Qualifying for the covid vaccine should be pretty straight forward. If you voted for Donald Trump or didn't vote at all, you aren't allowed to have one. If you voted third party you can have one but you gotta share one needle with everyone and hope for the best.

I live in rural King county and public trans will never work for those of us who actually have to work/live/play in areas outside of seattle, not to mention the mental and physical downside of sharing space with drugged out mentally ill fentanal smokers (our unhoused neighbors). Since I have very little reason to ever travel to seattle anymore I'll leave this one to the urbanists like CM.

Seattle has the worst drivers, the dumbest pedestrians, and the most entitled “personal mobility device” users (cycling enthusiasts, and scooter hobbyists)

@1 - Trump voters don't get the vaccine? Do you promise? 😀

Surely Charles Mudede understands that an op-ed printed in the Seattle Times -- or any other newspaper -- is not written by that newspaper. To continually blame the Seattle Times for outside opinion writers for positions that are in opposition to Mr. Mudede's opinion is ludicrous. And unfair.

@4
I’m acquainted with quite a few Trump supporters who got the shot.
It’s amazing what you learn when you open your mind and talk to people who would dare to have a different opinion than yourself.

Busses are great. Who wouldn’t want to turn a 45 minute drive into a 2 and a half hour ordeal?

@5 But you do know that Op Ed don't just magically appear in newspapers and that someone who works at the paper has to choose for them to appear there, right? Like, an anti-trans racist person isn't just going to magically write an article for the Stranger and its going to appear here without the knowledge of the editor or other writers? Ya know? Right?

@Charles.

Way to tell us that you aren't a journalist, and that the Stranger is not a journalistic endeavor.

I know you work in an echo chamber. The Stranger would never consider running an opinion piece written by someone who dos not have the ideological purity of yourself, or Hannah Murphy Winter, or the rest of the SECB.

However the Seattle Times is a newspaper. It is a journalistic publication that will publish divergent opinions, even ones that its editorial board disagrees with.

For example, on August 27, 2025 the Seattle Times Editorial Board published a piece headlined, "Let’s keep rolling with a car-free Pike Place Market" That editorial ends with the statement that the ban on cars, "should be made permanent."

However being an actual newspaper that adheres to journalistic standards the Seattle Times will publish opposing opinions. Which is exactly what the September 2 piece you linked to is. "Pike Place Market should balance needs of vendors with visitors" was not written by the Seattle Times Editorial Board.

I know this might be an alien concept to you, but if you all at the Stranger actually believed in the validity of the opinions you express, you wouldn't be afraid to publish opposing viewpoints.

Back in 2016 I voted for Brady Walkinshaw in the primary election. At the time I felt he was more qualified for the job than was Pramila Jayapal. Given the way Noisy Creek has run the Stranger, I am really glad he lost. As much as a gaffe prone fool Jayapal has been she obviously has more integrity than Walkinshaw.

“Census data shows the number of vehicles in the city has been effectively unchanged for years, even as the number of households has grown”

If my hood (mix of old brick apartments, townhomes, and SFH) is any indication, the out of towners aren’t bothering to register their cars in WA (and a good chunk of the WA plates are years past due on their tabs).

Once police stopped enforcement current tabs, it’s been a shitshow.

I strongly encourage anyone who trusts viruses over vaccines to choose the virus. Don’t listen to your doctor, follow your heart and own the libs.

@8 guy who is just figuring out what an alt weekly is in the year of our lord 2025

@12

I thought it was "Seattle's Only Newspaper".

@11:

So, I guess that means you won't be signing up for one of those juicy positions at ICE anytime soon - good to know.

13: perfect retort

Charles, aren't you tasked with doing a news roundup instead of bloviating on you've been ruminating on for the past week?

Some of you don't seem the grasp the entire concept of a blog. You guys do know that's what we're commenting on, right? Slog? Blog? it's a play on words or whatever?

It's also actually super weird that all of you right wing folks actually take the time to read a super queer based left wing newspaper every morning just to complain about every single thing they write. None of the writers are reading your comments.

14: perfect retort. You made me chuckle.

