At around 3 pm our time on Monday, one of the most powerful earthquakes on record hit the Kamchatka Peninsula, a remote region of Russia that has a population of 290,000. The people there surely felt it, but no one, according to recent reports, was killed or seriously injured. The world-historical seismic event triggered tsunami warnings in Hawaii, French Polynesia, Japan, Peru, and Chile. It seems our planet’s largest ocean was sloshing about like bathtub water bothered by a soap-lathering bather. This morning, however, almost all tsunami warnings have been downgraded, and the shores of our region of America—California, Oregon, Washington—only experienced waves that were more curious than destructive. Now, let’s get back to the Epstein files.
No, let’s talk about the weather instead. The experts predict that today will be as hot as yesterday, reaching a very uncomfortable 81. But starting tomorrow, things will start to get cooler and cooler. Indeed, next week will open with temperatures in the low 70s. The chance of rain, however, will remain depressingly low. Sorry trees, sorry grass, sorry to all of the life forms that use sunlight and water to produce out of thin air the most original food in the world.
Columbia Funeral Home and Crematory, which has been around forever (since 1907), was damaged to a considerable degree by a fire that the Seattle Fire Department confronted at 4 am this morning and extinguished an hour and half later. The funeral home, which is famous for displaying glowing Nativity ornaments on its lawn during the holiday season, had planned to send one of the city’s souls to the other side of eternity this Friday. That’s not going to happen. Though SFD claimed “no one [was] in the building when the fire broke out,” it’s uncertain if it categorized a dead person as “no one.” Nevertheless, investigators believe that arson is at the bottom of this bad business.
The Pacific Science Center’s huge mechanical dinosaurs will lose their jobs after Labor Day. For four decades, these “animatronic beasts” did their damndest to please young and old visitors. And all for what? To get the boot. Their bosses had this to say about them: “They’ve far exceeded expectations thanks to the tireless, heroic efforts of our Pacific Science Center staff.” Where do they go from here? No one wants to say. But they will be replaced by an exhibit devoted to spiders.
Who cares that Finland’s geese turn the food they consume into waste? What is the story here, Seattle Times? Someone or another had this to say about Helsinki’s public beaches: “[They are covered by] a shocking amount of [goose] poop.” But visit the park—Creekside Park—next to Vancouver BC’s palatial Pacific Central Station, and you will also a “shocking amount of [goose] poop.” Do I have to say it? Yes, I must. Shit happens.
And what’s this? A 15-year-old boy from a drive-past town in southwest Washington, Chehalis, wants to become, when he is old enough, the governor of a state whose GNP is approaching $1 trillion and, as a consequence, has the 4th-highest GDP per capita in the nation. The boy is a Republican. He wants to give lots of money to cops. He also thinks taxes are very bad, and so on and so on. But will someone in Chehalis tell this boy that Washington State is already on the A-list when it comes to capitalism. We, a blue state (surprise!), slam dunk that shit like Sasquatch launched from a trampoline. In short, we couldn’t do the big business of accumulating capital any better. You, my boy, live at the end of the world, when it comes down to private enterprise. Now, go back to school, put on the cap with the propeller, and try to think of something that our state doesn’t do so well. Something we are truly lousy at.
Will someone also tell the boy in Chehalis that climate change is really something that should be on his mind? The world is already getting hotter by the day; and it’s going to be even hotter in 2028, the year he plans to run for the highest office in this state.
Smoke from the Bear Gulch Fire in the Olympic National Park has finally reached the Puget Sound. The fire, which was first reported two days after Independence Day, and, presently, is only 10 percent contained, has already burnt more than 1000 acres to a crisp.
Now that FEMA is being dismantled, we are required to learn from “extreme weather survivors” the best way to deal with a disaster on your own.
Please forward this message to the people of islands in the Pacific, Bangladesh and Somalia.
