Weather: News-wise, I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s gonna suck harder than a Hoover vacuum in a black hole. But while the headlines are a disaster buffet, and no, you can’t skip the sides, thank the maker for small mercies (at least if you live in Seattle): clear skies and a high of 85. Sure, the world spirals into climate collapse and political absurdity, at least the sun’s still pretending everything’s fine.
Not all of Western Washington is catching a break, though. Temps hit the 90s in some areas yesterday, and since we now live in a world where the weather is actively trying to kill us, the National Weather Service has extended its Heat Advisory through Thursday for parts of the Puget Sound region. Meanwhile, the Cascades are under a Red Flag Warning thanks to hot, dry, wildfire-friendly conditions. The NWS is basically pleading with people not to keel over in the heat, especially the young, the elderly, and anyone stuck without A/C. So here’s the plan: hydrate, avoid the sun like it’s your ex with a grudge, and try not to burst into flames before the weekend.
The Tooth Fairy Lives in Seattle: I know this isn’t the most important story, but hell, we’re going to need to start off with something light. Dr. Purva Merchant, a pediatric dentist in the 206, has been the secret Tooth Fairy for the past 20 years, quietly replying to over 6,000 email pleas from kids and parents around the world. What started as a fluke email grew into a mission to “preserve the magic”, sending whimsical, comforting responses (and a dollar or two) to reassure kids that growing up isn’t so scary. Signed off with a warm “Happy growing up,” her notes are a reminder that small acts of kindness can shield innocence in a world that’s increasingly harsh.
Fiscal Gaslighting: Senate Republicans pushed through a $9 billion Trump-backed clawback package that guts funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS. Of course, nothing says “fiscal sanity” like cutting global health programs and public media in the middle of multiple crises. The bill passed by a razor-thin margin, with all Democrats and two Republicans voting no, and now heads back to the House. GOP leaders are calling it a commonsense move against “waste,” but let’s be real—this is about flexing power, punishing programs they politically dislike, and handing Trump another symbolic win.
But There’s Always Money for the Pentagon: Don’t worry, folks, if you thought maybe, just maybe, we’d cut a few bucks from the Pentagon’s bloated murder fund to help people not die in a flood or starve during a heatwave, think again. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Act” cranks military spending up to a trillion dollars because apparently national security these days equates to 178 megatons of carbon emissions and enough firepower to blow up a planet we’re already cooking alive. Meanwhile, Americans are drowning, burning, or sizzling like bacon in a cast iron pan, and the response from the government is: cut food stamps, slash disaster aid, and cancel climate programs because that money is needed for bombs and billionaire tax breaks.
Central Banking, Now a Bloodsport: In true Trump fashion, a meeting that was supposed to be about crypto turned into a vent session about one of his favorite punching bags: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump waved around a draft letter to fire Powell like it was show-and-tell, griping that interest rates are too high and hinting (without evidence… surprise, surprise) that the Fed’s building renovation might be riddled with fraud. While some insiders say he’s just trolling, MAGA loyalists like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna are already cheering for Powell’s head on a pike. If Trump actually goes through with it, it’d be an unprecedented assault on Fed independence, and a reckless flex that could rattle the entire economy.
Coincidentally, Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, has been fired from her role as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. She helped put Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, behind bars and led separate cases against both Epstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Apparently, her last name was too much baggage for an administration hellbent on revenge and image control. No explanation given—just another quiet purge from a Justice Department that’s starting to look more like a loyalty cult than a legal institution. All of this comes as Trump World scrambles to bury the Epstein case, and maybe anyone who ever tried to expose it.
Trump Melts Down Over Epstein “Hoax”: In a chronic case of being unable to put the genie back in the bottle, Donald Trump continues his meltdown over the Epstein files after his own supporters refuse to let the story die. Trump, never one to handle being questioned (especially by his own base), went full unhinged boomer on Truth Social, rage-posting like a rejected Reddit mod and calling his supporters “weaklings.” He went on to accuse them of falling for a “radical left” scam. Meanwhile, MAGA loyalists and Republican heavyweights, from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Mike Johnson are demanding transparency, forcing Trump into the awkward position of disowning the very conspiracies he once perpetuated. Elon Musk, never one to miss a messy moment, chimed in to mock Trump’s “hoax” claims, basically telling him: if it’s fake, release the damn files. While I’m not holding my breath, if we’re lucky, this Epstein fiasco could do what no indictment or insurrection ever could: split MAGA from its messiah.
