There was a time in City Hall when Councilmembers were collegial. It’s hard enough getting harassed by members of the public, no harm in keeping it classy with each other. The school board is all kinds of inept, but they’ve at least figured this out.

@1 -- Exactly. The new council is dysfunctional. The problems started with Nelson.

Progressives may not have liked Harrell but no one accused the council of this kind of mismanagement. Same with conservatives and Gonzales. Regardless of your politics, it was clear the board was actually doing what they were supposed to do. When Juarez took over it was the same story.

That isn't the case anymore. The level of incompetence is striking.

For-profit health insurance is immoral. Thoughts and prayers.

@2 if you are upset that a relative group of newcomers with little experience ub running a city are having issues than you should again blame the previous council. It's true they were all knowledgable about how to run the government but their policies and attitude toward their constituents created the backlash that led to the current council being in office. If you want to pinpoint the moment decorum and working with diverse viewpoints was thrown out the window it was Jan 6, 2014.

"Most people really feel for Morales, who faced undue scrutiny, scolding, and disparagement at the hands of her colleagues"

I don't know where Hannah is getting this. The comments in these pages, CHS and various social media are overwhelmingly in support of her resignation. Morales did very little for her actual district in her years in office which is why she barely held on over Woo during the last election.

@4 "if you are upset that a relative group of newcomers with little experience ub running a city are having issues than you should again blame the previous council."

When the progressives mess up it's their fault. When the conservatives mess up it's also the progressives fault. Got it.

Looking forward to the backlash to the current, incompetent Council.

@4, it’s time to move on from the old city council, as convenient as it is to blame them for everything. The newcomers stepped up and promised to do better and now they must show us their stuff. It costs nothing to be civil, and it’s wise leadership to model how they’d like citizens to comport with each other as we struggle through public safety issues, homelessness etc. Using rage and grievance as a salve for for our problems is a page from the national political playbook. They can do better.

@1, @2, @4: The way the Stranger simultaneously invokes Sawant's time on the Council, whilst ignoring everything she actually did there, perfectly exemplifies Orwell's "doublethink." As @4 mentioned, CM Sawant arrived hot, heavy, and arrogantly convinced her way was THE way. For a decade, Socialist Alternative's rent-a-mobs ensured Council public meetings were festivals of bullying near-riots, either implicitly or openly threatening Council Members. Very little of it worked -- the Council repealed Sawant's EHT while SA's mob screamed obscenities and threats right into their faces -- but her nastiness was always either there, or threatened. After all of that, to complain about people saying mean things after Sawant's departure is just another nice Orwellian touch, of rewriting history on the fly. Speaking of which:

"...permanently enshrine a tip punishment system, which CM Sawant had herself written into Seattle's Minimum Wage Law." There, fixed it for you; you're welcome.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/05/biden-immigration-jails-trump-mass-deportation-plan

Child separation is being brought back because it removes the bureacracy of keeping families together so traumatized kids can be trundled off to whichever private human trafficking facility fulfills its head counts to receive federal funding. Your taxpayer dollars well spent to indefinitely detain the most vulnerable for big profits to Geo Group and CoreCivic shareholders, with a new stock of chattel waiting to be collected in fresh concentration camps.

Republicans may be waking up to the fact that grinding people to dust for profit while also letting them have all the guns they want might not have been a smart idea.

@5: Seems like differentiating 'conservatives' from 'liberals' on the Seattle City Council is a matter of nuance. I'd love to see listing of the members by those categories.

@3 it also does not bode well for the UH CEO that the stock jumped 7 points after the news broke. Sounds like nobody liked this man, and UH's claim rejection rate is the highest in the industry. A big ol' "Welp, bye" to that guy.

@10 the ones who are for austerity budgeting, pro-business policy, and a blank check for law enforcement are who I was referring to as the "conservatives." Those are traditionally conservative positions, although I admit the modern Democratic party has blurred the lines some.

@5 Sure why not. When progressive polices are rejected or are proven to have made things worse its always because they weren't extreme enough and/or some mysterious cabal of land barons, corporate elites or MAGA Republicans that have a secret base on Capitol Hill tricked the voters. I fully expect that the struggles of this council may lead to a back slide next year with Nelson losing her seat to someone like a Ron Davis but if progressives take that a sign to overreach again with more ridiculous polices and taxes they will once again get thrown out of office. This is the way.

@2: “Progressives may not have liked Harrell but no one accused the council of this kind of mismanagement.”

