Seattle City Council Moves to Adopt $9 Million Budget: There’s still one more vote to come on the budget Friday, but it’s looking like the Seattle City Council will green light the city’s nearly $9 billion budget. They’ll pass all of lame duck mayor Bruce Harrell’s priorities like funding raises for the cops and sweeping homeless encampments. But, they’ve also thrown money toward rental assistance and the city’s budget reserves. Still, going into 2027, Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson will have a daunting $140 million deficit to deal with. That’s a problem for future Wilson. For now, the budget is balanced.
Yay? Not according to council member Maritza Rivera. “I don’t feel like celebrating,” she told the Seattle Times. Thanks?
Coyote Too Wily: Two female coyotes have been living in the vicinity of the Washington Park Arboretum. At least one of them had gotten too comfortable around people. It had two recent no good incidents. First, it attacked a dog on a leash. Second, it stole food from a parkgoer. That’s a bad sign since coyotes usually keep their distance. Sadly, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife trapped and killed the coyote on Tuesday.
In Good Animal News: The Seattle Aquarium acquired its first ever southern sea otter. Meet Ruby. She hails from Monterey Bay. Another no good California transplant, huh?
For over 30 years, the Seattle Aquarium has led in sea otter research, contributed to recovery efforts and cared for northern sea otters who are unable to live in the wild.
Today is a big day as we welcome Ruby—the first southern sea otter in our care. ✨🦦
(1/4)
— Seattle Aquarium (@seattleaquarium.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 10:24 AM
The Weather: Cloudy and mild today. Rain returns Sunday.
Good 2 News: The Sound Transit 2 Line Light Rail connection across Lake Washington is looking closer and closer to becoming a reality, according to The Urbanist. New testing plans include “operational trials on the segment of the 2 Line that shares tracks with the existing 1 Line.” That will start next week. So far, the 2 Line train hasn’t headed all the way up to Lynnwood Station. But that’s on the horizon. The ribbon cutting could be in March or April, introducing a pivotal question: Will the 2 Line be a Pisces or an Aries?
Coastguard Downgrades Hate Symbols: On Thursday, it came out that the US Coastguard no longer considered swastikas and nooses to be hate symbols. It reclassified them as “potentially divisive.” The Coastguard clarified that “Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited” and nooses and swastikas were in that category. The Coastguard maintains that everything is still as it was—so why change the language? Unclear!
A Bit on the Nose: Cop30 summit attendees evacuated after a big ass fire broke out at the venue yesterday. Lawmakers were about to strike a deal beefing up international efforts to address climate change. It’s not totally clear what caused the fire, but investigators suspect it came from something electronic, like a microwave. I believe it was a grim portent, an omen, a warning.
I Don’t Think You Can Say That: Earlier this week, a group of six Democratic lawmakers who formerly served in the military released a video encouraging active duty troops to refuse illegal orders that “violate the law or our constitution,” according to The Guardian. Donald Trump did not like this. He called the behavior seditious and “punishable by death.” Democratic leaders condemned Trump’s death threats. Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, agreed that the Dems’ words were “seditious” and defended Trump, saying Trump was simply “defining the crime of sedition.”
Trump posts again about Democrats, saying their behavior is “punishable by DEATH!”
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Bad Year for Planes: Two weeks ago in Kentucky, a UPS plane burst into flames and killed 14 people after the engine flew off during takeoffIdeally, an engine does not do that, but investigators say the plane’s engine mount was cracked. It passed an inspection in 2021 but wasn’t due for another inspection until the plane completed “nearly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.” That inspection timeframe comes from the Federal Aviation Administration, however this faulty engine mount may cause them to reevaluate that from now on.
The American People Yearn for Trains: Amtrak finished the 2025 fiscal year with a record ridership of 34.5 million trips, a 5.1 percent increase over 2024. Please… we want more trains. Faster trains. Nicer trains. More reliable trains. Trains to everywhere. Think of the trains we could have.
Border Patrol Loves Automobiles: Attention, drivers, you’re being tracked. Border Patrol is keeping tabs on “millions” of drivers’ movements and using predictive intelligence technology to deem if people are suspicious or threats. Not good! According to the Associated Press, “a network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm” will flag “suspicious vehicles” that Border Patrol will pull them, question aggressively, and search. As the AP concluded, this is the natural next step in the ongoing process of turning US Customs and Border Protection into a domestic intelligence operation.