Thanks for Your Service! Now Let’s Deport Your Dad: Narciso Barranco, a father of three U.S. Marines, was just released after spending weeks in federal custody for the crime of… mowing a lawn while undocumented. ICE agents tackled him outside an IHOP, pinned him to the ground, and accused him of assault with a weed whacker. However, no assault charges were filed, of course, just the usual “you don’t belong here” charge from a country built entirely by people who didn’t belong here. His son, a Marine vet, picked him up and said what we’re all thinking: “We give everything to this country, and they still come for our parents.” Welcome to America, where the flag-waving never stops, but the compassion sure as hell does.
Israel has killed 93 Palestinians in just the last 24 hours, striking civilians sheltering in schools, and even a church. An Israeli tank shelled the Holy Family Church, killing two women and injuring a disabled child and the parish priest, because apparently no place is sacred anymore. In Khan Younis, what was billed as “aid” turned into horror when guards with the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation allegedly fired tear gas into a starving crowd, triggering a deadly stampede. Survivors aren’t buying the PR, demanding not food drops under fire, but open borders and the basic right to survive.
Pickleball for the Housed, Silence for the Displaced: A 54,000-square-foot indoor pickleball facility, Pickle at the Palms, is now under construction in the Interbay neighborhood, on the former site of Salmon Bay Village, a city-sanctioned RV and tiny home community for unhoused residents. The project, led by Seattle Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder and her family, promises a “premium” experience for pickleball enthusiasts, but has raised uncomfortable questions about what happened to the roughly 50 people displaced when the site shut down in May. While developers talk about community and the rise of America’s trendiest sport, nearby residents like 82-year-old Penny Fuller are asking the more pressing question: “Where do those people now live?”
Puppy Saved by Narcan: In a moment that somehow manages to be both heartbreaking and weirdly hopeful, a Lacey paramedic had to administer Narcan to a puppy likely exposed to fentanyl during a police investigation in a parked car. The little guy was unresponsive, barely breathing, until a small dose of the overdose-reversing drug brought him back. Within minutes, he was awake, tail wagging, and licking everyone like he just saved them. He’s now in the care of animal services.
To Leave You On: Yeah, this story’s a few days old, but it needs to be dragged back into the spotlight because it’s the kind of thing that slips into silence if we let it. Youman Wilder, founder of the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, had ICE agents roll up unannounced to a kids’ baseball practice on the Upper West Side and start interrogating his players, mostly Black and Latino teens, about where they and their parents were from. Wilder stepped in like any decent human should, told the armed goons the kids would be exercising their Fifth Amendment rights, and called the whole thing what it was: state-sanctioned intimidation. But here’s the part that guts you, speaking on MSNBC, he said what hurt most wasn’t the agents, but the people around them who said nothing. “I saw cowards,” he said. “And I hate to say that as somebody who loves their city.”
Ultimately, this isn’t just about ICE or one coach. It’s about what happens when cruelty shows up in public, and the crowd looks down at their phones. If we want to resist the machinery of fear and control that defines our current regime, then courage can’t be rare. It has to be reflexive, and not a one-person act.
Good for that coach, he deserves massive credit for standing up for those kids. It’s really sad no bystanders even tried to help. Maybe, like many commenters here, they were worried the optics of defending children might make it harder for Democrats to win future elections.
The world is not spiraling into climate collapse. The climate has changed throughout history and will continue to do so. Humans have proven we can adapt.
LOL, Marcus appreciates shielding children’s innocence with notes from the tooth fairy but has no problem exposing children to sexual topics or making them wade through drug abusing addicts on the way to school. Way to protect that innocence!
Gut ALL foreign aid. The Senate didn’t cut enough. Although the cuts to NPR and PBS are greatly appreciated.
I give a tremendous amount of credit to a man who raises three sons to become Marines, but if Dad is here illegally, he still gotta git. This is exactly what I voted for.
Thrilled to hear the Trap House Village in Interbay has been removed. I’m not much for pickleball but any legitimate use of the property will benefit the neighborhood tremendously.
Hopefully the cops charged the owner of that puppy with animal cruelty / abuse for allowing it to be exposed to fentanyl.
