative minds returns to The Moore in 2025, when the first crocuses poke their petal heads out of March's mud. In response to inflation, we're bumping our prize from $5,000 to $10,000, and we're adding food to our list of categories, which otherwise honors geniuses in film, visual art, literature, music, and performance. Start shopping for your outfits now, and read more here.
Creature feature: The deep sea is a mystery! Check out this squid.
Rare 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘢 sighting 🦑
— Deep Sea Research Centre (@deepseauwa) September 19, 2024
While exploring Tonga Trench this month at 3,300m we captured footage of the elusive 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘢 squid. Our gift to you for #Squidtember!@Hadalbloke @uwanews @InkfishExplore pic.twitter.com/Tx9l9oJfFk
Is West Seattle light rail a pipe dream? The West Seattle light rail connection is still in the planning phase. Current studies on the potential route peg the price tag between $6.7 billion and $7.1 billion due to construction costs, the need for more studies, and the expense of an expansive Duwamish River train bridge. I say figure it out! Enough pussyfooting around! Things aren't getting cheaper and the people want rail. Though, maybe it's time to consider an alternative like, maybe, a giant zip line connecting West Seattle and the main land? Food for the thought.
Have you caught COVID recently? You probably had the XEC variant. The new strain, which formed from the omicron variant, is having its way with us in this pre-fall period. Symptoms are pretty COVID-standard: fever, aches, tiredness, sore throat. Don't hang out with people if your symptoms are noticeable.
Someone get an astrologer on the line, stat: Earth is going to have a second moon for two months. An asteroid will join the orbit of our planet and become a sort of mini moon from Sept 29 until Nov 25. It'll be nice for the regular moon to have some company, but the real question is: What does this mean for all of our horoscopes?
I-137 updates: The Seattle City Council of Ghouls Except for Tammy Morales voted 6-1 to add an alternative measure to the ballot that will run against the Initiative 137. Instead of creating a new funding source from an excess compensation tax on employee pay over $1 million and raising $50 million annually for affordable housing, the new council alternative would take $10 million for five years from a fund dedicated to affordable housing and Green New Deal projects. Basically, the new plan sucks and will likely confuse voters by being on the ballot next to the original, way better I-137. Here's Hannah Krieg's take:
This isn't just anti-social housing, anti-affordable housing, it it anti housing.
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) September 19, 2024
Trump's EPA was not focused on science: A new report from ProPublica shows Trump administration officials directing Environmental Protection Agency scientists to doctor testing results to make the chemicals they were testing for environmental or personal harm seem safer than they were. Officials told them to "delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports." When three scientists refused to compromise their work, they were disciplined and removed from their positions. Now, a new report has found these actions were retaliatory. The EPA is working to fix the harms caused by the Trump administration in this sector of the agency. However, these scientists warn that another Trump presidency could make things worse, especially due to Project 2025, which "specifically calls for new chemicals to be approved quickly" and proposes making it easier to fire employees whose work touches on policy in federal agencies.
One last horror: Sorry, so much is happening today. Just one last thing to leave a sour taste in your mouth, I promise. Israel fired airstrikes into Beirut, killing three people and injuring 17. These attacks come after the whole exploding pager incident. As it turns out, those pagers were manufactured by Israeli intelligence hidden behind a ton of shell companies. Also, the two-way radios that exploded were discontinued by a Japanese company a decade ago. The company had warned of fakes.
A song Tiny Desk Concert for your Friday: Jam out to Remi Wolf's acoustic set at the NPR offices.