Judge Rules against National Guard Deployment: A federal judge ruled Thursday that Trump and the Defense Department illegally deployed the National Guard in Washington D.C. The troops don’t have to leave just yet. Trump has 21 days to file an appeal.
Diplomacy Expert: The US could stop giving Ukraine weapons and sharing intelligence if the country does not agree to Trump’s raw deal to end Russia’s war. To call off Putin, Trump wants Ukraine to agree to cede territory to Russia, to shrink the size of its military and to stay out of NATO. Ugly stuff.
Flog AM: Singapore-based Folotoy suspended sales of it’s $99 high-tech “Kumma” teddy bear that’s equipped with a speaker and an AI-chatbot. And no, not just because $99 is an insane amount to pay for a stuffed animal. Mostly, it’s because the teddy bear was a little freak. It apparently kept bringing up BDSM. It explained good beginner shibari knots to use to tie up a partner in a sexy way. The bear brought these topics up on its own. In between instructions on spanking, the bear also gave helpful tips on how to light a match and where to find knives in the house. Did no one watch M3GAN?
Good News for Everyone Who Hates Progress: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been told to stop all primate research. Most of the research the CDC uses those monkeys for is HIV prevention. The order came from Sam Beyda on behalf of RFK Jr., a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee and 2023 college grad who has failed forward so much that he’s the deputy chief of staff at the CDC. Ending animal research is part of RFK Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. This is bad.
A Song for Your Friday: Who here has been following the Olivia Nuzzi drama? If you don’t remember, New York Magazine fired Nuzzi after her digital affair with none other than RFK Jr. came to light. (They met when Nuzzi penned a profile on him during his failed campaign for president.) Nuzzi, who now works at Variety for some reason, wrote a memoir about it. The magazine published an excerpt. It’s a lot of bad writing and fawning over RFK Jr. Nuzzi’s ex-fiancé also published a piece of bad writing that exposed Nuzzi for having an affair with another old ass politician, former Rep. Mark Sanford. Yikes! To make matters worse, someone online unearthed a song Nuzzi recorded as a teen. It’s called “Jailbait.” You simply cannot make this shit up. Please enjoy.
Someone found an mp3 of the creepy “Jailbait” song Olivia Nuzzi released when she was 16 🫣
— Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) November 19, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Nice roundup Nathalie – but isn’t that a Charles Mudede photo? He’s the one doing the depressing Urban Blight series.
“Border Patrol Loves Automobiles:”
The grievance journalists are back to arguing against rule of law when they don’t like enforcement of a particular law, but arguing for rule of law, when its a law they like.
@Barth
argued that the increased enforcement isn’t increasing deportation. It has taken record levels of migration under the Biden Administration and brought it to near record lows under the Orange Fascist. It has even created reverse migration. https://apnews.com/article/reverse-migration-darien-gap-venezuela-trump-colombia-panama-b3cb6cd2d16983b8ae2ebc407fcc2f22
Highly visible, “in your face”, demonstration to will to enforce and uphold those particular laws has resulted in migrants changing their behavior rather than face that enforcement. Imagine how much safer Seattle pedestrians would be if we took similar enforcement action with regard to traffic laws applicable to drivers and pedestrians.
I am agnostic on whether that reverse migration is good or bad. IMO, we need to have the democratic debate on what immigration laws best serve us, change the law to match, and then enforce whatever we come up with, rather than undermining rule of law by giving one group of voters the symbolism of restrictive immigration, and the other group of voters immigration by turning a blind eye to the the law.
@Ckathes, and @Barth
argue that we don’t enforce all laws all the time because its impractical with finite resources. This case has been different. It has been a willful choice to “nod and wink” at the law because business interests want cheap exploitable labor, while another large voting block wants the law as its to make a statement that we don’t want immigration. They both get some of what they want by ignoring rule of law. That is anti-democratic since the issue of non-enforcement has not been because of resource constraint. It’s a terrible precedent for democratic rule of law.
@Pat L, @Doug, @CKathes and @Barth,
argue that we have almost changed the law in the past, so we shouldn’t enforce the law as it stands. Almost doesn’t count in democracy. The law stands until the democratic procedures and practices of our society change it.