With all due respect to the baseball coach, it is the teenagers decision to exercise their 5th Amendment rights, not the coaches. Frankly, some of those kids might very well like to see their parents deported. 😀
Good AM round-up Marcus. Please add the “Continue Reading…” link.
Ah, WereBackBaby, please never stop. Your right wing parody account never fails to give me a chuckle in the morning. Thank god no one in real life is actually this stupid (and hopefully no one mistakes you for a serious person).
@4 – it is my pleasure to bring you fresh takes on the news everyday, please continue to enjoy! But my takes are not parody, which I do enjoy from time to time. They are a true representation of what I believe. For quality parody, I’d suggest you check out the Babylon Bee.
Antifa turd Benjamin Hanil Song has been arrested in Dallas Texas for his role in a violent attack where at least two people fired upon on an ICE facility in Alvarado Texas using AR-style rifles. A judge set the bond for antifa turd Benjamin Hanil Song at $15 million. He remains in custody in Johnson County. Song is facing charges of attempted murder of federal officers and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence in connection with the July 4th attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, during which an Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Along with the 11 other people arrested and charged with attempted murder of Federal officers, two other butt-ugly antifa turds were arrested on July 10 and July 13 for helping Song evade arrest.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/2-accused-hindering-arrest-fbi-most-wanted-suspect-alvarado-ice-attack
It’s hilarious how The Stranger is now obviously deliberately desperately ignoring this. It goes against their “progressive narrative”. It won’t go away, though.
“Central Banking, Now a Bloodsport”
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks, Charles.
Marcus,
You and The Stranger undercut arguments about Trump violating rule of law when you call for usurping rule of law.
“Just the usual “you don’t belong here” charge.” Our immigration laws state that this guy doesn’t belong here. He did not meet the legal requirements to come to the U.S., does not meet the requirements to remain in the U.S., or work in the U.S.
My personal opinion, is that if American’s won’t do the work this guy was doing, then we need to change our immigration laws; however, we haven’t.
Being committed to rule of law is like being committed to free speech. It means being committed to the enforcement of laws you don’t agree with and think don’t serve us well, like being committed to free speech means being committed to allowing free speech you abhor.
You are making yourself and The Stranger no different than Trump. I.e. I’ll ignore the law when the law requires outcomes I don’t agree with, or prohibits outcomes I want.
@7, oops I meant Marcus
LOL
“rage-posting like a rejected Reddit mod”
Marcus = Reddit perv, confirmed
“An Israeli tank shelled the Holy Family Church, killing two women and injuring a disabled child and the parish priest, because apparently no place is sacred anymore.”
Israel hates Christians just as much as it hates Muslims. You’re just now figuring this out?
@9 They all look alike, right?
(Also, eat shit)
“The bill passed by a razor-thin margin, with all Democrats and two Republicans voting no….”
Gosh wouldn’t it be nice to have the votes of centrist Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and John Tester (D-MT)right now?
nice and succinct representation of the banality of evil mindset @8
@12 – Doug, you said it, not me. I didn’t even know Marcus is black until you pointed it out lol
@8. You stupidity is beyond comprehension and is malevolent and anti-American. Go lick fascist boots you subhuman slime.
@8,
You’re stupid as fucking shit. Did you ever apologize to Nathalie for accusing her of plagiarism, despite very clearly and demonstratively not understanding that concept in the slightest?
The Biden administration really missed an opportunity for its DOJ to get to the bottom of the Epstein case. That would have been a better assignment for Kamala Harris given her prosecutorial background than being the border czar. And it may have brought out dark secrets that could have prevented Trump returning to power.
@19, Focusing on a popular but inconsequential case because there is a swirl of conspiracies around it would have be men a waste of time and any information dug up by biden’s doj implicating trump would have been disregarded as fake by his followers anyway. We have plenty of information in the public domain detailing trump’s close relationship with Epstein so his followers are already neck deep in denial.
It is most likely that everything shared by trump’s team is correct (though possibly incomplete). Epstein killed himself and he didn’t keep a master list of all the times he committed crimes. There may be more details about trump in the files but as i said there is so much we already know and his followers don’t care.
I was honestly expecting NotMyopic to say something about how saving the dog with narcan was a waste of time and money but then I remembered he only hates poor people.
@14 Manchin quit the Democratic Party and refused to endorse Kamala, why would it be nice to have him in the Senate in your opinion?