Please. In 2017, CM Harrell said the Council would not impeach Mayor Murray over any of the accusations made against him, because none of those accusations alleged events which had happened during Murray’s time as Mayor. Harrell was promptly accused of aiding, abetting, and endorsing the horrible crimes of which Murray was accused.

Lest the point be missed, in 2021, CM Gonzalez tried to save her sinking Mayoral campaign against Harrell by recycling his 2017 refusal into an attack ad, again accusing him of sympathy for Murray’s alleged horrible crimes (not one of which had ever gone to court).

Or is accusing a sitting CM of being in favor of raping minors simply not uncivil?

@8, Since humans determine what is ethical and what is not, the behavior you are describing can just be made ethical by having humans change the definition of ethical to match the behavior. Problem solved.

@15. Troll harder.

Hope the killer's health care policy is paid up, he'll need it after the police put a few 9mm holes in him!

It’s almost 2025, and progressives in politics have fully worn out their welcome. If they can’t make it here, they can’t make it anywhere.

Lol @1 and @2, you’re going to bat for the same seattle school board whose president only apologized for her complete incompetence with her crocodile tears after hundreds of students and parents stood up to their delusional closure plan?!

Sawant: “I never sought for one minute to make peace with big business or their politicians.”

Uh, and supporting Trump is what?

@9 brava.

“Former Council Member Kshama Sawant”

That should read Trump supporting Kshama Sawant.

And for someone clutching their pearls re uncivilized behavior, your actions supporting zombie twitter sort of defangs that position.

nyt:
Torrent of Hate
for Health Insurance
Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing

The shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare executive in Manhattan has unleashed Americans’ frustrations with an industry that often denies coverage and reimbursement for medical claims.

The fatal shooting on Wednesday of a top UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, on a Manhattan sidewalk has unleashed a torrent of morbid glee from patients and others who say they have had negative experiences with health insurance companies at some of the hardest times of their lives.

“Thoughts and deductibles to the family,” read one comment underneath a video of the shooting posted online by CNN. “Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network.”

On TikTok, one user wrote, “I’m an ER nurse and the things I’ve seen dying patients get denied for by insurance makes me physically sick. I just can’t feel sympathy for him because of all of those patients and their families.”

--by Dionne Searcey and Madison Malone Kircher
Dec. 5, 2024, 12:07 p.m. ET

oodles More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/nyregion/social-media-insurance-industry-brian-thompson.html

M4A
or Bust.
(see: Above)

@20 Enough of that canard. We may disagree with Sawant working to elect 3rd party Stein and even think that supporting a 3rd party in 2024 favored Trump (I do) but Sawant didn't "support Trump". I disagree with Sawant but I also acknowledge her right to think that voting for Stein was the only sensible choice she had considering the Democrats' unwillingness to undo the legacy of 40 years of neoliberal policies, which ultimately cost them the election.

@22 Democrats not earning Sawants' vote and that of many who didn't even bother to vote is solely the Democrats' fault and certainly doesn't make them Trump supporters. pretending otherwise represents a severely twisted understanding of democracy.

@18 You are clueless. The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with progressive positions on most issues.

UnitedHealth is the company that bought out The Polyclinic and The Everett Clinic, and. Is currently running both of them into the ground.

@24: Sawant openly said she wanted to “punish” Harris and “defeat” her, after acknowledging Stein could not win. Therefore, Sawant was campaigning for Trump, full stop.

Concoct any post-facto excuse you like, it does not matter in the slightest. Sawant stumped for Trump, and thus bears some responsibility for what Trump will do in office.

24: If Sara Nelson had indicated even 10% of the ire Sawant directed at Harris and/or supported Trump, this publication would be wall-to-wall continuing condemnation of not supporting Harris. If that isn’t enough for you to call out Sawant, how about these gems from Stein’s appearance in Seattle:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/at-seattle-rally-sawant-says-harris-deserves-to-lose-1000-times/

“Sawant, a leftist force on the City Council for a decade, admitted the obvious — that Stein has no chance to win.”

“And at a rally in Philadelphia in June, Trump was explicit in his appreciation of Stein and Cornel West, another left-wing candidate who could pull votes from Democrats. “Cornel West, he’s one of my favorite candidates,” Trump said. “Jill Stein, I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from them.””

What more do you need to call BS on anything Sawant has to say?

“The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with progressive positions on most issues.”

Mm-hmm, right up until they cast their votes. 😜

@28. You stumped for Bibi and the far right government of Israel who wanted him elected and whose PACs paid million and millions to elect. Therefore, following your logic, you supported Trump too.