@mike blob
has previously argued that we shouldn’t enforce the law because current democratically enacted laws violates morality. He states we came from nothing but morality exists? It depends what you mean by morality. If you mean an absolute standard that is binding on humans no matter what they decide is right and wrong, then morality does not exist if its merely a human construct.
If morality is a human created construct, then whether genocide, for example, is immoral or moral can be changed at human whim. If humans want to be moral while engaging in genocide, all humans have to do is decide to redefine genocide as moral. Morality becomes merely a preference of humans. Then the question is which humans? An individual human? An informal group of humans just for that group? A state for everyone in the state? A nation for everyone in the nation? The U.N. for everyone on the planet?
@Blob, If morality exists independent of human definition of morality, then who created the definition of what is moral and what is not? By what mechanism did morality come into existence independent of human agency, so human agency is subject to it?
Thoughtful prior comments https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/11/18/80332163/slog-am-bear-gulch-fire-contained-un-approves-us-plan-for-gaza-most-detainees-in-chicago-ice-blitz-had-no-criminal-record/comments?cb=1763505186 by the above, that deserved a thoughtful response. Disagree if you must, but don’t be disagreeable.
“The US could stop giving Ukraine weapons and sharing intelligence if the country does not agree to Trump’s raw deal to end Russia’s war.”
Reuters has the full text of the 28-point peace deal for Ukraine. It’s not great, but it’s less crazy and less evil than I was expecting! 😁
The big Ukrainian concessions are territory, army size capped at 600k, and no NATO membership. On territory, the ask is for all of Donbas and Crimea, plus line-of-contact in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasti.
In return, Ukraine gets a “security guarantee” and remains eligible for EU membership, plus some reconstruction and investment funding. If Russia reinvades, then Russia loses its territorial concessions in Ukraine and faces a “robust coordinated military response.”
This isn’t a great deal for Ukraine. But is it an unreasonable deal? I say the deal is not unreasonable.
On territory, Ukraine is unlikely ever to recapture Crimea, it’s just too large and too far, and the geography is highly unfavorable for an attacker whose navy consists entirely of unmanned suicide drone-boats! 😅 Similarly, recapturing Donbas is probably out of reach, because the Russian defenses in Donbas are 100 km thick. Even if Ukraine were to war on for another five years, at enormous cost, it will not likely recapture Crimea or Donbas, unfortunately.
The Kherson and Zaporizhzhia fronts are a little more fluid, especially Zaporizhzhia. It was not foreordained that Ukraine’s June 2023 counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia would fail. Fail it did in the trenches of Robotyne and Verbove, but if the Ukrainians had concentrated more of their forces into a heavier blow at Robotyne, a breakthrough to Tokmak or even Melitopol was not out of the question. So I would not wholly rule out future Ukrainian gains in Zaporizhzhia. In Kherson, the Dnieper River imposes more constraints, but at the same time the Russian line is thinner in Kherson, which opens up intriguing possibilities.
Still, on balance, I think Ukraine is fairly unlikely to recapture the territories the 28-point plan has offered for concession. It is galling that the plan offers up all of Donetsk Oblast when the Russians only control 70 percent of it; I’m not convinced the Russians can overcome the Donetsk fortress belt (although the imminent fall of Pokrovsk will open up the possibility of enveloping the fortresses by way of Dobropillia). But other than the particular injustice of Donetsk, I think the territorial component of the peace plan does broadly reflect military reality.
NATO membership was never a serious possibility, because NATO has no interest in being sucked into a nuclear war over a shithole like Donbas. Army cap at 600k is also not a huge problem, because Ukraine’s economy can’t sustain an army that size anyway, plus you can always cheat an army cap by disguising some of your troops as gendarmes or militia or whatever. 😂
If I were president of Ukraine, and if this deal were presented as take-it-or-leave-it, I would be tempted to take it. The only way to get a significantly better deal would be to win more on the battlefield, but Russia is too strong and Ukraine’s allies are too fickle and the US presidential election is too far away.