@8 not every person who breaks any law every day faces consequences. Not only are law enforcement resources limited, but officers also have discretion. What people are saying is the government should exercise discretion to not detain and deport hard working immigrants who raised three kids to serve their country. And also change the laws going forward.
My guess is that Trump knows he did something truly, unspeakably horrific in Epstein’s presence, and now being constantly reminded of it, day after day, hour after hour, is driving him to ever more erratic and bizarre public behavior — even if there’s no incriminating evidence on him in the files (and I’m inclined to think there isn’t, given that the Biden DOJ never brought it up).
Democrats must NOT let the transparency issue go away quietly. It’s the only thing that has ever caused a genuine rift in MAGA world — sadly, not even Jan. 6 did this much damage to his coalition.
@20: I suppose, but I don’t think Epstein killed himself. He wasn’t despondent and was looking forward to a trial. Although the ME ruled it a suicide, it was disputed by a forensic pathologist hired by Epstein’s brother, who argued that fractures in Epstein’s neck, specifically to the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone, were more indicative of homicidal strangulation than suicide.*
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/medical-examiner-dismisses-doubts-about-epstein-autopsy
@24 “Trump knows he did something truly, unspeakably horrific” I’m not convinced he’s ever been capable of enough introspection, empathy, or even recollection for that to be the case. It looks more like it’s driven by the lack of complete supplication and fawning from people who “owe” it to him, perhaps coupled with further mental decline.
Every time I think I’ve seen the stupidest, most over the top trolling from WereBackBaby, here he comes with a new level of bullshit. It would honestly be impressive if I didn’t know you fully believed all of the shit you spew.
25, there is no logical reason why anyone would murder him and it would be difficult/impossible to keep it under wraps given the number of people involved to pull it off. I trust the medical examiner who actually examined his body with no incentive to lie more than the person hired to cast doubt on her findings.
@1 fuck off with your no difference between democrats and republicans (if Kamala won this shit wouldn’t be happening).
And if you support the actions of the Coach, support him by donating to his nonprofit – talk is cheap.
https://www.harlembaseballacademy.org
“With all due respect to the baseball coach, it is the teenagers decision to exercise their 5th Amendment rights, not the coaches.”
@2 no dipshit, they’re minors / under their coach’s direct supervision. Authorities should not be looking to kids to rat out their parents – that’s some grade A Maoist / Stalinist beliefs from someone who claims to be a proud American.
@28: You can accept the ME’s findings as truth, but the profession is not infallible. Logic is not available as a talking point in regard to who wanted him dead. But there’s plenty of suspicion and doubt regarding Epstein’s passing, and you can’t say that illogical to have these theories than to say that logic proves Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK.
@18, Its taking credit for someone else’s work without attribution. Balk’s piece was the first independent reporting and analysis of the data.
She parrots it nearly verbatim.
So the only one’s that need an apology are Balk and the Seattle Times, who are understandably not pleased.
@15, Every country on the planet has conditions for legally entering and remaining. Every country on the planet will deport violators decades later. All countries have statutes of limitation on most laws, but not immigration violations.
So you need to not diminish true evil by trivializing it with such a low bar definition.
33, It’s not a low bar at all — these are the precise circumstances where the concept has been applied historically.
People are being detained indefinitely without charge, including to a foreign labor camp where people are routinely tortured and killed, and legal residents are being deported over minor infractions. Lives are being destroyed but it doesn’t affect you so you defer to decorum over what’s just. You are literally the white moderate mlk wrote about.
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
@21, If you love poor people, help them to mot be poor. Help them not be enslaved to addiction.
Saving them from death, and then leaving them to be less autonomous than they are cable of being or returned to their enslavement is the cruelest hatred for poor people.
I have no problem funding up to 2 years of addiction treatment. That is often how long it takes to get the brain back to pre-addiction chemistry and neuro pathways.
True love is saying an addict can irrevocably commit to treatment, or they can take the maximum sentence for whatever crime they have allegedly done. It isn’t sparing them from consequences. Consequences, positive and negative, drive human behavior.
@23, We need to take away that police disretion.
If everyone who is observed speeding and is pulled over gets cited for the most severe violation observed, with the max penalty, disparities in policing based on race or gender go away.
We have already done that with Judges in Washington, for the same reason. If they have a guilty person in front of them by plea or jury verdict, the sentencing range is very narrow. The guilty gets a score, based on prior criminal conviction records and the current offense, that is months wide, and the Judge can only sentence within that narrow range.
