Good morning! The sun is shining, we’re hitting 65 degrees this afternoon, and the sunset today is after 8 p.m. It’s happening people, spring is here. Sure, winter’s gonna try to make a comeback a few more times before July, but that’s just living in Seattle.
Before you get out and enjoy the almost 14 hours of daylight because your brain deserves some goddamn serotonin, let’s do the news.
Judge Shames Trump: Well, at least one judge isn’t willing to accept our rapid decline into a constitutional crisis. Federal Judge Paula Xinis scolded the Trump administration yesterday for dragging its feet on the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador last month. “To date nothing has been done,” Xinis told a lawyer for the Justice Department, according to the New York Times. “Nothing.” This was a day after Trump and Salvadoran self-proclaimed dictator Bukele publicly shrugged their shoulders at the order in the Oval Office, saying neither of them would lift a finger to bring him home.
ACLU v. DOD: The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense. What’d they do this time? Banned books in schools for military families. None of the banned books would surprise you. According to the suit, the DoD removed titles like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; Both Sides Now, about a transgender teen participating in a national debate competition; and A Queer History of the United States. The ACLU says the bans violate students’ First Amendment rights. We say you should start mailing cases of these books to DoD schools. As a treat.
Bug Pirates: Two Belgian teens were arrested in Kenya for trying to smuggle 5,000 ants out of the country to sell as exotic pets. They were charged with wildlife piracy. Both of those sentences are true.
Israel Strikes a Hospital: Yesterday, Israel killed a security guard and wounded 10 patients when it bombed a field hospital. This was just two days after an Israeli strike hit one of Gaza’s last functioning medical centers: the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. According to the WHO, 33 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals have been damaged, and only 21 are even partly functional. And just this week, it warned that hospitals in Gaza face a medicine shortage because Israel has blocked aid deliveries for six weeks. Let’s say it together: This is a genocide.
Marjorie Doesn’t Like Feedback: Two people at a town hall for Marjorie Taylor Greene were “subdued” with stun guns for booing her. Three people were arrested.
Get Ready for the Den Stora Älgvandringen: Otherwise known as the Great Moose Migration. The Swedish “slow TV” hit documents a 20-day moose migration, 24 hours a day, as they swim across the Ångerman River, a few hours northwest of Stockholm. Last year, 9 million people watched their spring migration toward their summer grazing pastures, and considering the state of the world in 2025, I’m willing to guess that even more of us are tuning in this year.
Trump Takes Aim at OSPI: On Monday, the Trump admin launched an investigation into Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which oversees our public schools. They claim that the state directed the La Center school district to implement a gender inclusion policy that conflicts with federal law (read: a policy to include pronouns when introducing yourself). The La Center school district has been fighting the OSPI on this since 2022—they even include the details on the district’s landing page. The Department of Education insists that Washington State is trying “to separate children from their parents, convince children to feel unsafe at home, or burden children with the weight of keeping secrets from their loved ones.” This is the third investigation into Washington education: the Kennewick School District filed a complaint because they were mad that we allow trans athletes to participate in school sports, and the Tumwater district is under investigation for doing the same. Shout out to Superintendent Reykdal for ignoring their bullshit.
Our Local (Almost) Bootlicker: It’s no secret that Trump thinks Washington state is strictly populated by everyone he hates: purple-haired, gender-queer, vegan, antifa-obsessed domestic terrorists (except Joe Kent; he loves Joe Kent). Governor Ferguson’s office knew that too, and apparently one of their possible solutions was sending Trump a fawning letter, offering to send our National Guard to the Canadian Border, and complimenting Trump for his “continued efforts to combat the flow of illegal narcotics through the northern border.” The governor’s office emphasized that the draft letter, reported by the Washington State Standard, wasn’t written by Ferguson, and he rejected the idea when it was presented to him. At least that’s one (1) decision by Ferg we can get behind.
Tariffs Hit Boeing: In light of the 145 percent tariffs that the Trump administration has slapped on China, the country has reportedly told its airlines not to take new deliveries of Boeing planes, and to stop buying aircraft equipment and parts from US companies. Now seems like a good time to remind everyone not to cry for Boeing: the company is getting $600 million from the Trump admin to make the US military’s newest fighter jet, called the F-47. Named after Trump.