In response to Sir Andrew @8, I too voted for Brady Walkinshaw in 2016. I wouldn't be so disappointed in him if I were you, considering that you are far more to the right side of the political spectrum than I am. If I recall correctly, when Noisy Creek took over, they communicated that they weren't going to rock the boat editorially. And I think even you can admit that the current editorial team is a modest step in the right direction from Rich Smith and his two provocateur bloggers, even if their departure was due to that mini-scandal and not on account of editorial differences. Who knows, for all we know maybe that scandal presented a convenient excuse to move in a little more moderating direction.

But even then, let's assume Brady Walkinshaw has the same more Obama-ish beliefs he had in 2016. If he tried to take The Stranger in that direction, The Stranger would cease to be relevant. It's like if Arby's got a new CEO, and they decided to turn it into a vegan food chain. Or maybe the more apt comparison is what might actually happen when Rupert Murdoch finally dies and his three politically moderate children take control of FOX News. FOX News can't just turn on a dime and cease to be a right-wing media outlet, otherwise FOX News would cease to be, period.

Let me say I am sympathetic to maintaining the closure of Pike Place to cars, truly. I think it's better without them. But I'm curious -- does Mudede or anyone have any statistics to show the danger of cars there? Reports of accidents, fatalities, etc.?

RE: Pike Place Market pedestrians.

We're talking about different sets of pedestrians. The market is jam-packed with people taking pictures of each other with the sign in the background. Or the flying fish. Mostly tourists off cruise ships or staying at a local hotel. Shoppers? Not so much. My favorite vendor's face* lit up when I arrived in the middle of the packed foot traffic the other day. Finally, someone here to actually buy something.

*Who shall remain anonymous to protect her lease should her comments run afoul of the PDA's standard narrative.

tbass@17...
Spot on. I'm a single, straight guy in the midwest who follows Slog because I was born in Seattle, and I still have family and friends who live there. It's a slice of life from my old hometown.
It is fun fucking with the trolls when I get bored, but I am amazed at the effort they put in to being assholes/complete fucking fools.

Go figure...

brb, Imma head on over to foxnews.com and complain that they never publish any liberal, progressive op-eds.

Being against vaccines, and the Covid vaccine in particular, is virtue signaling, MAGA style.

@17: Stop conflating frustrated moderates and progressives as "right wing folks". Sure there is a touch of MAGA here, but there's actually a decent spectrum of commentary.

@12, @17, @18, @20, @22: For those of you reacting with shock to the idea of actual dialog at the Stranger, it may further surprise you to learn that for a long time after founding, the Stranger did express a range of viewpoints and ideas, all of them lefty-liberal (on Capitol Hill in Seattle, surprise surprise). The Stranger welcomed Bill Clinton’s election; heck, as late as the 2017 primary election season, the Stranger endorsed Cary Moon for Mayor, and a dissident group of writers endorsed Nikkita Oliver. The “it’s genocide because we say it’s genocide/nothing going on at Denny Blaine, because we say so” attitude developed relatively recently. As the Moon/Oliver divide showed, the Stranger did not always automatically equate dissent with treason.

Get real, we know City loves developers much more than bus riders (8). After mag (glossy old "Seattle") cited Denny as one of top 5 congested, letters written, meetings attended warned in 2010s of projected density on this route. In true Seattle fashion, actual bus riders and residents ignored, a phalanx of high rises now line Denny, a virtual parking lot after 2:30 pm. COVID years were the only free flowing traffic era that many missed.

@7
There was Katie Herzog's 2017 article about detransitioners, that Ijeoma Oluo quite in protest over after being told "well, you get to write what you want", which I guess meant that the stranger wasn't woke enough for her. Just acknowledging the existence of the apostates was considered anti trans. The ensuing backlash to the article can be summed up as "fuck Herzo" being spray painted all thesis like on the door of the stranger's office door. It was a campaign of hate against Katie.

I've been reading the stranger since it was a black and white quarter fold.

@17 frustrated moderates and progressives aren't racist, transphobic, homophobic trash like 75% of the people who comment on this blog every day now... including you. I don't know how you THINK you come across on here, but you come across as a crazy right winger who has never talked to a black person or gay person in their entire life and looks down on everyone from your fucking castle. ...in case you were ever wondering.