@31: Quotes and urls, please, showing I ever advocated anyone vote for Bibi, or for any “spoiler” candidate to help get Bibi elected, for any elected office, anywhere, anytime.

@31- last I checked, Bibi was not a candidate in any US election. It’s simple: Sawant worked to get a Trump elected. She can never be forgiven for that. Should really be tarred and feathered then shipped back to India. I’m sure the anti-immigrant asshole she helped elect would approve. It’d make more space for a White ‘Murrican to have a job in politics, amiright?

How would a volunteer on the SAM board of trustees “… personal benefit” from policies the Board adopts?

Boeing’s board, sure, but an art museum’s?!? Without supporting evidence it seems more than a stretch…

@32: CDizzle (and a few other commenters around here) have bought into a theory that Israel’s campaign to defeat Hamas is actually nothing more than a conspiracy to keep Prime Minister Netanyahu in power. From this erroneous premise, they erroneously deduce that anyone who supports the destruction of Hamas must be conspiring to keep Prime Minister Netanyahu in power. The notion that Hamas deserves destruction on its own merits is utterly alien to CDizzle and the other commenters who share the conspiratorial perspective.

For further conspiratorial nonsense from this same crowd, peep CDizzle @31 claiming that the “government of Israel” has a PAC spending millions of dollars to influence US elections. No, it doesn’t. See Federal Election Campaign Act, 52 U.S.C. § 30121 (prohibiting foreign persons, including foreign governments, from making electioneering expenditures).

@24 and @31 Rightwing Democrats bear a much greater responsibility for letting demagogue Trump outflank them from the left with the many financially insecure than Sawant ever will. But of course, this uncomfortable fact won't prevent you for attempting to demonize 3rd parties. If only you called out the DNC for running a losing campaign promoting the status quo with an electorate that desperately want change, then you might have legitimacy in criticizing Sawant for the very small part she played in splitting the vote

@29 because whatever Trump says should taken as evidence of what exactly? and no chance of winning isn't an argument for falling in step behind a losing strategy, and you have to chose between constantly bashing The Stranger and choosing it for a reference of how to behave.

@36 comment is for 24 and 33, not 31

@35 "CDizzle (and a few other commenters around here) have bought into a theory that Israel’s campaign to defeat Hamas is actually nothing more than a conspiracy to keep Prime Minister Netanyahu in power."

Ya, CDizzle, a few other commenters, and... the hostages' families

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-10-05/ty-article/.premium/hostages-families-as-long-as-netanyahu-is-in-power-theyll-stay-in-captivity-for-years/00000192-5d4f-d3f4-a3f3-fdcf756a0000?lts=1733434610355

"Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is a hostage in Gaza, slammed Prime Minister Netanyahu, stating he "has chosen to sacrifice the lives of the hostages to preserve his power. Even if the war in the north ends, Netanyahu wants the war in the south to continue," she said. "As long as the war lasts, his coalition remains stable. As long as it continues, there will be no state commission of inquiry."

@36- it can be true both that the Dems made some errors and misread the room, and that Sawant and her ilk including the extraordinarily disingenuous Jill Stein worked to stop Harris from being elected. The latter is 110% equivalent to working for Trump.

@39 the issue is this election wasn't even close, Harris got wrecked, so focusing on Sawant does absolutely nothing to address the real issues that led to Trump's reelection. You guys need to quit letting her live in your head rent free, it's embarrassing at this point.

So Trump isn't pro-Bibi, and Bibi, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich weren't pro-Trump? AIPAC and CUFI don't exist or have any influence on elections? Gaza had no impact on the elections whatsoever.

Netanyahu is a lawless warmongering menace to the world, and Israel would be best served by a new government. Anyway, you don't have to take my word for it.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/02/benjamin-netanyahu-bibi-files-israeli-corruption

"Raviv Drucker, an Israeli television journalist and co–producer of The Bibi Files, has devoted much of his career to investigating allegations of corruption surrounding Netanyahu and his family. He says he always operated on the assumption that no one should be above the law, but now swears that, if he had known where Netanyahu would lead the country, he would rather the prime minister had never been indicted.

“If you had taken me through some kind of time tunnel and shown me where we are in 2024, I would have told you: ‘Just don’t start with these cases.’ I would throw all of them in the garbage, even though some of them started with my investigations,” Drucker tells me during a work visit to Japan. “This is the honest truth, because none of us would have imagined what Netanyahu would do.”