Microsoft Meltdown: The execs over at Microsoft heard about the possibility of both a wealth tax and a payroll tax here in Washington, and they are not handling it well. The company teamed up with Costco, T-Mobile, and Nordstrom to bankroll a PAC that has already spent almost $2 million on ads, polling, and hundreds of thousands of text messages to voters, and they’ve said they’ll throw their weight behind an anti-tax ballot initiative if it comes to that. They’re scared because the writing’s on the wall: it’s becoming increasingly clear that these progressive taxes are essential to balancing our state budget. The (unacceptable) alternative is balancing the state budget on the backs of already underpaid state workers, and making cuts to essential services. Tax the rich.
WA DOGE: Washington Republicans really saw everything that Elon is doing—slashing health departments, undermining scientific research, and declaring people dead when they’re very much alive—and said, “Yeah, gimme some of that.” House Bill 2076 would create WA DOGE: all the same chaos, with a local twist. “For several decades, state bureaucratic agencies have exploded in size and arrogance,” the bill’s sponsor, State Rep Jim Walsh told The Chronicle in Centralia. “Most have far exceeded their original—and usually good—missions. They’ve become the worst example of David Hume’s ‘Leviathan,’ becoming more focused on their own size and power than on delivering good outcomes for the people. WA DOGE would change all of that.” They would also target “ideological” practices in government departments, which I can only assume is a reference to DEI. Fortunately, it’s so late in the legislative session that this bill doesn’t have a chance to get traction—it’s just idiotic theater.
Dreaming of a Simpler Time? Or at least, a different one? Billboard is doing a throwback to 2005, including their Best Songs of 2005 staff picks. If you were conscious during 2005, every single one will stick in your brain like a thorn, but here’s Number One:
I’m going to cry for Boeing a bit, OK? They’re a cornerstone of our region’s prosperity and President Jagoff’s pissing match w/ Xi is going to mean job losses.
Whatever happened to the PTAs (parent teacher associations)?
Hannah, you keep forgetting the the ‘Continue Reading…” link
Ok so I guess we’re going to destroy entire industries one by one to bring back shitty manufacturing jobs that will be performed by robots anyway because it’s too expensive to pay Americans? Boeing may be toast and we’re surrendering the biomedical research industry to Europe and China but at least groceries will be even more expensive. The art of the deal, baby.
@3 hot take: reducing the USA’s global power and influence is actually a net positive, albeit uncomfortable at best for those of us living here.
@3: I think it’s plausible that what you just said was pointed out even by some of Trump’s inner circle of sycophants, but he steadfastly disregards even that advice.
@3 ~ what?
Not to worry!
the “D”NC’s got
this Handled! just
you Wait till 2028!
Harris/Hillary:
‘THIS Time
we GOT
it!’
@4, Reducing our military footprint would be a fine goal but that’s the opposite of what he’s doing. Beyond that our “influence” on the globe is mostly neutral to positive and/or simply fulfilling people’s basic needs. If countries stop buying our airplanes or our agricultural goods they will just source them elsewhere. We’re giving up trillions of dollars for no net change globally.
Right now we are staring down tariff-driven inflation and the collapse of multiple industries with no jobs in the queue to replace them. It’s the worst possible outcome across the board and it’s not supposed to be like this. Literally all of the things he is doing is blatantly unconstitutional and we’re just letting it happen.
@7 Hey according to the regime 250K jobs were created in the last jobs report. You just gotta go out there (and relocate, retrain, take a pay/benefits cut) and get your next two jobs to replace the job you lost. And did you notice you get two! jobs! I mean wow, two is way better than one, it’s the best form of “job security” having two instead of just one job. Not just great, greater than before.
@6 that funny. Harris/Hillary 2028, I don’t know if Hillary would wanna be VP again, it would be interesting to see how they decide who gets to be #2.
There were hints of it back in the 80’s and 90’s, but I never thought that Donald would be this wicked and vengeful given his enamor of all things celebrity.
(thank you Hannah)
@6
Harris/Hillary!!
As long as we’re running retreads,
let’s bring back Bobby Ayala!
and Stan Gelbaugh!
the good old days!
Abrego-Garcia is a Salvadoran in a Salvadoran prison. If El Salvador doesn’t want to give him back, there is nothing the Trump Administration can do about it. Awww shucks!
DOD libraries, like any library, can only hold a finite volume of books. Curating an appropriate selection of books for students inherently means many books will not be selected. That is not book banning and not a violation of any students rights. Those students can visit another library or purchase any book they wish to read.
Mad props for all the Washington schools who are fighting to preserve girls sports for girls.