Now quickly before Kossack bites my head off: I want Ukraine to win the war! I want Ukraine to have Tomahawks and Block 70s and JASSM and Aegis Ashore and a thousand Abrams and Brads and unlimited MLRS ammo and all the rest of it! 😁 I want them to roll the orcs all the way back to Rostov! 🤣 But if Ukraine is never going to get what it needs to win the war, then I don’t want the war to continue for nothing—or worse yet, a Russian victory.
Headline says $9 Million but body says $9 Billion. Hard to comprehend, but Billion feels right.
Good lord some of you guys need an actual hobby.
@5
mutual
masturbation
Cannot be a Hobby?
how ’bout
just a really
poor Habit?
The reason Rivera doesn’t feel great about the budget is because they haven’t fixed the underlying issue and reports are they will have a $140M dollar deficit next year. The budget grew 7% this year however spending continues to rise even faster as increased labor costs are outpacing revenue collection which is declining as construction activity and other sources of revenue slow down.
On top of the this, voters enacted a change to the B&O tax that effectively increased taxes for larger business, passed new property tax levys and the city increased the sales tax to fund the new public safety programs. Wilson is now coming into office promising even more and as I have noted previously she has limited tools to do this. I can’t imagine it would go over well if she raised Jumpstart more or backtracked on the B&O change and forced small business to start paying again. It’s going to get ugly next year especially if tech layoffs continue creating more pressure on things like the Jumpstart tax.
@2
I did NOT argue that some laws need not be enforced. Rather, I pointed out that the Senate passed an immigration bill in 2013, that would have addressed immigration reform. Two of the four “gang of eight” who voted for this bill in 2013 would not do so today. It’s a symptom of how ineffectual Congress today, not an argument to abandon rule of law.
And as to why some posts are duplicated, beats me.
@7, The budget picture looks bleak but there are guardrails to what a single mayor can do. She needs City Council to sign off on any new taxes. She needs to balance a budget (state law). My guess is that you don’t have much respect for unions, but they too want a functioning city that is solvent — they want to avoid layoffs.
I’d like to see Rivera put her money where her mouth is — literally — and push back harder on the Mayors proposals. In spite of holding a majority, this Council was not at all effective at reining him in.
Swiftress’ Amazing Sloppy Joes
So, you have some hamburger patties you already cooked and you want Sloppy Joes. You don’t want to go to the store and buy Manwich sauce or whatever and you don’t want to cook more hamburger. Here is what you do:
Take a cooked hamburger patty and break it up into cooked ground beef in a microwave-safe bowl.
For each patty you broke up, add 2-3 tablespoons of BBQ sauce. I use Kroger Sweet n’Tangy, it’s the cheapest and good.
For each patty add one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.
For each patty add one teaspoon of salsa that has tomatoes and onion in it. I use Herdez medium salsa.
Mix that stuff up good in the bowl.
Take one bun per patty and toast it however you toast stuff.
Heat the meat and sloppy joe mix in the microwave.
Spoon the heated mix on the bun and you now have a tasty Sloppy Joe! You didn’t have to buy any crappy mix.
@9 That’s my point. She has made all these promises but the levers she can pull are pretty limited. I don’t have any beef with unions. Workers should negotiate to get whatever they can and that includes the police (people on here like to pretend they have no right to negotiate their pay). The core issue for the city is that they continue to outspend tax collection (the state too for that matter).
Which of Harrell’s proposals would you have wanted Rivera to push back on? Fwiw, Wilson will have a friendlier council that may even lean her way a little bit. Certainly Foster, Rivera and Lin will back her so you just need to get Hollingsworth and Strauss on board.
@3. Thumpus, aa I am on the road working, you will kindly have to wait for my considered response. But my immediate reaction, to both Trumps proposal, and to anyone willing to embrace, is well represented here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRPQSxp25z4
TRAINS!
Yes, trains. Big dependable passenger trains that cross the state of Washington so that we can visit our friends & family on the other side of the hill every lovely day of the year!
@12: I look forward to your thoughts on the matter. 😃 Try to side aside the odious personalities involved, and do read the text of 28-point plan yourself as opposed to a media summary of the text.
In particular, what does the 28-point plan force Ukraine to give up that it hasn’t already lost—besides the final 30 percent of Donetsk, which I agree is a travesty.
Vanity Fair, not Variety you nitwit. christ on a cracker.