@1 pretty early in the morning for that straw man.
31, It’s not so much logic but accepting the simplest explanation over more complicated ones until you have evidence to reject it, and so far there is far more evidence supporting suicide than an elaborate, ill-fitting, and ever-evolving conspiracy theory.
If you want to believe a bunch of people — including at minimum a medical examiner, prison warden, several guards, and one or more of epstein’s clients — conspired to murder Epstein for no clear end, especially when all of his victims are free to spill the beans at any time with far more incentive to do so, then carry on, but the existence of doubt is a genuinely dumb reason to hang your hat on. People doubt the earth is round.
@34, You are mixing two seperate issues.
People being deported without being given all 5th, 14th Amendment, and Iimigration law remedies to challenge the deportation is wrong. That is what rule of law requires.
Rule of law also requires deporting them when those remedies are exhausted or the allleged immigration violator stops availing themselves of those remedies.
Under immigration law the state need prove no crime. There merely needs to be a finding of entering or remaining unlawfully in the country. The person subject to that finding only gets to stay after that point while their challenge plays out and whether they are incarcerated or not during that time is at the sole discretion of the government.
SCOTUS has held for over 100 years that non-citizens don’t have the full Constitutional Rights of citizens. The 5th and 14th Amendments do apply to non-citizens, but only to allow due process granted by Congress to challenge deportation.
Most countries, even western democracies, provide few of the rights to challenge deportation we have here. Whatever government is in power can deport any non-citizen for any reason or none. They choose to honor Visas only because if they are arbitrary they will scare away tourists and wanted workers, as we are doing to ourselves here.
@32,
She absentmindedly neglected to include a hyperlink when she wrote “that’s what I’m inferring from this data…” in her three sentence summary of a longer article. This in no way, shape or form constitutes plagiarism. Also, I notice you failed to include any sort of substantiation to your claim that Balk and the Seattle Times are “understandably not pleased.” Shocking, that.
You’re stupid as fucking shit.
@38 – Fair points. But I can live with the ambiguity.
39 i’m not confusing jack shit. It’s entirely possible to deport people humanely as we managed to for decades, even if you separate that out from imprisonment without charge or deporting legal residents over minor infractions, which i don’t because these are all happening for the exact same reason.
Appeals to the law tell you nothing about when or how it should be enforced, only that the laws exist. Meanwhile slavery was 100% legal until it wasn’t but it was a grave injustice the entire time. What’s legal and what’s just are entirely separate from each other and your appeals to statute aren’t convincing anyone of anything other than your completely amoral depravity.
@29 & 37 I didn’t say there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans, but there is functionally no difference between the positions on this issue of Republicans and “Democrat” commenters like Aguecheek or tensorna. And this is no strawman: in the last thread discussing the Trump admin’s egregious actions towards immigrants those two responded:
“If this is the hill progressives are willing to die on it’s really no surprise the GOP trounced the Democrats in 2024.” — Aguecheek
“As has already been explained to you, there is no “erosion of due process” here.” — tensorna
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/07/07/80135727/slog-am-more-than-80-dead-in-texas-floods-bibi-is-back-in-dc-and-the-governor-chooses-not-to-pardon-a-washington-deportee/comments
If you’re worried about people thinking Dems and Republicans are the same, instead of getting mad at me, you should tell those two to quit hand waving (or even explicitly approving of) Trump’s draconian policies.
@36 “the Judge can only sentence within that narrow range”
That’s not true. You need to stop googling the topic of the day, reading only the AI summary, and assuming you know everything about it.
@40, That is the very definition of plagiarism. Not including a link or other attribution has the result of giving you the credit for work of another.
She forgot? So you can read minds? Since she, or The Stranger, haven’t followed up with the standard journalistic practice of printing a correction, with an explanation, or apology, you don’t know if was intentional or error. The result is the same in either event, she gets credit for another’s work. The failure to print a correction only reinforces the idea it was intentional, whether it was or wasn’t.
@42, Then every country on the planet is unjust if they deport people for entering or remaining unlawfully.
You need to look at this specific case. The guy has lived in this country long enough to have fathered three Marines. Nowhere is anyone asserting this guy is a citizen or legal resident. There is no statute of limitations on detecting that anyone is not a lawful resident and deporting them.