— Eigen Vuur (@eigenvuur.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 6:32 AM
The present aggressive and unrelenting restructuring of American society uses old tools to build something that’s unprecedented: subjects who are adapted to accelerating value formation and concentration in a world whose climate has changed dramatically. The destruction of FEMA, basic weather monitoring, NASA’s climate science has its logic in the formation of a population that will be spiritually (which is the same as physically) powerless upon the full arrival of a geological era that will demand, if an approximation of a morally adequate response is to be achieved, greater social cooperation and, as a consequence, the deceleration, if not entire replacement, of the dream of endless economic growth. ICE, concentration camps, the brazen shredding of basic civil rights—clearly, we are being conditioned for the continuation of surplus value accumulation in the ecological aftermath.
This is bizarre indeed. But the Department of the Treasury is accepting donations via Venmo to help reduce the US’ $36 trillion debt. Do not do this. It’s the dumbest thing ever proposed in the history of American finance. And not because your pennies will not make a dent on this debt; it’s dumb because the US keeps cutting taxes on the rich and the corporations they own. This Venmo thing is nothing but a performance to make the greatest tools among us feel patriotic. What’s next? A GoFundMe for the US government? For real, a fool and their money soon part.
Let’s end this gloomy Slog AM with “Lo Siento BB:/,” a melancholy track by Tainy, Bad Bunny, and Julieta Venegas:
Charles, Magnusson and Mad Park beaches are also closed because of Goose Poop. Maybe the goose population is out of balance? Or is it just summer?
Does anyone remember the Goose-O-Caust? https://www.thestranger.com/columns/2000/06/29/4279/pro-or-con
Ok which commenter here is the 15 year old from Chehalis? My money’s on Aguecheek.
81 is uncomfortable? Give me a freaking break. 81 degrees is amazing. I’m working at a data center in Wenatchee today where it’s going to hit 101.
That 15 year old from Chehalis seems to be working from a good conservative base; Reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, support law enforcement and calling out climate change hysteria. I don’t think I could ever support an 18 year old for Governor but I’m sure good things are in his future.
Yes Charles, capitalism will continue unabated through hypothetical periods of ecological disaster, because despite it’s drawbacks, it’s still the greatest economic system humans have ever created.
Calling it now: Ethan is the new Goodspaceguy. Completely out of touch, absolutely no chance of winning, and just here to make noise and be a general distraction. Based on this article, he’ll be a perfect terminal Lance Corporal.
There’s a reason we don’t let anyone under the age of 18 vote (can’t wait to see what happens in the UK), and god knows they don’t have any semblance of real-world experience.
“Columbia Funeral Home and Crematory”
Half right.
Good space guy! Seattle Blues!
Aaah the good old days!
Not a good look for progressives to disparage a youth for an interest in politics, especially as their dispositions on politics change with age (they did with us right?) – the fundamental drive to be in public service should be encouraged. His motivation will spur others, including political adversaries, of his same age.
Please think before you pout Charles, et al.
15 year old Republicans can absolutely serve a meaningful purpose. I suggest grinding them up into pellet to use as feed for carnivorous zoo animals.
@7. The dude is obviously parroting his dumbass parents. He will rebel against them and go woke once he enters the workforce.
@8 Charming.
If he’s old enough to be profiled in the papers he is old enough to be fact-checked, especially if he is running for governor. At some point a candidate has to answer for their proposals and he has 3 years to figure out how he will increase police funding and “affordability” by cutting taxes, so he better start prepping that word salad now. He can’t run for the highest office in the state and use his age to deflect fair questions forever.
@11: “He can’t run for the highest office in the state and use his age to deflect fair questions forever.”
He’ll be eager to answer.
12, Ok then why are you running interference for him? Either he can stand the heat or he’s just a baby. He can’t be both.
@2, Unrelated, but finally some hope for the people of Gaza.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/30/middleeast/arab-league-hamas-gaza-israel-intl
“Arab and Muslim states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have for the first time issued a joint call for Hamas to disarm and relinquish power in the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to end the war in the territory.
The 22-member Arab League, the entire European Union and another 17 countries backed a declaration signed at a United Nations conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France on Tuesday.”