The publishing of my sloppy joe recipe coincides with the resignation of Majorie Taylor Greene from the US House of Representatives, effective two days after she becomes eligible for a congressional pension. My next recipe will be for banana bread. Who will it claim? Stay tuned.
@2 @3 have you thought about just starting your own blog, or maybe even writing for the stranger? Bc your comments are essentially articles today. Jeeezus, get a job or a life or something
@1 you live in a big city now, whether your nimby ass wants to believe it or not. Graffiti or street art or whatever you want to call exists in big cities and isn’t necessarily always “urban blight”. Expand.your.mind
@16
Damn!
just when
MTG couldda
Rallied the MAGAs
she slips off to Irrelvency
or
Rerises
phoenix-like
and fucks thedjt
Up, Proper. there’s Hope!
can you
Aim your
Recipes a wee
More Strategically?
Trains are the shit.
Even Amtrak though it’s super outdated and too expensive – the cycle of not enough riders, higher prices, higher prices make less riders want to pay.
Even before we get high speed, if we could subsidize Amtrak more to make it more affordable more would take it.
In the meantime, the American train folk slogan: “Hurry up and wait”
@17: lol mine was ca. 600 words how short is ur reading attention span?? 😂
@21 which way too many words for a comment section.
Tell me, when AIM was around, did you write paragraphs in your correspondence versus just writing a fucking email?
You seem like the type (which includes my mother)
@22 lol beofre my time, cool story tho I appreciate ur mom 😂
Alright Thump. Will try to be short. I oppose the latest Ukraine peace plan because I believe the US is prioritizing “peace” over any kind of “strategic concept,” because frankly, they do not have one. This is tragic, because Russia, a nation that barely exceeds the economy of Italy, has no business rewriting geo-political facts on the ground. The essential strategic concept regarding Russia since the collapse of the SU was to watch them closely, encourage them to orient to European integration, but if they decided to go Gonzo, they had to be checked. As Brzezinski noted in “the Grand Chessboard,” Russia, if it wanted to rehabilitate its old czarist empire, would need Ukraine in order to be great again. Cards have been played. We must deny them the prize.
Then we have the contradiction of the US simultaneously retrenching from European security while attempting to bilaterally dictate new terms to said region. Like, if we are slowly pulling back, why blow political capitol when we can simply hand it over to Europe? It doesn’t make sense. We want Europe to rearm – a continuing war guarantees that, while a bad peace will give Europe an excuse to cop out. We want Europe to stand tall on regional security arrangements, but we sideline them in these talks, even as we head for the exit door. We want to stick handle Kyiv on the diplomatic front, but PURL already reduced our leverage over them. Like, do as we say or will stop making tons of cash selling weapons to Europe. Retarded.
Next, the perplexing problem of the US, currently acting as proxy to a conflict that is bleeding out our “acute” strategic threat, seemingly the most desperate party for peace? Imagine the Soviet-Afghan War, where, the US taps out first because…uhh, its pilots are tired of landing weapons loads in Islamabad. What’s the major malfunction here private?
The 28 points? The first ones restate Budapest Memorandum flimflam, and are a bad joke. Any calls for voluntary retreat on current lines fails basic on two counts – to do so would surrender the vital fortress belt and expose Ukraine. It would also wreck Ukrainian politics. Ive spent a lot of time in Georgia, and the RU occupation there has crippled their politics. Next, deterrence and sovereignty. Sorry, in my book, any de facto Russian held Ukrainian territory mandates NATO membership. If the Kremlin doesnt like that, then they can leave. Can anyone explain how Finland snaked it in without furor (see Brzezinski)?
Its Brown-25. 💩
@24: Thank you my good Ruthenian, hopefully your post didn’t trigger BMLeon’s bad memories of his mother 🤣
I cannot argue with your geopolitical analysis. No one in the 21st century should be aggrandizing their territory by force of arms! 😄 The Ruzzians deserve to be punished for this, not rewarded! 😝
Nor will you hear me defend President Trump’s corrupt and cowardly foreign policy. The Ukrainians are hardly the first American allies he’s left in the lurch. Look at Rojava and GIROA, left to fend for themselves when they needed us most! 😝 The Taiwanese must be sweating through their shirts watching this administration! 😅
In Ukraine, however, not all of the American failures can be laid at President Trump’s doorstep. President Biden may have shown more backbone in Ukraine than Trump has, but Biden still dithered when it really counted. One of the reasons the Ukrainians couldn’t break through at Robotyne in 2023 was because we delayed and delayed and delayed, which gave the orcs time to dig in properly. If we’d armed the Ukrainians up properly under Biden, Zaporizhzhia 2023 could have been an even bigger breakthrough than Kharkiv 2022. 😃 Instead, it was a costly failure, perhaps the most consequential failure of the entire war.
