Of all the cases against Trump, this hush money case should have been dropped. Paying off Stormy was to protect Melania, not to deceive voters. Not that adultery would have made a difference in the mind of voters. Especially after JFK and Bill Clinton histories.

Looks like Bob Ferguson might not be so bad after all.

@1 Trump should be in prison right now. Most worthless president in US history. Also, glad I voted for Bob Ferguson, I think he will be a good governor.

I'll happily become Canadian to get free healthcare and feel safe from guns. Where do I sign up?
Zero looking back, get me outta here!

@1, He doesn’t give a single fuck about melania’s feelings you credulous simpleton, not that protecting your wife’s feelings is a valid reason to break campaign finance law. The reason doesn’t matter, only that he was stupid enough to leave an extensive paper trail documenting his intent.

You can have west of the mountains. The fine folks in Central and Eastern WA want none of your Cascadia bullshit. We voted for Trump and we are thrilled with the direction of the Country (and Greenland).

"... it is hard to rationalize
the impermanence of
everything we all
hold dear."

--@Natty

it's Adios to
a Stable Climate
an Independent USSC
non-rapacious Insurance Corps
an emotionally-stable non-toddler President

we're leaving this Planet
far worse off than
we found it

this
is (duh)
Not sustainable
& Oceans from rational.

@3 -- Thedonolde'll quickly Annex Canada
'saving' the U.S. from 'The Socialist
Threat!' even as/if it Kills us:
Only the Rich deserve
decent Healthcare

"The fine folks
in Central and Eastern WA
want none of your Cascadia bullshit."

--@they'rebaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

bingo.
But just keep
sending those Check$.

oh
and keep
them Abortion
Places open: our mistres-
ses may need (a little) Healthcare too

I too lived in LA once upon a time, and these fires are terrible and tragic. But there is no way you can call them "the worst" in California's history. 85 people died in the Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. That's the only measure.

@5: it's sad you don't care about your fellow Trumpists in SE WA. just callously give Napavine and Onalaska to Cascadia?

sacrifices must be made, I suppose.

@5
This is what you're thrilled about?

"Ninety-five out of 97 local GOP candidates got a higher percentage of the vote than Trump did in their districts."
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/maga-is-a-big-drag-on-the-wa-gop-even-in-red-parts-of-the-state/

Something something Blueberry Hill.

@5 I got $100 that says you couldn’t even find Greenland on a map.

@5 You want none of our bullshit, but you'll take our tax subsidies, eh?

@11 - I've been fascinated with Erik the Red and the east and west colonies of Greenland since I was a child. Also, I live in North America.

@12 - if I wrote the tax code there wouldn't be any subsidies.

Trumpers went from “he didn’t start any wars” to “we’re going to annex entire countries against their will” without missing a beat

@4 - We're all aware of those points, but it will forever be depressing as well as ironic that the most serious cases, insurrection and classified documents, fizzled out. Yet an extrapolated case from a misdemeanor that the prior NY DA would not touch and has the least public support, resulted in the conviction that soiled presidential history forever.

As far as lame ducks go, Inslee and biden can propose all the crap they want with no consequenses. Pardening 1,500 felons along with his son is no problem, and inslee's proposals are his final FU to the washington middle class.

Last time I checked the governor can not force the holders of elected offices to slash their budgets (e.g. Atty General, Comm of Lands etc) so the hand wringing about austerity is a bit premature. The governor also does not have the ability to levy new taxes, the legislature does and based on their documents they are full steam ahead with everything The Stranger wants. Maybe we should wait and see the proposed budgets coming out of the house and senate first because I can almost guarantee there are going to be new taxes coming our way and not just for the "rich".

Thanks for the write up Nathalie. I’ve been thinking a lot about “The parable of the sower” these days and praying we don’t find ourselves in that future. It is seeming nearer every day.

The problem with Eastern Washington is that the half-witted trumpies are all loud-mouths who take up all the oxygen because they yell their stupidity the loudest and the longest. If you actually look at the election results you'll see that Harris/Walz got about 30% of the votes (with absolutely no help from the WA State Democrats) and that the reason why there are so many GOP elected officials over there is because many seats go unchallenged. If we had true competition in the state, we'd probably see a lot more Democratic officials and votes.

And Canadian gun laws would be fine with 90% of the west coast citizens. The rest can move to Idaho, Nevada and Arizona.