Of course if Hamas doesn’t comply, which they likely won’t given their suicide-pact Charter, The Arab League will need to send in an army to disarm and depose them.
How many Palestinians will be caught in that crossfire? Will they feel better knowing the munitions from the U.S. and other countries, maiming and killing them, was shot by a Muslim, rather than a Jew? Will they feel better that it’s an Arab pilot’s Soviet manufactured bomb that flattened the building that small arms fire came from that was directed at Arab League troops, rather than an Israeli pilot taking out the building to protect IDF troops?
What do you say to those questions CKathes, Greenwood Bob, Boatgeek, Barth, et. al.? Will the Gazans feel better knowing its Arab League military fire, rather than IDF military fire, that is killing them and flattening their buildings?
I love a Charles Slog AM – it comes closest in tone to (the dearly missed) police beat. Plus our shared hate of all things sunny and hot – thank you good sir.
@12: I’m not. In an age where social media is ruining kids lives, when foreboding developments the world over have a lot of our youth depressed and discouraged from politics – why not encourage them regardless of your politics or my politics?
Seriously, a puff piece on a kid dreaming about politics has you unglued. My goodness. Do you see yourself?
@16, Your first comment was literally telling people to avoid commenting on an article about a 15 year old child who wants to run for governor but where are you getting “unglued”? Charles just said the child’s comments don’t match reality and i said if someone runs for governor they have to answer for their positions regardless of their age.
I don’t disagree that it’s a terrible idea to put children in the political spotlight but that’s a choice he and presumably his parents made so take it up with them. I’m sure they would love hearing your unsolicited advice but it’s not needed here.
Greta Thunberg made teenage advocacy popular.
Conservatives have been minting child stars since the early 2000s but advocacy and entering politics are different things. He’s not starting a podcast, he is running for governor.
(actually he probably is starting a podcast and the election is just a vehicle for free publicity but as of right now he is running for governor)
I always thought Phoebe was a Boomer but here she is advocating for this kid to get a participation trophy
Barth,
A victory for civil rights in this in authoritarian political epoch:
“Federal court blocks new Washington state clergy law”
https://www.theolympian.com/news/state/washington/article310969490.html
Long live the 1st Amendment.
You are rightly concerned about erosion of civil rights by government action in this era. Let’s celebrate this small win together.
@20 Boomers are all about participation trophies for their own kids. They just hate it when other people’s kids get participation trophies.
From the, “All murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murder,” file:
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/crime/article311466430.html
The jail just released, without charge, the shooter that they had arrested within hours, because the Prosecutor can’t sustain probable cause that the shooting was not self-defense, and therefore a crime, to the satisfaction of a court.
Before Noisy Creek, The Stranger would have been bemoaning that outcome in the SLOG.
Kamala Harris says she won’t run for Governor of California. I hope she knows not to run for President in 2028. Once you lose to Trump, you lose forever.
If the kid stays in Chehalis, chances are much greater that meth is in his future than politics.
But looking at the sad de-evolution of WA state GOP Candidates, a hardcore conservative GOP gubernatorial candidate with a meth addiction is probably inevitable.
@25 and somewhere Ed Murray’s ears are burning.
81 isn’t uncomfortably hot, Chuck. Do you realize it’s the height of summer? You don’t even need AC for 81 degrees. You’ll survive… Buy an extra fan.
@21, Whether or not priests are designated mandatory reporters is of no concern or consequence to me but i can tell you’re pleased to know you can confess to molesting children without worrying your priest will go to the authorities because you’ve posted about it multiple times, so congratulations i guess. Weird thing to admit in a public forum where people know your name but maybe not the most embarrassing thing you’ve said here.
Neale Frothingham
@28, Unless you are a teacher, school staff, social worker, healthcare provider, or law enforcement officer, you aren’t a mandatory reporter either. So if someone confesses child abuse to you, you have no criminal liability for not reporting the child abuse.
So don’t you think we ought to include everyone else before we start including people as mandatory reporters who’s religion requires absolute confidence when hearing a confession, no matter what is confessed?