Do I wish that the democratically enacted law provided a path to legal residency for this guy, or that he had taken an existing path to legal residency? Sure. But that does not appear to be the case. So enforce the law as democratically enacted and respect the democratic will.
Are the other due process violations you refer to occurring in some unknown number of cases? Yes. Is it willful and intentional in those cases? It would appear to be the most logical explanation. They can, and in some cases are, being challeged via lawsuit. That’s the process under rule of law.
Does the fact of all those due process violations mean that there were due process violations in this case? He and his family have not alleged any due process violations, or that he is actually a lawful resident.
There have been lots of cases, not just U.S. ones, where a deportee is denied entry into their country of citizenship. That does not obligate the deporting country not to deport. Under international law they have the right to deport whomever they wish to wherecer they can find a place to send them. Deport literally means in the words of The Verve, “I don’t know where you are going to, but you can’t stay here.”
If we don’t like that, we can throw out any member of Congress who does not sign onto or sponsor reform of the law. I don’t see a rush by voters to do that, do you? If we did, the law would already be different.
It’s not just the act of deportation and i’m not just talking about one case, dumbass. It’s the disgusting spectacle of violence in the streets and the violation of people’s civil rights. The government has plenty of latitude in when/how they choose to enforce immigration law — see the many years prior to 2025 if you need a clue — and the trump administration is choosing to do so in a way that most americans find repulsive. You just don’t get it because you are a morally bankrupt cretin.
@43 Still pining for the murderer Tuan Phan?
You are correct, both Democrats and Republicans do not condone murder, nor apologize for murderers.
The problem is progressives like you who only seem to care for murderers and other violent criminals, and not their victims. that’s what costs Democrats elections.
In 474 days we will be voting in the midterms. In order to win back the House we will need to win elections in places that Trump won, places like Vancouver, WA; Greeley, CO; Omaha, NE, Davenport, IA, and Levittown, PA.
In order to win in those districts the candidates will need to distance themselves as much as possible from pro-crime progressives, such as yourself.
@43: First, I’m not a Democrat, no matter how many times anyone says I am. I loathe the very idea of political parties, and I wish we could find some way to make their candidates ineligible for office, but I doubt we could do that without violating (at the very least!) the spirit of the First Amendment. So, we’re stuck with these entities.
Second, as @48 noted, my comment applied to exactly one specific individual case, that of a murderously violent felon who now faces deportation to a place other than his home country. As @48 also noted, you have devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to supporting this criminal’s demand to be deported where he wants to go, all the while citing no law, precedent, or constitutional principle which would require it. By failing to cite any such law, precedent, or constitutional principle, you implicitly supported the very point I had made in my quote.
Is the Trump administration being “draconian” in this murderously violent felon’s case? Yes, I agree they are. That’s not the point here. As the commenter @48 already told you in a previous thread, we who oppose Trump must choose our battles wisely. Championing the delicate preferences of a murderously violent felon, who lost his legal permanent resident status for the killing he freely chose to commit, does not strike me as a wise choice. Please feel free to explain to us how it was.
@48 “pro-crime” huh, where have I heard that before? Oh right:
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/president-trump-calls-democratic-party-party-of-crime-at-west-virginia-rally-1332954179782
@50 Your ACAB attitude basically proves his point.
You spent the summer of 2020 rioting in support of criminals, and even today you spend your energy defending indefensible violent felons.
@49 here’s a summary of the relevant law taken directly from the dissent in Phan et. al.’s case, which was authored by Justice Sotomayor and joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, the three of whom you and Aguecheek must consider pro-crime progressives:
“Federal law generally permits the Government to deport noncitizens found to be unlawfully in the United States only to countries with which they have a meaningful connection. 8 U. S. C. §1231(b). To that end, Congress specified two default options: noncitizens arrested while entering the country must be returned to the country from which they arrived, and nearly everyone else may designate a country of choice. §§1231(b)(1)(A), (b)(2)(A). If these options prove infeasible, Congress specified which possibilities the Executive should attempt next. These alternatives include the noncitizen’s country of citizenship or her former country of residence. §§1231(b)(1)(C), (2)(E).