@15, If we’re aware of those points why did we say something that implies we aren’t? Not sure what we think “extrapolated” means but you don’t arrive at 34 felonies through inference from a lesser crime — he was convicted on those charges because he committed them and left a trail of damning evidence.

Apparently we’re also not aware the federal cases fizzled out because the supreme court gave him blanket immunity, or that the law doesn’t require public support to be applicable. So many things a child could understand but sadly we can’t.

"The Evergreen State is sending "45 engines, 11 trucks, and 146 personnel" to help fight the fires."

I thought The Stranger were a bunch of environmentalists and urbanists rooting for Mother Nature as she fights against humans remaking the natural world to serve human desires and preferences.

Why would sending 56 carbon spewing engines and 146 people to resist Mother Nature be a good thing, worthy of The Stranger's "reporting"?

@20: “you don’t arrive at 34 felonies through inference from a lesser crime”

Actually, you kinda do. In the words of those right-wing nutjobs over at PBS:

“In New York, falsifying business records counts as a felony, rather than a misdemeanor, only if the defendant had an intent of committing or concealing a separate underlying crime. The indictment alleged that Trump falsified business records to ‘conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws,’ but did not specify a particular underlying crime.”

In case ya'll wondering, we in the Great State of Lincoln (E WA, E OR, ID) have this on our Spotify.

https://youtu.be/5GGqAYaedPk?si=xLb3HW0NkBC7xOU6

Yes, the cover-up is the crime, or rather the felony in this case. All 34 of them. They’re not “extrapolated” from anything. They are actual felonies that he committed.

@21

Gosh
mr magoo
No one knew
you were such an
Avid Environmentalist!

from the Smithsonian’s SMART NEWS:

Washington
Becomes First State to Allow
‘Human Composting’ as a Burial Method

The accelerated decomposition method
transforms remains into soil and
uses just an eighth of the
energy required for
cremation.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/washington-first-state-allow-burial-method-human-composting-180972020/

will
You do
Your part in
Saving our Planet?

it’s
Never
Too Early
To get Started.

@24: As felonies, though, they are predicated on (or “extrapolated from” if you prefer) Trump’s attempt to commit other, uncharged crimes. Absent the uncharged predicate crimes, the charges against Trump would only be misdemeanors. Which are still crimes! 😃

Not sure why you are geeking out about this, it’s been the prosecution’s theory of the case since day one and has been covered in literally every newspaper in the country! 🙄

speaking of
'extrapolations':

nyt:
A Rebuke to Trump
Provides a Telling Portrait
of a Divided Supreme Court

Two Republican appointees, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett, joined the court’s three liberals in ordering the president-elect to face sentencing on Friday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/supreme-court-trump-hush-money.html

one reader’s comment:

No legal or moral rationale existed allowing Trump to dodge sentencing as a convicted felon.

That Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh created a rationale (without explanation) is pretty much what we can expect from them.

Concentration camps in Texas, seizure of Greenland or Panama... They will nod and go along.

Our system is inadequate for the culture which has emerged here in recent decades, of propaganda without end from vile people.

[fucking
BINGO].

Our Court reflects the thinness of our commitment to the rule of law.

Trump is a criminal. He can't deny that any more.

--John Briggs; Ann Arbor, Michigan

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/supreme-court-trump-hush-money.html#commentsContainer

“Bob Ferguson Is Anti-Tax”

No, he’s a smart politician.

The vast majority of voters want the state to ‘live within its means,’ and looking at potential cuts before considering new taxes is smart politics.

Bob can look four years ahead, doesn’t want to see a campaign ad that says ‘the first thing Ferguson did was propose new taxes’

26 Yes I am aware that committed multiple felonies in an effort to conceal something he apparently would not have been charged for

@29: Well, we don’t know if Trump “would have been charged” for the predicate crimes. We only know that he wasn’t charged for them.

Hence the cloud over the prosecution’s case: If Trump committed other, predicate crimes, shouldn’t he have been charged for the other crimes? If he didn’t commit the other crimes, should the other crimes be used to escalate a misdemeanor case into a felony case? Particularly given that the statute of limitations for charging any predicate crime had lapsed?