@28 was meant for @24 Pheobe the Feeb, obviously

The jab-happy governors of Washington, Oregon, and California to establish their own "science-based" vaccine guidelines—three years after those states previously compelled their employees to be injected with a COVID-19 "vaccine" that prevented neither infection nor transmission of the virus. This, after totalitarian lockdowns wrecked those states' economies and the livelihoods of countless residents, only for the CDC to ultimately find the entire populace had become infected by COVID anyway. Good work! Have fun facing the spate of lawsuits from workers fired
for refusing COVID vaccines.

@25 Yeah, I've been reading the Stranger since I moved here in 1994... I understand how it works. Used to grab every issue of it and the Rocket and read them both cover to cover. I've also been a commenter on here much, much longer than most of you. I just took a break and then made a new account recently when I saw how overtaken by dumb shitheads this had gotten. But, go off.

@18 "considering that you are far more to the right side of the political spectrum than I am."

Which I guess makes me a standard issue liberal Democrat? Maybe even a bit further to the left side of the spectrum. Which of course in Seattle makes me a crazy MAGAT TRUMPER aaaaaaugh!

Considering the closeness of the US House of Representatives I'm really glad I made phone calls for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Considering how close the midterms will be I'm planning on making calls for her and whoever are the Democratic candidates in the NE-2, CO-3, CO-8, and whatever Democrat is running for Jodi Ernst's Senate seat in Iowa.

Yes the current editor of the Stranger is far better than Rich in that she doesn't allow her reporters to just make shit up, the way Hannah Krieg did. But that's a pretty low bar.

My point @8 was that Charles was just being sloppy. He missed the Seattle Times editorial published a mere 8 days ago that agrees with Charles' position and yet focused on a Guest Editorial published yesterday that he disagrees with, and attributed the guest opinion to the STEB.

@18 @25

Wait I'm confused, aren't you two supposed to be the same person.

I mean your made up user names both end in the same two letters....

/s

Sir Andrew @32, forgive me if I mischaracterized where you sit on the political continuum. Good on you for phone-banking for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

Eh #2, good thing there are no drugged out mentally ill fentanyl smokers in rural areas... LOL :-)
Here is a hint for you: next time you feel the necessity to come to Seattle just park in one of many car-dependent suburbs and take the train or bus into the city. If you are prone to cowardice just hold the hand of a kindergartner, they can be strong for you. Believe it or not, while people are more than welcome in Seattle, their dumb-ass cars are most assuredly not.

Never thought of The Seattle Times as a Seattle newspaper. That paper definitely has a long-standing anti-Seattle pro-Bellevue vibe to it... not just pro-Bellevue but pro single-occupant car commuter from outside the city and against the people who actually live in the city who benefit when the quality of life in Seattle improves. That’s it! The Seattle Times favors low quality of life for people who live in Seattle. That explains their incessant obsession against transit, trails, pedestrians, parks, libraries, bikes, scooters, schools, and in favor of packing streets with more dangerous shitty jalopies. It also explains why the Seattle Times too often favors sweeping encampments 30 yards down the street rather than doing the work to provide shelter and services for people who are on the street. It explains the newspaper’s inability to differentiate between public safety (vehicle violence always #1), public nuisance, and just being a killjoy. When the Seattle Times consistently advocates lowering the quality of life for people living in Seattle in the service of out-of-town interests it can hardly be considered Seattle's newspaper.

@28: I'm sorry I annoy you. Maybe you'd be happier in the UK where they throw people like me in prison for their posts and comments. But that would be fascism though.

@33: Drat, you’ve caught me! Now, for the clincher, you’ll cite your own amazing powers of reading comprehension — powers so amazing, in fact, no one but you has ever once noticed them! — to “prove” you are right about me. And cressona. Who is also me. ;-)

@25 "it’s genocide because we say it’s genocide"

Holy shit you're still dying on this hill? Why not just insist it's all only Bibi's fault like the other mainstream Dems who are realizing too late they were on the wrong side of history?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/nyregion/trump-adams-sliwa-quit-nyc-mayor.html

Turns out Trump is terrified of a socialist NYC mayor, contrary to the self-serving assertions of corporatist Dems that Mamdani's election would be a gift to Republicans.

@38: Yeah, it’s like your citation of Fox News utterly failed to impress me, or something. (Did you catch longtime commenter @22 noting the Stranger is just a left-wing version of Fox News?)