Drucker argues that Netanyahu’s sharp turn to the right has its origins in his corruption indictment. The prime minister stunned people by refusing to resign, and when the indictment narrowed the field of Israeli parties willing to form a coalition government with him he turned in 2022 to the only alternative that would keep him in power.

“This is the only reason that he established the most far-right coalition that was ever established in the history of Israel,” Drucker said. “Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are two lunatics from the far right. They represented a tiny fraction of the population.”

He argues Netanyahu’s determination to avoid being tried led him to try to dilute the power of Israel’s supreme court, which may one day sit in judgement over him, by abolishing the court’s power to overrule government decisions. That attempt split the country and brought the biggest protests in Israeli history on to the streets last year, though the supreme court ultimately struck down the law at the heart of this judicial overhaul project.

In sum, you jingoist shills for the most fascist government Israel has ever elected don't even pretend to see the bold-faced corruption and war without end that Bibi is willing to drag his country through the mud and endanger them all for his own selfish aims.

It's like you dumbasses would say criticizing the equivalent of Trump would make one anti-Semitic if all things being equal he were Israel's leader and happened to be Jewish. I know that it's hard to think in multiple variables, but that's how the world really works. The rest of you are just eating up and regurgitating the same pig vomit spread by the propaganda machine that plays over and over again in your small minds.

@26, Then why don't they vote for progressive candidates?

@16, Deflect and avoid the problem with moral relativism harder.

@43. Shits weak. WIZZEAK

@15. I mean bruh, if you want to take the asinine sovereign citizen approach to ethics and morality, you're gonna have a bad time.

@32. https://www.thestranger.com/users/76969210/tensorna/comments

https://imgur.com/a/sources-0V8iFUb

@38: lol, I will just remind everyone that in the November 18 slog, you described Hamas's videotaped beheading of a wounded hostage as an act of Palestinian self-defense. 🤪🤪🤪 So it's a bit rich to hear about your deep respect for the hostages' families now, ha ha ha! Shouldn't the rest of the hostages be getting their heads hacked off, too, dude? 🤪😝🤪 Or was that first one a special case?

The families of the hostages have an obvious incentive to buy into a conspiratorial view of the war. If the families admit that the war in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas, then the wellbeing of the hostages is probably less important to Israel than the prosecution of the war. If, on the other hand, the families can convince everyone that the war in Gaza is a mere pretext to keep an unpopular prime minister in power, then the wellbeing of the hostages is probably more important to Israel than the prosecution of the war. So the families have every incentive to identify the least significant, most venal justification for the war, regardless of the accuracy of their argument.

@41: lol, what an embarrassing meltdown! 😅🤣😅🤣

@40: If you want to complain about anyone here “focusing on Sawant,” then please take your complaint to the writer of this very headline post, who approvingly quotes Sawant as an expert on how best to behave as an elected official. @20 even quoted from it, yet somehow you didn’t claim the Stranger’s headline poster was allowing Sawant to live in her head, or that this was embarrassing.

So, claiming that Sawant is an example of good governance was just fine with you, but noting Sawant stumped for Trump is embarrassing? Welcome to Opposite Day!

Priceless.

@48. https://media.tenor.com/05DZPfIwsLQAAAAM/triggered-trigger-warning.gif

@45, Nope that approach is yours.

I kind of hope they do put Woo back in there, just to see the reaction of The Mean Girls at The Stranger.

@51. You sit on a throne of lies.

Antham Blue Cross cancels plan to limit anesthesia coverage for surgical procedures. And they say violence never accomplishes anything.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-anesthesia-coverage-policy/

For those interested in what a zombie twitter free Slog AM could be, look no further than our friends from Portland

https://www.portlandmercury.com/good-morning-news/2024/12/05/47533971/good-morning-news-greater-idaho-movement-begs-trump-for-help-vancouver-man-killed-by-cop-and-the-unwelcome-return-of-ron-desantis

God I miss Wm. Steven Humphrey writing for the stranger - Portland’s gain is Seattle’s loss.

@47 that's not true and you know it, link to my comment is below if anyone actually cares. You claiming the families are just playing a political game gives a real insight into the disturbingly cynical way you view the world though

https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2024/11/18/79788018/slog-am-elysian-brewing-leaves-georgetown-after-union-attempt-fob-sushi-bars-tiktok-fiasco-trump-appointees-white-supremacist-tattoo/comments/33

@49 you're the #1 offender, you can't go three comments without mentioning Sawant even when nobody else is talking about her. Seek help

@4 -- Wait, so the reason the council is so fucked up is because of someone who no longer serves? That is your argument?