This case concerns the Government’s ability to conduct what is known as a “third country removal,” meaning a removal to any “country with a government that will accept the alien.” §1231(b)(1)(C)(iv); see §1231(b)(2)(E)(vii). Third-country removals are burdensome for the affected noncitizen, so Congress has sharply limited their use. They are permissible only after the Government tries each and every alternative noted in the statute, and determines they are all “impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible.” §§1231(b)(1)(C)(iv), (2)(E)(vii).”
Noncitizens facing removal of any sort are entitled under international and domestic law to raise a claim under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10, 1984, S. Treaty Doc. No. 100–20, 1465 U. N. T. S. 113. Article 3 of the Convention prohibits returning any person “to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” The United States is a party to the Convention, and in 1998 Congress passed the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act to implement its commands. The Act provides
that “[i]t shall be the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.” §2242(a), 112 Stat. 2681–822, codified as note to 8 U. S. C. §1231. It also directs the Executive to “prescribe regulations to implement” the Convention. §2242(b), 112 Stat. 2681–822. Those regulations provide, among other things, that “[a] removal order . . . shall not be executed in circumstances that would violate Article 3.” 28 CFR §200.1 (2024).
@47: Yes, the Trump administration has been abusive (ooh, spicy adjective!) in enforcing immigration law. That’s not the point here. Their abuses change neither the law, nor the status of persons who remain illegally in this country. (If you’re actually worried about the Trump administration trying this on citizens, as I am, then address it at their actual point of attack, upon birthright citizenship. Opposing them there is far more likely to succeed, in both the constitutional and popular senses.)
“…and the trump administration is choosing to do so in a way that most americans find repulsive.”
First: feature, not bug. Second: combine that with Trump’s attack upon birthright citizenship. I believe you’ll find that more effective than championing lawbreakers.
Out of all of this, I hope we can start a national civic dialog on our shameful exploitation of undocumented immigrant labor. We’ve ALL been complicit in it, and it’s time to put a stop to it, in a way that provides a path to citizenship for our country’s hardest-working fellow inhabitants.
@51 “You spent the summer of 2020 rioting in support of criminals”
Wow, mask all the way off
@54 How else to describe the ACAB movement?
@44, You are wrong again. In Washington State, Judges must sentence within this grid.
https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9.94A.510
I have personally, on more than one occasion, watch Prosecutors and Defense lawyers tee off for a two hour hearing ,on whether the convicted person would get 42 or 48 months for a serious felony, with a relatively modest offender score from prior offenses. Then the judge asked to hear from the family and victims present, and they would ask for even more than the top end of the range, to be told by the Judge that the Legislature had tied their hands.
Fuck A.I. Read the damn RCW for yourself.
@49
I am a Democrat. I was 14 years old when I was wearing my first Presidential campaign button, my green “Carter for President” button, that I still have.
I’ve been alive for 12 presidents, Clinton was the best, Obama the most inspirational (I was alive for JFK but too young to be inspired by him).
The first campaign I donated to was Dukakis’ 1988 run. I knocked on doors or made phone calls for Gore, Kerry, Obama, Obama, Hillary, Biden, and Harris.
The hard left Progressives have cost us victories in 2000, 2016, and 2024.
I really have no more patience for progressives and their fantasies.
@47, You are entitled to discuss the situation generally, but the SLOG story, and my comment are on a specific case.
Each case stands on it own merit. Where rule of law isn’t being followed (e.g. Garcia) I agree injustice is being done.
I support Mahmoud Khalil’s $20 million lawsuit for his detention while being a lawful resident alien of the United States, because Trump didn’t like his opinion on the Israel-Hamas War.
I won’t suggest we depart from enforcing the law, even when I disagree with the law or the outcome of the law, on an immigration matter. The solution to bad law, is to democratically reform it. It isn’t to ignore it or subvert it, which is what Trump does with laws he finds inconvenient. If you do that on justly enforced laws you (and I) disagree with, such as the one that has the father of three Marines being deported, how are you any different than Trump? You aren’t. You are for rule of law if it gets an outcome you like, and want to abandon rule of law if someone is deported following the letter of the law you don’t agree with.
@47, Most American’s may, or may not, find it repulsive. Irrelevant. Do most voters in red Congressional Districts or red Senate states find it repulsive. Is anyone new calling for Trump’s impeachment that wasn’t before he started the current enforcement action? I think not. Is any Congressman or Senator, holding their fingers out to take the pulse of the constituents that vote for them, figuring their seat is in danger over Trump’s immigration enforcement policy? Nope. When that changes, the policy will change. Not until then.