But let’s set aside for a moment the America-bashing and the global strategic fiasco of rewarding Russian aggression. 😛 Solely as a practical matter, and solely from the Ukrainian point of view, if America pulls the plug on Ukraine, what are the prospects for Ukraine to win more on the battlefield than what’s promised in the 28-point plan?
Without the Americans, I think it’s more likely that Ukraine will continue to lose territory than regain it. As you know from our earlier discussions, I think Dobropillia might fall this winter, and if it does, then I think the life of the Donetsk fortress belt will be measurable in months not years. By December 2026, I can easily picture the Russians in full possession of Donetsk and starting to cast their greedy eyes once again toward Kharkiv and the city of Zaporizhzhia.
What I can’t picture is a Ukrainian strategy to stop the bleed in the absence of American assistance, The Kursk operation last year was a brilliant gambit. Had it succeeded, it might been possible to horse-trade Kursk for Donbas. But it didn’t succeed, and we haven’t seen anything else remotely as dashing in a year and a half now.
Ukraine can’t retake lost territory if it stays in this defensive crouch, so what now, lieutenant? 😄 If the only realistic prospect in a post-American world is to slowly cede territory at the cost of 30,000 KIA each year, then from Ukraine’s perspective why not accept the peace deal now, geopolitics be damned?
Thanks for the thoughtful answer Kossack. BMLeon, give my warm regards to your mom 😘
@18: We’ve been expanding our minds on this exhibition for weeks now, so your comment is very late as well as all the reverence for this art study has long been cemented in our minds by urban dwellers and nimbies alike.
@16 Swiftress and @19 kristofarian: Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from the House of Misrepresentatives??
Bring on the popcorn, red wine, and dark chocolate, baybee!! Knock over the dumb-i-noes ’til they’re all gone, and nothing but a bad memory of THE WORST WHITE HOUSE OCCUPANT IN U.S. HISTORY.
Here’s hoping Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trumpf’s favorite former howler monkey can help provide the Gropenfuhrer and its KKKrime syndicate loyalists serious lasting butthurt. Trumpf ad nauseum for the firing squad! Why not? MAGAs love their guns. And now they’re turning on each other.
The 2026 midterms should be interesting.
Rest in peace, JFK, 62 years later.
On a brighter note, Happy Birthday, Jamie Lee Curtis!
When JFK was shot on 11/22/1963, CBS interrupted “As The World Turn” for a bulletin. Here it is queued up to the time.
https://youtu.be/ortHwKEbCpI?t=585
After ~40 seconds of dead air and just a graphic showing, you hear Walter Cronkite making an announcement.
The reason they didn’t go live in the studio is because in those days it took 30 minutes to warm up those old cameras and had to wait for it to warm up. After that day CBS and probably all news stations kept a camera ready at all times.
@16: Eww. Not banana bread, surely you can do a peach pie for ol’ Marjorie, ok?
@20 The train from Seattle to Portland is $54 round trip, which is about what the gas would cost you. And you can drink along the way!
@25. Indeed, the tragedy of Ukraine has its roots not only in its failure to shake loose during the Russian civil war, but in the West’s neglect following the collapse of the SU. It ought to have been the priority for EU/NATO membership, but it was deemed a bad candidate, a satrap of Moscow (like Belarus). Then Maidan happened, and the West collectively did almost the worst thing – begin dialogue and process to bring them in, but so slowly it gave the Kremlin time to respond. This, btw, is exactly how the Republic of Georgia got in the fix they are in.
And Georgia, btw, is what I predict will likely happen to Ukraine if peace terms fail to bring Ukraine sufficiently into the western fold. Kyiv will be subject to political manipulation, hybrid warfare, hydro-carbon strong arming, etc. If the Kremlin does not receive a decisive strategic blow here, they will continue to subvert Ukraine regardless of whether bullets are flying.