I'm guessing you've never served on a board or know someone who did. It is common to have one firebrand who is hard to get along with. But the majority are typically collegial and get shit done. This was the case when Sawant took office. Burgess, Harrell, Gonzalez, Juarez -- they all presided over a functional council. That is a very wide range of political opinion (at least for Seattle) from Republican Burgess to conservative leftest Harrell and Juarez to slightly farther left Gonzalez. Yet the board managed to handle things just fine despite their obvious difference of opinion.

Now they are incompetent and you think Sara Nelson has nothing to do with it? Instead it is the fault of someone who isn't even on the council? Holy shit, what a stupid argument.

It isn't complicated. Nelson is a terrible leader. Half the council doesn't know what the fuck it is doing and she doesn't care. She is comfortable in the chaos. That is the problem.

@56: So, the Stranger posting about Sawant as a positive example didn’t bother you in the slightest, but multiple commenters noting Sawant stumped for Trump causes you to issue repeated criticisms?

The problem here is severe embarrassment, all right, and a deeply wounding, excruciatingly painful, abjectly humiliating, and unrelentingly agonizing embarrassment it most certainly is, too.

It’s just afflicting different persons than the ones you claim it is.

Kshama
Sawant broke
wormmy's feeble brain.
it's All he can 'think' about anymore

even tho he's
Moved across
our Vast Country
to get Away From
that "mean" Progressive.

perhaps
after all his
Cheerleading
for bobi's Keep-
the-FUCK-Outta
Prison gambit, he'd
be Welcomed there.

@54 -- hard to Argue with that.

btw your @9's got 43 'recommends,' so far:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/nyregion/social-media-insurance-industry-brian-thompson.html#commentsContainer

@56: lol, nice try!

Thumpus: "You can, if you want, watch video them hacking off a farm worker’s head in one of the kibbutzes while the dude is still alive, although I wouldn’t recommend it if you have a weak stomach."

Thirteen12: "Like NotMyopic says the burden is on you to prove the head hacked off didn't belong to a Mossad assassin. Nobody can criticize any party unless they have unassailable concrete proof the people massacred weren't military targets, or maybe standing too close to one. Sorry I don't make the rules"

Thumpus: "You're, uh, defending a literal beheading video. Yikes my dude, lol!"

Thirteen12: "Gaza has a right to defend itself"

😘

@58 serious question: how many photos of Sawant with the eyes cut out do you have on the wall in your basement?

@41

"‘Just don’t start with these [nutnyahoo's Israeli Indictment] cases.’ I would throw all of them in the garbage, even though some of them started with my investigations,' Drucker tells me during a work visit to Japan. 'This is the honest truth, because none of us would have imagined what Netanyahu would do.'" --@CD

is
Still
DOING.

does it not End
till bibi gets Deposed
or Armafuckinggeddon?

or is That
when Jesus
comes back?

20,000
rapturing
off to Heaven
8,200,000,000 left
to do What, exactly?

welcome in the
Cockroaches?

or wave buh-Bye! to
the Trillionaires as
They Inherit the
planet. Damn.
Who couldda
Seen that 1
comin'?

@62. My backup plan is making pizza in Antarctica at McMurdo Station.

"The problem here
is severe embarrassment,
all right, and a deeply wounding,
excruciatingly painful, abjectly humil-
iating, and unrelentingly agonizing embar-
rassment it most certainly is, too." --@wormmy

at
his
Finest.

well
Done!

@63

no shit?

I'm gonna
Caddy* there
for a year or two
then sell weed for five

then
retire to
New Atlantis
Bezo's Cityship
where the Party Never
Ends. till You do. whopeee

*the
Saudis
think of
Everything

https://youtu.be/pzlA9HDNwBs?feature=shared

@63, Can one make it on $7.25 an hour in Antarctica? How about $2.13 and hour plus tips?

Hard to believe somebody un-alived the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. That is a shame. A damn, dirty shame.

@67. Money doesn't exist in Antarctica (other than novelty money) and everyone's basic needs are met. There is no rent, bills, or taxes, and all money you make is yours to keep and the food is free. Pretty good place to be a digital nomad too in your free time.