TBF, Hanna Krieg and Ashley Nervobig did spend a lot of their time here telling you it was a genocide, and to the very best of your knowledge, they’d never, ever lie to you about anything, now would they? Right?

(Oh, and once again, I’m not a Democrat, mainstream or otherwise.)

@6, You should know by now that fear and disbelief in vaccines is trendy with trumpers as there are several examples in this thread, but even if they are not antivax themselves all trump voters are responsible for making it harder for people to get the vaccine if they want it. Anyone actively choosing not to get “the jab” because vaccines are woke or whatever are already digging their own graves.

@35: And yet, so many TS readers let cars park in their heads, rent free.

@33: "They're" the same person. "They've" had to become a little more sophisticated in how they differentiate themselves, due to outside pressure, thanks to moi.

@38: Huh, it appears you did not provide a link and quote to your source for mainstream Dems admitting it's genocide and blaming Bibi. So, please do tell us: of your favorite "From the River to the Sea" web sites, which one supplied you with this choice information? (Do Krieg and Nervobig work there now?)

@43: Please, you're hardly the only commenter here to have accused me of sock-puppetry. Why do you not recognize the brilliance of those who came before you, each by nym? They deserve some praise for their perspicacity, do they not? After all, they were way ahead of you in this, correct?

@40 https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20250728_our_genocide

And as to not being a Democrat: I thought you lived in New York now, and unlike here you have to register with a party in that state, so which party are you registered with then?

@45: That's an Israeli web site. The page you cited says absolutely nothing about American Democrats (who tend to live in the United States, btw) recognizing it's a genocide and blaming Bibi. Now, fail harder:

"And as to not being a Democrat: I thought you lived in New York now, and unlike here you have to register with a party in that state, so which party are you registered with then?"

You're wrong. Voting in New York State's elections does not require the voter to declare a party affiliation: "Political party enrollment is optional but that, in order to vote in a primary election of a political party, a voter must enroll in that political party, unless state party rules allow otherwise." (https://elections.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2025/04/2025-vr-form-english-fillable.pdf)

Just as Hamas can release the hostages and surrender any time it wants, you can stop being ludicrously wrong here any time you want. (And, unlike Hamas, you need put no effort into it. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. What's your excuse for delaying?)

@tensora, didn't you get the memo. Bibi doesn't want the hostages back, he wants a comprehensive peace.
And that will change as soon as Hamas agrees to it.
You simply can't trust him.
if you are so naive, or well paid, to believe otherwise, i have a lake to sell you in the Negev. We will have to forcibly remove (ie.ethnically cleanse) some pesky non israeli natives first though.

@47: Hamas began this phase of the conflict, and Hamas can end it any time they want. Not with yet another condition-laden cease-fire -- conditions which they will change from moment to moment, and terms they will brazenly violate the moment the cease-fire begins -- but by releasing the hostages and surrendering. They don't care about Palestinians, and so long as folks like you continue to blame Israel and only Israel, Hamas will continue to get Palestinians killed. You're free to recognize these realities any time you like, but all of the evidence suggests you'd rather watch every last inhabitant of Gaza die before admitting your beliefs are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

@36 Oh, you don't annoy me but the fact that you don't think you and all these MAGA people are that different is laughable. You're one burning cross away from Kevin Bacon.

@36 the fact that you think you're that different. I really wish we could edit typos on here but I guess that'd open a whole can of worms and we have more than enough worms on here.

@49/50 - What on earth are you babbling about? (I love Kevin Bacon.)

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@30, state and local employees who lost their jobs over the vaccine mandate are losing their court cases complaining about it as well - https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2025/09/03/worker-fired-by-kitsap-county-district-court-for-refusing-covid-vaccine-denied-claim/85682693007/

Hydronerd dear, they got their jobs back - at least in our little corner of the world - once the mayor ended the emergency proclamation.

In many cases, that is truly unfortunate.

Hooray for Washington, Oregon, and California Governors Bob Ferguson, Tina Kotek, and Gavin Newsom are wisely taking CDC vaccine issues into their own hands! They're not blindly marching in lockstep by adhering to RFK Jr's gross incompetence in his promise to MASA: Make America Sick Again.