Thank you Microsoft, Costco, et al, for standing alongside the citizens of Washington who absolutely do not support increased taxes to pay for more bureaucracy. State workers are not underpaid in the least. And even if they were, taxing citizens out of their homes is not an appropriate solution. And forcing millionaires and billionaires to leave the state is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
@6/10 I thought this was the dream ticket?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-aoc-trump-democrats.html
It’s bad to pull “To Kill a Mockingbird” off the shelves in a school library unless you’re doing it to de-center a problematic white-savior narrative in which case it’s good.
@13: Is not all literature subject to “following a narrative” spin? Regarding fiction, the only narrative that matters its the author’s.
@9, The obsession with celebrity, like so much of his personality, can be explained by his profound insecurity. Back then he had a future ahead of him and a reputation to consider, but those days are long behind him. When you factor in his dementia and being at the end stage of his life with so many scores to settle and no fucks to give about the future, you are left with one of the most dangerous people to ever walk this earth.
If he were capable of imagining a world without him in it, he might want to consider the risk of being remembered as one of the world’s greatest and stupidest monsters, because that’s where all of this is going. One day even his most ardent followers will deny they fell for it, and that day cannot come soon enough.
@3, FTW!
Is Trump wrong about how people in Washington look?
Western Washington at least.
@9 How did you miss his vengeance plans? He’s talked about little else for the past 4 years.
@15 The description I’ve heard is that Trump is getting revenge for being excluded from the social club because he was a vulgar nouveau riche. He’s felt inadequate since childhood (thanks for raising a sociopath, Fred!) and is taking it out on everyone else now.
@18: Yes, but my question was from the perspective of his earlier NYC days. If the 40-year-old Donald cold have looked through a future portal to see himself now – would he be appalled and embarrassed, or gleeful and euphoric?
Unfortunately, it’s the latter.
18, I believe all of that. By all accounts his parents were also frigid and demanding. If only donald had taken up the same coping mechanisms as his poor older brother, the world might have been spared.
“Well, at least one judge isn’t willing to accept…….”
SUCH A LOAD OF MANURE:
The judges may be the Dons & Caporegime, but Trump controls the muscle……the military & marshals. What do you think the courts will do: NOTHING!!
What do you think the congress will do: NOTHING!!!
What do you think will happen when Trump marches the US Marshals down to the capitol bldg & arrests all of Congress?
What do you think will happen when Trump marches the US Marshals down to the Supreme Court and arrests all the judges? Ask Germans who were alive in 1939 what happened when Hitler took over the government.
And surprise, surprise…….Trump isn’t smart enough to have figured this all out on his own……Trump thinks after he delivers the USA to Putin, he (Trump) will be building all the hotels he wants in Russia. Trump will be building them, but he’ll never own them or profit from them.
Guillotine!!! Guillotine!!! Where is Madame Defarge, her old man, & Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre when you really need them?!
@8, I’m 2 years younger than Hillary & I grew up about 1 mile SE of where she’s from. I’m pretty sure she’s said the same thing I said a few years ago: There’s no sense trying to lead if no one wants to follow. Fuck it.
@11:
Yes, a physical space such as a library can only store a finite amount of books, but I seriously doubt most of the now-banned books are being replaced, unless they’re planning to stuff unsold copies of “The Art Of The Deal” into those empty gaps on the shelves, or maybe a few extra copies of “Mein Kampf”, just so, you know, the kiddies can get an early start on how to learn to live under a racist dictatorship.
Also, given the time differential between here and Sweden, if you still have a jones for some slow TV I highly recommend the Friends of Big Bear Lake Eagle Cam:
https://www.friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagles/
The contract with El Salvador says they hold the guys we sent them until we tell El Salvador what to do with them. There’s no reason we can’t say ‘let that one guy out and go to the airport’
@11 Tell me you don’t know anything about how libraries work without telling me you don’t know anything about how libraries work.
The tax burden is so slanted now so that the rich pay less and the poor pay more in Washington state. More so than any other state in the union.
Some fool in the comments is worried that the rich are going to take off from Washington state… Where are they going to go? Are they going to find another state that burdens the poor more than Washington State??? Every other state worth living in has income taxes.
Rich people are a net negative for their hometowns and state, demanding far more services than they pay in taxes. The rich are also just a major pain in the butt, rich people always file grievances about their taxes and whine about how they’re overpaying whereas the poor and middle class people just pay their damn taxes. My feeling is shove those Rich bastards out the door as fast as possible. Don’t let the door hit you in the butt if you think you’re paying too much in taxes.
