Five missing in capsized vessel: On Sunday, the US Coast Guard received a mayday call from the Wind Walker, a fishing vessel off the southwest coast of Juneau, Alaska. The ship reportedly capsized due to rough weather with five people on board. Rescue crews faced “heavy snow, winds up to 60 mph and 6-foot seas.”
He’s running: King County Council (KCC) Member Girmay Zahilay officially launched his campaign for King County Executive. Zahilay has served on the KCC since 2020 and says he wants to make the county safer and more affordable. Zahilay is the third candidate to join the horse race for the executive office. His colleague, Council Member Claudia Balducci is also running, as is County Assessor John Wilson. You can read all about his campaign plans in Ashley’s piece this morning. His pet issue, if elected, will be “his commitment to supporting workers and labor rights in Seattle.” He is also open to progressive taxation such as a payroll tax.
Pre-teen police chase: A 12-year-old boy drove 160 miles across the Cascade Mountains in a car believed to be stolen from his grandfather. Police found the car parked in Moses Lake. The boy took off and led the cops on a short chase before they did a maneuver that caused the boy to lose control. The car flipped on its side. No one was injured. Police arrested the boy.
A foggy morning: A fog advisory is in effect until around 10 am on Monday. Careful on those commutes. Look out for ghost ships lurking in the murk. Once that’s over with, it should be sunny again.
🌫️ Pockets of dense fog are filling in across the area this morning, so take it slow on your morning commute! Check out the view of the fog from the Space Needle Panocam 👀 #WAwx pic.twitter.com/kfdOXto6Kz
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) December 2, 2024
SAM on strike: I know it’s perfect museum weather, but for now, find a different one. The guards at the Seattle Art Museum started an indefinite strike this weekend. The guards unionized in May 2022 and have been bargaining with the museum for more than two years. The strike is indefinite, so if you’re looking for another exhibit to explore, check out the Frye.
A pardon for Hunter: President Joe Biden issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday night. The pardon is for all offenses Hunter “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” The pardon comes right before Hunter was due for sentencing in his gun charges cases as well as sentencing in his federal tax evasion case. The president previously said he wouldn’t pardon Hunter’s crimes. Maybe Hunter won Joe over at the Thanksgiving dinner table? On his decision, Biden said, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Republicans are pissed about this pardon: They do not like Biden saying “lol jk” about not pardoning his son. They’re calling him a liar. Some Democrats aren’t thrilled either, saying this “is a bad precedent.”
Really the only thing to be said about the matter:
— The Onion (@theonion.com) December 1, 2024 at 4:53 PM
Trump picks conspiracy theorist to lead FBI: The president-elect announced another cabinet pick. This time he wants notorious “deep state” conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the Guardian, Patel is a big FBI critic and “has threatened to fire its top echelons and shut down the agency’s headquarters.” Patel’s assumption of the role is dependent on the incumbent chief, also a Trump pick, resigning or being fired. Regardless, senators from both sides of the aisle have indicated that Patel could face a hard time winning confirmation votes. Still, Trump’s lackeys in the Senate think Patel is a great choice.
Gaza Soup Kitchen chef killed: An Israeli strike killed chef Mahmoud Almadhoun on Saturday. Almadhoun started and ran the Gaza Soup Kitchen, an organization dedicated to feeding the masses during famine. He cooked daily hot meals and provided fresh water to those who needed it. According to Almadhoun’s brother, an Israeli drone “unloaded its payload directly under Mahmoud’s feet.” Additional gunfire prevented Almadhoun’s friends from getting him to the nearby hospital. Instead, he died from his injuries.
Big Ten tension: The University of Michigan and The Ohio State University were fined $100,000 apiece after their football players fought each other on Saturday. The rivalry game between the teams ended with Michigan revelry. Then the Michigan team planted their “M” flag in the middle of the Ohio’s “O” at centerfield. This was a step too far for the Ohio team. The teams brawled. Police used their pepper spray liberally. Now, the teams have their fines.
Elton John can’t see: An infection left music legend Elton John with nearly no sight. He has limited vision in only one eye. While he heals, the affliction means Elton hasn’t been able to see the new “Devil Wears Prada” musical which he wrote the score for. “It’s hard for me to see it, but I love to hear it and, boy, it sounded good tonight,” he said.
Good news? The Oxford University Press word of the year is “brain rot.”
A song for your Monday: Hunter Biden once apparently pulled out his phone in a private strip club room and played Fleet Foxes.
speaking of Giving
them Hell, Harry!
nyt: Trump Threatens ‘Hell
to Pay!’ Unless Gaza Hostages
Are Freed Before Inauguration
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/world/middleeast/trump-gaza-hostages-inauguration.html
eltrumpfster’s
Dire Threats to
Hamas’ve begun.
bibi’s keepouttaPrison
gambit’s bound to Escalate
and the Region Erupts and Pooty
does he emulate
donold and bring
the EU into the Fold
on Day One
who’s gonna
go First? Boeing
Raytheon General
Dynamics and their Share-
holders’re grinning from ear to Eternity
@36, The other issue is that answering incorrectly on Form 4473 is not a crime. Doing so knowingly and intentionally is a crime.
The prosecutor has to prove the state of mind of the accused, not just the act of the accused. A good bit of Hunter Biden’s trial focused on his state of mind.
“Are you an unlawful user ….” It is a present tense question. “I was, but am not now, and unlawful user,” is a valid defense. Biden raised it, and the jury didn’t buy it, because the Prosecutor did a deep dive into his medical records, and was able to get people close to him (Defense error in putting that witness on the stand) to testify that he currently was “an unlawful user ….” Without that Biden would have likely been acquitted.