If you are for a civil right, you have to be for it even when it gets outcomes you don’t like. E.g. The ACLU defending the 1st Amendment rights of Skokie, IL Nazi’s to March, or Charlotte white supremacists. To paraphrase Voltaire, they defended the right of those Nazi’s and white supremacists to say what they wanted to say freely, even if they, like me, despised what they said. Once the right is chipped away at, its the death of right by 1,000 chips.
@30 NonMyopic
That read like it was written by A.I.
Did they get to you? Are you now a pod person?
Is this “Invasion of the Bloggy Snatchers”?
In all cases, Neale is so preocupied with whether or not they could, he didn’t stop to think if they should.
He subscribes to nihilistic moral relativism. In his view, ethics and morality does not actually exist.
@30, what in the fuck are you even talking about? I don’t have an opinion on what a priest does or doesn’t do with information they are given because it is of no consequence to me. I don’t give a fuck about religious liberties at all. I care about people being detained without charge, people being sent to a foreign labor camp without a hearing, things that impact every American’s basic civil liberties, not just priests and child molesters.
Could you be any more weird? I don’t think so, I really don’t.
“And all for what? To get the boot.”
Wait — the time of the dinosaurs abruptly ended forever? Someone from the Stranger needs to lecture the Pacific Science Center on how completely and utterly contrary to scientific fact that is!!
Seriously, that exhibit long had signage to explain that these dinosaur images were based on 1980’s science, and so modern images of dinosaurs would look significantly different. And the physical state of both their raggedy old skins and wheezy machinery was beyond sad. There was no point in PacSci paying good money, just to keep those outmoded relics promoting outdated ideas about dinosaurs.
25: might sneak by using cocaine but never meth
@32, I don’t know who this Neal is you refer to.
If there is a morality beyond what has been invented by humans and put into law (meaning humans are free to declare what is moral today immoral tomorrow and vice versa, leading to their being no absolute morality) then it has to have a source. Something never comes nothing. You never have effect without a cause.
So unless you can point to where the uber moral code you refer to, that is over whatever code of convenience a goven group of humans have adopted, is codified and its source, you are the nihilist
@36 here’s you, I mean Neale, who describes himself as “Law Researcher for 15 Years,” answering a question on Quora in immediately recognizable fashion:
https://www.quora.com/I-emptied-out-my-warm-water-bottle-into-the-street-A-cop-saw-me-and-gave-me-a-ticket-for-littering-Is-this-even-fair/answer/Neale-Frothingham-1?ch=15&oid=1477743690425225&share=7439a943&target_type=answer
If only Tensorna (a.k.a. Cressona) had the same zeal to replace outmoded dinosaurs of thought and governance as they do those of the animatronix kind.
@20: I am a boomer but I don’t see why you would think that’s incongruous.
@37,
That’s insane, what a fucking loser. Also this, for anyone who’s never seen it. Also ridiculous and insane.
https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/2015/05/29/22301818/this-is-the-most-ridiculous-letter-to-the-editor-weve-received-all-day
@37, If you say so … sigh
lol
@2 thirteen12, @8 mike blob, and @ 25 Catalina Vel-DuRay: +3 For the WIN!!!
@2 thirteen12: You may be right. I was going to say BabyBackRibs or Mr. Magoo, but they’re even dumber than the 15 year old MAGA in Chehalis.
How sad about the Columbia City funeral home, built in 1907, being destroyed by fire.
On a happier note, what a relief that the West Coast states were spared from major coastal damage by the 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake.
@44, re: the 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake and tsunami warnings: That said, we’re still ~315 years overdue for when The Big One hits our region, folks. The historical eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 was just the beginning and should have been a wake up call. When an 8.8 earthquake hits the PNW we are all truly fucked.
@38: Claims of my sock-puppetry were old, tired, and worn-down long before you even made them, and yet, you’re still pushing them creakily along. Perhaps you need to take a cue from the Science Center?