That being said, in the event of nuclear war and currency embargoes, fiat currency isn't going to mean jack squat. Special drawing rights and gold will be the only meaningful currency left in any world order once we blow up it up. Better to be prepared for nuclear winter and isolation in a place well stocked for years in advance as well as conditioned to a polar ice cap climate in a commune like setting. Fallout would be minimal relative to the rest of the world. Antarctica is consistently rated among the safest places to be in the event of nuclear war. If you have a better solution for the layman on a budget, you tell me.

Did I mention fresh water?

@69 Special Drawing Rights? Hahaha. The only thing that will matter is physical control of actual gold. Nobody will be redeeming "special drawing rights."

@71. Animals could be bred and SchLAUGHTERED!

@71 physical control of ammunition

@69: Ehhh, maybe give Antarctica a test run now, before the apocalypse. Can’t hurt to try it out first, right? 😄

@61: Another day, another headline post at the Stranger tells us Sawant is highly relevant to Seattle’s politics today:

‘Sawant took a different tact [sic] with her political foes on the council. As Sawant described it to The Stranger, “I never sought for one minute to make peace with big business or their politicians.’

(https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/12/06/79812256/one-step-forward-one-step-back-how-progressives-can-still-enact-change-after-tammy-morales-resignation)

So, after you tell us how Sawant stumping for Trump did not “make peace with big business or their politicians,” you can rip the Stranger a new one for telling us she’s still relevant today.

@75 she's relevant in the sense her legacy still remains. Many of the polices that she used her bully pulpit to pass are continuing to restrict the city's ability to move forward from the pandemic. Whether its the housing policies that have led to thousands of units of housing being lost and low income providers facing bankruptcy, the "worker" protections she passed that have limited job growth (you can argue some people are better off with these policies but at the end of the day others have completely lost their jobs and new jobs are not being created) or her and the previous councils unrealized threats that undermined public safety. We are sitting here today a little over a year from the election of the new council with TS and other activists trying to dunk on them for not "cleaning" up the city or fixing the budget as they had promised. It's been 1 year after a full decade of this lunacy. You are not going to fix that or unwind it in one year.

@62 & @65 kristofarian, and @63, @69 & @72 CDizzle (Garb Garblar?): Antarctica is the only safe place left to inhabit on Earth? I understand through bestselling author Maria Semple [see Where'd You Go, Bernadette? c. 2012] that the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica is the most dangerously turbulent crossing, with 40 foot waves---in the world. And that, according to Bernadette Fox's brilliant teenage daughter, Bee Branch, penguins--while comical and cute--- are rather territorial and actually stink (up close)!
This, and dining on cockroaches is the only hope for survival of ~ 8.5 billion people on our dying planet??
And with known anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. being sworn in as head of the U.S. Health Department I predict many of us will already be dropping like flies before the first nuclear warhead hits the soil of this Trump-benighted country.
If Kennedy is indeed sworn in Senator Patty Murray has warned us of how disastrous this will be to our healthcare and to the economy [see Patty Murray, at UW Medicine, Tries to Sound Alarm on RFK Jr and Vaccines, Front page, A1, The Seattle Times, Saturday, December 7, 2024].
All this because STILL, 55 years and 4 1/2 months after sending the first man to the Moon, too many voters are too chickenshit, misogynistic, ignorant, or All of the Above to ever elect an educated, well qualified WOMAN President of what was the United States.
I honestly hope that my friends in the blood red neofascist states of MAGA confusion can evacuate to safety, better housing, and legislature. As for all the batshit pro-Trumpists, I hope the red states promoting hatred, fear, misinformation, and propaganda all go first. They asked for this when voting against their best interests.
MAGAs don't own the Democrats and libs---they have it backwards. Trump, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos ad nauseum own the MAGAs, especially every time gun crazed RepubliKKKan voters stupidly send money in to pay off Trump's lawyers.

@77: Moving to Antarctica sounds a little extreme as well as cost prohibitive. It would be for me.
It seems more affordable, safer, and saner just to die peacefully at home--hopefully with my beloved VW, all that I value, and with close friends, family, and neighbors surrounding.
Jesus wept---this current Err of Trump sounds like a combination of a dystopian nightmare episode of The Twilight Zone and a page out of Stephen King's bestselling 1978 novel, The Stand.

@23 kristofarian: Jee-ZEUS! Can I ever relate. Nobody of sound mind and body should end up at the dystopian nightmare that is Harborview Medical Center. I swear, it's where poor, elderly, disabled, broke, and homeless people are supposed to go to die. I'm just grateful I made it safely home after a three-day ordeal, and have lived to tell the tale.
And with RFK Jr. getting sworn in as Head of the Health Department things are likely to get infinitely worse. :(