It’s a marvel to me that in reading an AWB progressive tax hit piece they convinced some poor apartment dweller to state that if her wealthy landlord pays more in taxes she feared he might up her rent. Gullible people… your landlord can up your rent right now with no excuse! You are best served by lowering the sales tax and supporting every tax on the wealthy proposed. I’m really doubting the fools in this comment section who take the side of eliminating tax burdens on the rich fall into the rich category. Bet they’re just really amazingly superbly gullible. GOP, gullible old people.
@27, If it’s any consolation, Republicans in Congress are considering taxing the rich:
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/republicans-ponder-the-unthinkable-taxing-the-rich/
They want to “seal the deal” with working-class voters that went for them in the last election.
@28
I’m not holding my breath on that one.
@30, Me either; however, the fact that they are even openly discussing it, is telling:
Republicans still have deficit hawks both within House and Senate and the voters. Since 70% of Federal spending is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt, and federal retiree benefits, you can’t balance the budget on cuts (DOGE is performative budgeting, not real budgeting), even Republicans can see revenue is required.
The MAGA movement is an anti-elitist movement. It will be popular with that base to stick it to Tim Cooke, Zuckerberg, Bezos, et. al. It will keep the working-class on-side, particularly if Trump keeps up his Tariff disaster (depending on the severity of the disaster, nothing may keep the working-class on the MAGA side).
Like you, call me skeptical that we will see Republican Tax increases on the wealthy.
Marjorie Taylor Greene should have been stun gunned, and with a rabies shot in her butt to boot. End of story.
@27 jmath: +1 Spot on! Let the spoiled rich hellbent on economically ruining Washington State GO, already, if they won’t pay their fair share.
@28: That sounds nice, Mr. Magoo, but 1.) it’s LONG overdue (why didn’t the GOP think of this decades ago, when Reagan initiated big tax cuts for the wealthy back in the 1980s?), and 2.) I’d like to see a list of how many members of the Party of Mu$k / Mein Trumpf are “pondering the unthinkable taxing the rich”. One or two RepubliKKKans crossing the aisle isn’t going to change a thing. Pondering doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to actually do it.
Show me a substantial majority of RepubliKKKans finally coming forward and joining the rapidly growing protest state and nationwide against this fascist authoritarian nightmare regime, and I’ll be more encouraged about change for the better in restoring our democracy, and rightfully throwing the criminals in office and their appointed enablers into prison, where they should have been be all along.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. once said, in Jerry Maguire (1996), “Show me the money!”
@29 pat L: I share your skepticism, pat. To me, it only sounds like a token few of Mu$k and its Mein Trumpf’s RepubliKKKan KKKlown KKKar KKKrime SyndiKKKate are just saying what they think the 99.99999999999% of us want to hear, preying upon the most gullible. The Seattle Times article may look promising on paper, but reeks instead of KKKorporate bu$ine$$ as u$ual.
@6 kristofarian and @10 pat L: +2 for the WIN!!!! YESSSSSS!! I’m with ya!
@1: The Stranger’s flippant attitude grates especially when considering a one-time contract for $600M against literally billions of dollars in losses for Boeing over many coming years. Airbus already gets aid from host governments, and now the US federal government is kneecapping Boeing, out of spite and a literal 19th Century understanding of economics.
Thank you for the lovely and most welcome picture of spring blossoms Hannah. I needed this. 🙂
@12, @30
speaking of Feck-
less Dems:
Dear kristo
Here is what I’ve seen over the last five days:
[from my Buddy Bernie Sanders,
(VT-I); 3:06 PM 4/17/2025!]
Sisters and Brothers:
Under the oligarchic and authoritarian regime of Donald Trump, we find ourselves living in an unprecedented moment in modern American history. As a result, we’ve got to respond in an unprecedented way.
And we’re beginning to do it.
Yesterday afternoon, Alexandria, Ocasio-Cortez and I completed the latest swing in our Fighting Oligarchy Tour. There were seven events in five days, and the turnouts were unbelievable. In total, nearly 150,000 people turned out from “blue” Los Angeles to “red” Idaho … a state Trump won with almost 70 percent of the vote.
Sisters and Brothers: it may just be possible that this country is on the brink of a political revolution that is long overdue and that, finally, we move toward a government and an economy that works for all of us – and not just the billionaire class. This struggle won’t be easy, but we’re making progress.
All across America, I am seeing people who are hungry for an understanding of what is going on in this country, how we are going to take on Trumpism, and what we must do to transform our society.
Here is what I’ve seen over the last five days:
Los Angeles, California — 36,000 people
Coachella Valley, California — 35,000 people
Salt Lake City, Utah — 20,000 people
Nampa, Idaho — 12,500 people
Bakersfield, California — 4,450 people
Folsom, California — 30,000 people
Missoula, Montana — 9,000 people
And let’s be clear. These turnouts are getting Republicans nervous. Elon Musk says our attendees are “paid organizers,” and Trump boasts, falsely, that only a couple thousand people are attending and that his turnouts are always larger than ours.