Here is my general statement on the immigration mess:
We have lived with this world where we keep the law one way to satisfy one group of voters by being “tough” on immigration, and then don’t enforce it as written, or fund enforcing it as written (hello, hire more immigration judges to clear the backlog of cases), to satisfy a competing constituency. The voters need to grow-up, decide what our country’s laws are going to be on enforcement and then enforce them to the standard written, and not ignore the standard. That is a disregard of both democracy and rule of law.
@56 “Read the damn RCW for yourself”
You need to take your own advice
RCW 9.94A.010: “The purpose of this chapter is to make the criminal justice system accountable to the public by developing a system for the sentencing of felony offenders which structures, but does not eliminate, discretionary decisions affecting sentences”
RCW 9.94A.535: “The court may impose a sentence outside the standard sentence range for an offense if it finds, considering the purpose of this chapter, that there are substantial and compelling reasons justifying an exceptional sentence.”
@57 “The hard left Progressives have cost us victories in … 2016, and 2024.
I really have no more patience for progressives and their fantasies.”
No you’re clearly occupied with your own fantasies
@52, And where is a judicial showing that the limitations you note have not been observed. I.e. That the government hasn’t exhausted all the remedies before deporting to a third country not of the deportees choosing. nation of citizenship, or nation from which they entered the U.S.?
When there is such a judicial showing, I will support the Court ruling in question and the Judiciary in any constitutional crisis that may follow, not that it will do any good given that my Representative has already voted to impeach Trump at every opportunity and my Senators already have voted to remove him at every opportunity.
Until arguments from people like you are tailored to appeal to voters in states that can move the needle on Congressional support for Trump, its a dead issue. Yet Progressives, in spite of seeing their policy positions and messaging repel, not persuade, persuadable voters in key Districts and States, keep doubling-down and repeating, vainly hoping for a different result. To stop Trump, somebody has to win back the working-class and minority voters that have told the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party to fuck off, and that have abandoned the Dems until the Progressives do.
@52: Glad to see you can actually quote from something other than your own feelings, even if it takes an only week or so of criticizing you to get you to do it. And while I’d really like to know what credible threat of “torture” Tuan Phan faces in South Sudan, that’s beside the point. There’s now an entire universe of demonstrably abusive and illegal acts the Trump administration has committed — and continues to commit — yet you persistently focus upon one of the absolute least possible sympathetic targets of Trump’s autocratic endeavors.
As a result, instead of banding together as progressives and liberals to oppose our common opponent, we liberals spend our time arguing with all of the ways you progressives arrogantly persist in being foolish, wrong, or both. As in Gaza, where instead of coming together to end a preventable ongoing humanitarian disaster, the Stranger and supportive commenters have wasted 1.5+ years (and counting) on trying to bully liberals into admitting Israel is committing “genocide” there — and then engaging in bitter personal attacks, when we liberals dare to note that word already has a long-accepted meaning worldwide.
I’ve written this already, and I’ll write it as many times as I see relevance in it: if your goal is to divide Trump’s opponents so he can succeed in his autocratic and illegal endeavors, then you’re doing a great job. If your goal is to stop Trump, then you’re failing every bit as miserably as you did last year.
@45,
Why did you think it necessary there to blatantly obviously lie and claim that Balk and the Seattle Times were displeased? You know who also consistently finds it necessary to lie to justify their reliably bad faith arguments is Trump. The tactical rhetorical similarities between the two of you are undeniable and embarrassing. You should honestly become a Republican.
@63 “instead of banding together as progressives and liberals to oppose our common opponent, we liberals spend our time arguing with … you progressives”
I agree this is the problem
@64, I have an email from Balk.
@ neale frothingham,
For the millionth time. I don’t give a fuck what the law states and i don’t need any help understanding how the legislative branch works. I am sharing my opinion about how the law is being enforced and those feelings are completely independent of the law and unchanged by your tedious googling.
You keep demonstrating my original point that you represent the white moderate mlk spoke of. You’re not educating anyone, you’re just showing your whole ass over and over again.
@2 That the GOP has chosen to break its previous budget deal with the Democrats is why no Democrat should vote for the next Republican budget, nor for any continuing resolution. The GOP will need to pass such legislation without any Democratic support. I hope the Democrats on the Hill have the spine to shut the government down until Trump agrees to restore all cut funding!