I’m not arguing that the conviction was erroneous. I think the judge got the law right in allowing the “uncharged predicate crimes” theory to proceed. But you can see, I hope, that this is a somewhat abusive law, in that it allows defendants to be punished as felons for crimes they were never charged with and no longer even can be charged with due to the limitation period. This sort of “leveraged prosecution” is not normally how we think of criminal justice in this country

If it were me running the State’s case, I would have charged Trump for hush money falsification only, leaving out the uncharged predicate crimes theory in the interest of justice. Mine would have been a misdemeanor prosecution, but misdemeanors are still serious crimes! Misdemeanors still make Trump the bad guy! There are plenty ways to hurt Trump without unjustly weaponizing the law. 😉

@14 Barth. Yes, it's rather amazing. I can't help but reflect on the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrpp pact. Is that where we are going?

The Rubio-Lavrov Pact - Russia may reconstitute its old imperial borders while the Yanks go full hegemonic in the western hemisphere. MAGA folks might be totally delighted with this.

@21,

Given that you're the president of an affordable housing institution and that Seattle's affordable housing crisis points to all such institutions being abject failures, would it be fair to say that you're also a failure in a professional capacity?

@13 "if I wrote the tax code there wouldn't be any subsidies"

Look everyone this guy wants to massively increase taxes in Okanogan and other rural counties so they can pay for their own roads after Puget Sound secedes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I submit Our Dear WereBackBaby's comment on 23 as being an example of the half-witted loudmouth trumpies that dominate conversation on the east side of the mountains.

Small town folks tend to go along to get along, so no one tells them to stop talking.

@32, Reducio absurdum.

Logical conclusion for The Stranger would be:

Mother Earth is winning in LA, 10 - 0

@28: As Commissars of Ideological Purity, writers at the Stranger are required to ruthlessly hunt down and exterminate all wrongthink, wherever it may appear. (Sadly, we must often viciously purge the very ones we once loved the most.)

@13:"if I wrote the tax code there wouldn't be any subsidies"

It's not the tax code, it's the spending plans. Most of Washington State's counties lack the tax base required to build and maintain their schools, roads, and bridges, so a few wealthy counties in Puget Sound (not all of Puget Sound's counties, BTW, just a few of them) send more money to Olympia than they receive in state services. With most counties (including all in Eastern Washington), the reverse is true.

All of your threats to secede will go nowhere, exactly because of what @33 noted. You're simply not going to put your small wallets where your big mouths are, and everyone knows it.

@5 The cherry and apple farmers of Eastern Washington might not be on board with you once Trade War 2.0 kicks up. They've already lost substantial foreign markets from 1.0.

@33 FTW! I guess the wet side doesn't need to subsidize the dry side's roads, bridges, firefighting, jails, etc. etc. anymore.

Intrastate identity politics and stereotypes, make it stop.

@35,

Stranger writers are capable of basic critical thinking and weighing conflicting ideas within the framework of a given policy stance. In this case, the relative importance of potentially saving lives outweighs whatever unfortunate environmental might exist as a result of doing so.

Also, it's "Reductio ad absurdum" you stupid fuck.

@39: "Stranger writers are capable of basic critical thinking"

Not always. Actually quite infrequently. Crime, Police, Sexuality, Medical, Childrens' rights, Gender, Sexual Orientation - are all areas they can be really off base.

"We
voted
for Trump
and we are thrilled
with the direction of the
Country (and Greenland)."

--@random neocon, above

I'd wager Thedonolde's
drillbitchesdrill policy's quite
Popular in Reactionaryville as well

neverminding denying Scorning drought
Heatwaves (Rugged Individualists!) atmos-
peric rivers (learn to Swim, pussy!) insurance
Corps abandoning them (and Banks just loling
at your childish pleas for 'affordable' mortgages)

and then there's the Stockholm Syndrome
that keeps all your Womenfolk beholden
to assholes intent on their Oppresssion
and when there's no more OBGYNs
willing to chance a stint in prison
what'll you rugged individualists
Do when women start Dying off
like Third Worlders in this thee
Richest Country ever Known

and head Out
to Greener
Pastures?

@5 and 41

Orville Peck and
Willie Nelson
have Your
number:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BirJMnMcfBs

@40 There's a difference between "not capable of critical thinking" and "not agreeing with me." all of the topics you mentioned* are areas where reasonable people can disagree. Except possibly sexual orientation. Are you really going back to Nancy Reagan on this one?

@43: I welcome disagreements, except when facts are overlooked.