Ergo, the only peace I would find acceptable is one that 1) unambiguously puts Ukraine out of the Kremlins reach and firmly integrates it with the West 2) leaves Moscow isolated in perpetuity precisely because their Novorossiya project will not have abated. Sanctions and energy boycott must remain in place. They are committed to reclaiming their old imperial borders. This is geopolitical reality that cannot waved away by drawing a ceasefire line in some Donbas wheatfields.
Anyway, I’ll leave it at that, but damn T for having me fish around to find my late grandmothers cornicello as a cope talisman.
@31: Plus another $100 in Uber fares because you showed up in Portland without your car for some reason 😂
@32: Well it’s not the peace deal President Thumpus would have drafted. 😄 It’s a disaster for the US and Europe, no dispute from me about that. What I’m less sure of is whether it’s a disaster for Ukraine. It might be the best they can get.
Sometimes, the baddies win the war. Sometimes the King of Prussia gets to keep Alsace-Lorraine, even though he doesn’t deserve it! 😅
@33: Or your Portland hosts picked you at the station and drove you off for a pleasant weekend at their estate.
@35: ah yes of course, “their estate” 😂😂😂 Say, are you sure they picked you up themselves? They didn’t send their chauffeur? Or their coachmen? 🤣🤣🤣
@36: I’m just replacing a pessimistic scenario with an optimistic one.
@37: lol the optimistic scenario is you drove your e-tron RS to Portland, avoiding the train, the Uber, and the gas station all in one fell swoop! 😎
hasn’t
cadet bonespurs
Banned Electric Cars as of yet?
they could Shock you!
AND HIS bigoil buddies
need to destroy our
Biosphere
stat.
@39: There are fewer carbon greenhouse gases emissions than if Kamala had been elected.
@40: Within a margin of error, of course.
Tabatabai just got X’ed in Lebanon. 💥💥💥 He’s an ideal candidate for it: senior enough to remind Hizbollah that the rule is “no more weapons south of the Litani” but not so senior that it says “screw it, the deal is off and we’re just going to kill you all” 😂
@KkKoolie
whilst your HERO
bans Windmills, Storage
Batteries and Whateverthe
Fuck may help Postpone Climate
Disaster, you’re here @tS cheering him On.
Why
do you
HATE Humanity?
why do you
Hate Mother Nature?
what on Earth did She ever
Do to you?
@43: Yes, the key word is postpone. I’d rather have the disaster now and get it over with as that’s the only way to shut you lefties up.
@44
and
There
we Have it
the
Reich
Wing POV
that’d rather
Destroy the Planet
then listen to an opposing POV.
have you considered
Relocating? I bet MUX
has room on his Spaceship
or maybe he can Modify
a Swastikartruk and
give you a Tow
you
know,
KkKoolie,
they say Mars
is Gorgeous this
time of year. Especially
if you Like the color Red.
Bon Voyage! and
Don’t Forget to
Write!
@42: Especially great news, given the WSJ described Tabatabai as, “…a key driver of recruitment of fighters for Hezbollah,” who should be disarming in favor of the Lebanese government, but who are actually re-arming.
In both Lebanon and Gaza, the disarmament of Hezbollah and Hamas, respectively, holds a key place in the peace plan there; yet, our friends here at the Stranger do not demand disarmament of the group — despite their recent and very loud concerns abut civilian deaths in both places. Why do our friends not now advocate for peace via disarmament f these groups? A mystery wrapped as a puzzle within an enigma, it truly is. 😉
@46: I distinctly remember them saying “arms embargo.” Why, they ought to be dancing in the streets right now! 😂
@45: Only when it’s your POV and ones with no moral clarity. Eat dirt fella.
re Lebanon
good ole Israel:
negotiates Ceasefire
Kills Second in Command
NPR:
“Isreal
Threatens
Ceasefire!”
someone, Quick:
along with OUR
BILLION$, SEND
them a fucking
Dictionary.