Just this week, four Republican members of Congress representing districts where we have held rallies signed a letter to Speaker Johnson opposing significant cuts to Medicaid.
The letter didn’t go as far as we would like – which is ABSOLUTELY NO CUTS TO MEDICAID – but it’s a start. And keep in mind, it does not take many Republicans to stop the House from passing Medicaid cuts. Four is enough.
But needless to say, a few large rallies are not going to be nearly enough to stop what Trump, Musk and right-wing extremist Republicans are doing to this country.
What is most important is what happens AFTER these rallies are finished, and that is what I want to talk to you about today.
First: our goal is not to simply parachute in and do a rally. Every time we leave a state, we follow up with people who attended our events and give them opportunities to take additional actions.
Sometimes, it can be demanding that their member of Congress hold a town hall and tell them if they’re going to vote for tax breaks for billionaires while they slash Medicaid.
We’re also asking people to go door-to-door educating their neighbors as to what’s going on in Washington. In some states, like Colorado and Utah, we have asked people to get involved in fights important to organized labor or in protecting the environment.
In other words, the rallies are the
beginning of our efforts, not the end.
[continued, from above]
In other words, the rallies are the
beginning of our efforts, not the end.
As a result of your support, we have already hired organizers in several competitive Congressional districts and are in the process of hiring more.
Our organizers have helped turn out people to other events and rallies, including last weekend’s “Hands Off” events. We have held virtual organizing meetings where people can learn how they can best engage in grassroots organizing.
In our first virtual meeting, more than 600 people in Iowa’s First Congressional District joined. We have even more RSVP’s for an organizing meeting in Wisconsin later today.
But there is much more to be done if we’re going to be successful in taking on the Oligarchs who today control the economic and political life of our nation.
In the next week, we are going to help a group called “Run for Something” identify what I hope will be thousands of Americans who want to run for office at all levels on a progressive agenda that represents the needs of the working class of our country.
I am talking about school boards, city councils, state legislatures and the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. We are talking about running candidates and mobilizing grassroots activism in EVERY state in the country. Please be on the lookout for that email and consider if now is the moment YOU may want to run for office.
We are also exploring new and creative ways to educate each other in a world where nearly the entire media and communications infrastructure is owned and controlled by the wealthiest people on earth.
Our rallies in the last week were viewed
more than 2 million times. But
we must do more.
We are holding non-political events to build community that bring people together. In my home state of Vermont, we hold free-throw shooting basketball contests for kids, a chess tournament and community walks.
When Republicans are trying to divide us up based on race, gender, religion and more, our job is to come together, support each other and give each other strength.
And we must engage in a coordinated effort to support progressive candidates who are not only prepared to stand up to Donald Trump and his Republicans allies, but who are offering real solutions to the problems facing working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.
I am talking about contested House and Senate races this cycle where we have a chance to elect progressives over establishment Democrats.
Now, you know your history as well as I do. You know that real change never takes place from the top down. It takes place when ordinary people, by the millions, are prepared to stand up and fight for justice.
And the truth is, we are trying to do something that the establishment in the Democratic Party is incapable of doing.
The sad truth is that many Democratic politicians have very few roots in their communities and are unable to generate grassroots enthusiasm. If we waited on them to defeat Trumpism and move our country forward, we’d be waiting forever.
So it is up to us.
Not me.
Us.
It is up to us to first stop a Republican reconciliation bill that will provide tax cuts for billionaires while cutting lifesaving programs for the poor and working class of this country.
And long term, it is up to us to transform this country.
This is big stuff, and it is not the time for small thinking. It is not the time for the same old same old establishment politics and stale “Inside the Beltway” ideas.
Now IS the time for millions of working families to come together, to revitalize American democracy, to end the collapse of the American middle class and to make certain that our children and grandchildren are able to enjoy a quality of life that brings them health, prosperity, security and joy — and that once again makes the United States the leader in the world in the fight for economic and social justice, for environmental sanity and for a world of peace.
Let’s get it done.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
@34 & @35 kristofarian: Thank you, kris! I’m attending tomorrow’s next Hands Off! protest locally, and plan to wear my pink pussy hat as well as my black ITMFA tank top.
2017-2021 was dystopian enough. The above abbreviation should by now glaringly read, “Imprison The Motherfucker Already!”