The construct that sexual orientation is immutable is no longer as global as it used to be, but it is.

nonsense.

Thedonolde'll
quickly whittle Us
down to two Obvious
genders by thinning out
the Herd thru concentration
camps &/or death camps. when
the Anita Tyrant Statuaries're ubiquitous

you'll
Know we're
Almost There
and'll make our
catastrophic climate
disaster seem like merely a
minor tho highly-annoying distraction:

sorry, boss!
I cannot make it
to work today because

my car was washed away
my neighborhood burnt down
the Smoke's too Thick to drive anywhere

etc.

the List is
v. Long and
quite Convenient

but the
Gay Problem* will've
seemed to've Disappeared!

*and All our
Pronouns
set FREE

@30, etc.: "...this is a somewhat abusive law, in that it allows defendants to be punished as felons for crimes they were never charged with and no longer even can be charged with due to the limitation period."

As the old saying goes, "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up." As you've noted, the original crime was relatively trivial. The extensive efforts (34 counts!) made to cover it up show the defendant was really, really seriously dedicated to keeping his original crime hidden. This is extremely relevant when the defendant had -- and will have again -- a position of public trust.

@45: You seem rattled.

@40, 44,

You disagree with a stance the writers & editors at the paper have taken, a stance that's apparently at least somewhat debatable. That's not even remotely comparable to the myopic ass-clown's position that anyone who advocates acting in an environmentally responsible manner is thus ideologically prohibited from ever advocating anything that has an adverse environmental impact.

He's just a shithead and troll and I'm also an idiot for indulging him. Please everyone report him for banning. Or if you don't do that, then at least pull up his ideological and linguistic magnum opus and laugh at and make fun of him for the idiocy of it, same as we all did back when he wrote it nearly a decade ago.

https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/2015/05/29/22301818/this-is-the-most-ridiculous-letter-to-the-editor-weve-received-all-day

@47 -- I Know!
and I'm not
even Gay!

"Donald Trump is a felon". Yes, yes, moving on? The pearl clutching on the left is so tiring,. Maybe we should have a discussion about whether or not fergi will be able to undo some of the damage that inslee has done to the wash middle class over last decade. Any bets?

Canada wants Washington, Oregon, and California to annex as new provinces?
The free healthcare is attractive, but will our neighbors to the north warmly accept
a 60+ yo with an air cooled VW SuperBeetle? The last time I checked, British Columbia
seemed sold on everybody going EV, in sharp contrast to Alberta's "drill, baby, drill" fossil fuel ideology.
I refuse to part with my beloved little economic car that has brought me so much happiness.
Would Germany, the origin of my vehicle, take us if Canada won't?
Jesus--the current Err of Mein Trumpf reminds me of the Viet Nam War era. So many draftees fled
to Canada, seeking asylum.
At least Washington State is still blue---bluer than ever before. I agree with NoSpin (@28).
Governor-elect Bob Ferguson is making perfect sense by avoiding imposing new taxes, and focusing on what we really need in affordable housing, healthcare, rebuilding infrastructure, and funding K-12 / college education.

Spot on, kristofarian, and Catalina Vel-DuRay, as usual!

Nathalie, I'm so sorry about the loss of so much of your favorite childhood landmarks in
the Los Angeles area from the fires! My deepest heartfelt condolences to you, your family,
friends, neighbors, and loved ones who have lost homes, possessions, and people you love
and care about. Sending hugs, positrons, and VW beeps.

Okay, Trump's bought off judges. Let us know when the Orange Turd is FINALLY held criminally
and fully accountable. A wrist slap and a warning isn't going to cut it for those of us who knew
damned well to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Rest in peace, Jimmy and Roslyn Carter. I'm sorry you had to witness this dystopian nightmare.
If Ronald Reagan had thought like Carter, a solar panel minded environmentalist decades ahead
of his time, we could still be living in a utopian democracy now.

@2 Swiftress: +1 Amen.

one hellova
Headline
Natty.
also

nyt: Trump
Calls Officials
Handling Los Angeles
Wildfires ‘Incompetent’

Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles County authorities have invited President-elect Donald J. Trump to tour the devastation, but he has not publicly responded.

“The fires are still raging in L.A.,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out.”

“Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost,” he wrote. “There is death all over the place. [Next to my incredible and wonderous Election t]his is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country.

They just can’t put out the fires.
What’s wrong with them?”