@48
no, no,
KkKoolie:
‘write’
WHEN
you Get
TO Mars.
pls to make
note of it
thank you for
your inattention
to this and all Matters!
as
The
Cesspool
Whirlpools
into a Blackhole
@21 I enter short story writing contests regularly and some of the required word counts are a full hundred words less than what some of your comments on this thread are.
botts gotts ALL
the Words in
the World
they
steal
them
for Free
@51: So, you’re upset because readers prefer political essays by thumpus and thekossack to your short stories?
Well, that would at least explain why you keep coming here to complain about the length and number of comments, when no one else seems to care.
@45 & @50 kristofarian: I haven’t had this much fun since Calvin stepped into his own shit with his rants down, got so riled up he angrily responded to the wrong comment (does he even bother to read comments before posting a reply?), and didn’t even realize DOUG called him on his idiocy.
@48: Dude, I think you’re long overdue for a colonoscopy. Don’t forget to tip the nice gastroenterologists.
If you’re lucky they just might be able to help get your head out of your ass.
@54: Actually, I just did and totally clear.
You stupid insufferable perverted and demented amoeba brain.
well
auntie
Gee at
Least ole
KkKoolie’s
got the Cutting
Insults down Pat!
or
Would,
were they
not so Olde.
@55: How did your colonoscopy go, Calvin dear? Did the gastroenterologists send the bill to your mom?
As for “stupid, insufferable, perverted and demented amoeba brain” and “stupid twit” go look in the mirror.
Better yet, just install a system override—providing it fits, before going to the emergency room:
“Head…stuck…in…ass….send…help!!!”
Remember, if it’s brown, flush it down—provided you can reach the handle.
@56 kristofarian: Yeah, but even after major surgery it appears ole Calvin’s still got his head up his ass.
One thing’s for sure about ole Calvin: breathing through a straw while stumbling around in the dark must be awkward, and uncomfortably challenging. Meanwhile, his Orange Jeezus is laughing its head off at all the equally blindsided MAGA tools of Calvin’s ilk.
Griz shall end with the following apt limerick:
Calvin was a MAGA troll nut
Whose head was stuck up his butt.
Riding the Trumpf wagon
His ass started draggin’,
And now he’s stuck in a rut.
Wow, this thread is still active as of today (11/27)? OK, since people are apparently still reading …
@2 Are you unaware that there are laws on the books in virtually every city and state in the country that aren’t enforced because they’re no longer workable or have proven downright harmful? Before cannabis was legalized at the state level here in WA, many cities made a conscious choice to stop arresting or fining people for possession of small amounts because the harm such laws were causing clearly outweighed the harm posed by the substance itself. I could cite many other examples. Claiming that immigration laws must be enforced to the letter simply because they’re on the books and haven’t been repealed is tantamount to saying all laws must be enforced at all times, regardless of the effect of such enforcement on society. It’s not merely a question of resource allocation and I never meant to suggest it was.
It’s undeniably true that the perpetual tension within both parties between big business and other interest groups pro and con resulted in a decades-long unwritten policy that’s perhaps best summarized as “let ’em in, but keep ’em on their toes.” Clearly not an ideal state of affairs, but its sheer durability did result in a tenuous status quo that most people, most of the time, found ways to work within and around. Saner administrations both liberal and conservative have offered various proposals to rectify or at least improve upon that situation, which the nativist wing of the Republican party consistently found ways to torpedo. Now we get Trump’s chaotic, indiscriminate mass roundups of brown-skinned Spanish speakers, often with no regard to their legal status — the principal aim of which is to deport enough people of color (and thereby discourage enough others from coming) to buy the shrinking white majority another decade or two of demographic dominance beyond its projected mid-century demise. If you don’t support that overarching racist goal, you shouldn’t support the means being employed to achieve it.
@58 CKathes & pat L, re @2: +2. Agreed. Your apt comments as usual, are well said and summarized.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
@57: May you spill the rest of your red wine and accidentally throw out all your dark chocolate.
@58: Thank you for your excellent synopsis of our various failed immigration policies. I would note our policy wound up being a bit more cynical than just “keep them on their toes.” Having a ready pool of exploitable, disposable labor suited a lot of interests, not the least of which is the appetite for inexpensive produce in liberal cities.
@60: Nope, I’ve still got some red wine and dark chocolate left to enjoy on December 1st, KKKool-Aid dear.
My head isn’t stick up my ass, sweetie. 😉