--by Mike Ives; Jan. 12, 2025

more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/us/trump-los-angeles-fire-newsom-bass.html

when asked if he Had any
“ideas” which might actually
Help struggling Los Angelenos:

“Looks like we’re gonna
hafta Nuke LA,” the next guy
was reputed to have said. “Which
Is Fine, it’s mostly full of Commies anyway
butwhattabout that wonderful Hollywood sign?”

at press time
LA Authorities
were debating
whether or not
to nuke tng, djt
according to my
non-extant sources.

@45
*and All our
Pronouns
set FREE

Really?! because it sure seems that the pronouns "they/them", cost YOU the election.

much like Lincoln
Freed the Slaves
djt FREED all of
'our' Pronouns

was what I
was just
saying

perhaps the "D"NC'll
take Note next
Time

tho
That is
Exceedingly
UNLikely, squeaky

otherwise,
great comment!

@51: Canada is no place to go Auntie. It's horrible up there. People are in jail for what they say in Canada, same in the UK. No free speech in the Commonwealth.

USA is still the sweet spot in the world, even with Donald. We have the first amendment, they don't.

@56

yeah
well our
2nd Amd
"trumpfs" our
First plus we Don't
Have M4A so it's a wash

or Would be
were it not for
the Death Cloud
scheduled to land
on J/20 whose idea
of free speech is for
Billionaires Only and
all Dissent'll be greet-
ed with beatings & excom-
munication to Palestine or Sudan

"and when the
Band plays 'Hail
to the Chief" they're
Pointing the Cannon at You."

--CCR

@57: You are what we call an illiberal.

@58 you've
reminded me of
this little gem of a quote:

It
is no
measure
of 'Health' to
be well-adjusted
to a profoundly Sick society.

were you to understand
the dif twixt obscenity
and profanity I'd
take your com-
ment as a
Slur but

Thanks!

@48, Triggered much?

Soy Milk dear, Could you please detail for us all "the damage that (Governor) Inslee has done to the Wash(ington) middle class over last decade."? It's been my observation that little men are long on assertions but short on facts, and I just want to make sure you're not one of those little men.

@50: It took me awhile that you meant fergi the new governor and not the Duchess of York.

@56 Phoebe in Wallingford: It's just as well. I don't think Canada will take many more refugees seeking asylum from these Deeply Divided States of MAGA Confusion. Especially after this recently disastrous election.
[see The Seattle Times, Business Section, pages C5 and C8, Jon Talton, Trump's Mass Deportation Promises Economic Pain and Cruelty, Sunday, January 12, 2025].
Talton has cited data that Canada had welcomed as many as 500,000 newcomers in recent years, but Justin Trudeau is cutting the number of asylum seekers hoping to make O, Canada their new national anthem down to "365,000 by 2027". Ouch.
I wonder if Germany will accept my little car, musical instruments, and me----my VW is an automotive German native. At least Washington State is still blue, thank the remaining benevolent powers that be. Je suis, je reste.

@34 and @61 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Twenty bucks says @5, @13, @16, @23, and @50 will be crying, yelling, and screaming obscenities when Trump yanks their subsidies and safety nets away, to shower wastefully instead upon trillionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and billionaires ad nauseum, as promised. And then another twenty says those two trolling bozos and their ilk will wrongly blame the Democrats--again.
Some idiots never learn.

@64 -- "And then another twenty says those two trolling bozos and their ilk will wrongly blame the Democrats--again.
Some idiots never learn."

well auntie
Gee they've been
Quite Carefully 'taught':

from @27 -- "Our system is
inadequate for the culture which
has emerged here in recent decades,
of propaganda without end from vile people."

their Ignorance
cannot be defeated
when alls they receive's
mis- dis- & Malinformation:

our MInisters
of Propaganda
hold all the Keys
to our Entrapments

And they're
Not EVER
gonna
give
'em
up.

see
also:
tS's liars
& Misinformation
specialists from AIPAC
or from Whereeverthefuck.

@1, that's a new one, the Democrats are too fuckable?

@65: That's exactly what I mean, Kris. MAGAs have been robotically programmed to be numb, loud, obnoxious, and batshit crazy tools of Donald Trump and its cronies.
Pigheaded RepubliKKKan fascism, racism, misogyny and stupidity, dating back 250 years, is going to be the death of this country.