Form 4473 prosecutions are always going to be tough. Prosecutors won’t have the resources to search for such evidence, and in most cases such evidence likely doesn’t exist.
When something comes up in a background check that contradicts what’s indicated on Form 4473 and the sale is declined, that doesn’t prove the person signing the form lied. It proves they were mistaken or in error, not that they lied (state of mind). The former is not criminal, the latter is a felony.
@50 Go ahead and link to one that you think is particularly interesting. All I saw were press releases that had no actual information. When I tried to get real info, it came up with blank searches.
Your move.
“I also think there are thousands of people more deserving of pardons that won’t get them because Biden isn’t their dad, and in general if Biden wanted to take controversial executive action there were dozens more deserving causes than this.”
Thirteen12 dear, thank you for reminding me that I must strive to remember that young people may not have had the benefit of having had Civics in high school.
Some things to “Noodle your noggin on” (as Mother Vel-DuRay used to say):
1) Just because Joe Biden doesn’t have thousands of children, that doesn’t mean that some people who deserve pardons won’t get them.
2) A POTUS doesn’t get just one shot at pardons. It’s still very early in the season to be fretting about that.
I remember how it was to be young and excitable. I’ve learned not to be swept away by the drama.
@53: lol, I don’t think any of them are “particularly interesting!” 😂 Hunter Biden spent a decade peddling his father’s influence to corrupt foreigners and ended up getting burned for guns and taxes. Justice was served, or so it appeared until his father reneged on an often-repeated campaign promise not to pardon him. I don’t find any of that interesting, I find it shameful. We weren’t supposed to see this level of corruption in the White House for another seven weeks, ha ha!
If you want the sleazy details, the House Oversight Committee has compiled them in excruciating, 9/11-like detail for the whole world to peruse, complete with transcripts of the testimony and voluminous copies of the exhibits. Sorry you couldn’t get any of the “links” to work, that must have been frustrating. 😉 You’ll just have to follow the footnoted citations manually. 😘
I don’t want to spoonfeed you more than you’re actually hungry for, but to take an easy example, I found Devon Archer’s testimony in about two seconds of searching. Among many other things, Archer testified that Hunter’s value to the Ukrainian natural gas company was that his father was the US vice president at the time. Questioned about Hunter’s company emails related to a vice presidential visit to Ukraine, Archer testified that the emails reflected a scheme by Hunter to claim credit for the vice presidential visit, as a way to justify Hunter’s high salary in the eyes of the Ukrainians. You know: influence-peddling! 😂🤣😂🤣
@55 I literally am interested in reading any links you may wish to provide.
More reading comprehension, fewer emojis would help you out in regards to Devon Archer’s testimony, though.
“I don’t think of it as Joe directly.” Huh. It was Hunter playing up his relationship with Joe to scam some money out of the rubes at Burisma.
“Mr. Goldman: But that’s different than Joe Biden’s action.
Mr. Archer: Right.
Mr. Goldman: You’re just talking about that Hunter was on the board. “
So Joe Biden wasn’t taking specific actions. It just looked cool to have Hunter there.
“Mr. Archer: He [Joe Biden] had dinner. He had dinner. And there was ‑‑ on that one, I believe the first one was, like, a birthday dinner, and then the second was ‑‑ I think we were supposed to talk about the World Food Programme. So there was some talk about that. “
Whoa, whoa, whoa! They talked about the /World Food Programme/ at a birthday dinner?! A charity that works to prevent starvation around the world? That monster! Why Joe Biden is out there maybe helping people get fed! Get a rope!
“Mr. Archer: The request ‑‑ you know, basically the request is like, can D.C. help? But there were not ‑‑ you know, I’m not going to ‑‑ there were not ‑‑ it wasn’t like ‑‑ there weren’t specific, you know, can the big guy help? It was ‑‑ it’s always this amorphous, can we get help in D.C.? “
There wasn’t a specific ask. In fact, it’s not clear that Hunter ever even asked Joe for anything. But wow does it /look bad/. And then, sometimes Hunter would call Joe on the phone and put him on speakerphone and then /not make an ask of him!/ It just made Hunter look good to his buddies/business associates.
I don’t deny that Hunter sold himself as having access to Joe. That’s been going on for centuries in this country and millennia across humanity. Where it all falls down is that Joe has never provably done something to benefit Hunter’s clients. As far as we can tell, the worst thing Joe did was not telling Hunter to stop calling him. Hunter’s clients got a crappy deal, but that’s just a lack of due diligence in what he could provide.
@48: “…what do you imagine Trump will do that’s worse than what’s currently being done to Gaza?”
Carpet-bombing the territory with B-52s? Hitting suspected Hamas sites with artillery and missiles from US Naval vessels?
“I don’t think there’s really anything worse than genocide,”
And here we see the rhetorical dead end into which you (the Stranger, supportive commenters, freeway-blocking ‘activists’) have all jammed yourselves. You all thought it would be so easy: you would simply appropriate the word “genocide,” use it loudly and often, and you could bully everyone else into doing what you’d wanted. (After all, no one wants to be pro-genocide, right?)
Sadly for you, it didn’t work. After ten solid months of such behaviors, the Stranger determined “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.”
“….which is what Biden was and is actively contributing to by uncritically supplying weapons.”
He was actually critical, but US law requires the U.S. to support Israel’s military; no
President can legally order an arms embargo against Israel.
“…mainstream Dems will probably give a shit now Orange Man is back in power.”
Mainstream Dems watched as Kshama Sawant, and some Arab-Americans in Michigan, worked to defeat Harris. Try not to let your mouth hang open too long in surprise, if Mainstream Dems do nothing when Trump sends the IRS and INS after Sawant and those Arab-Americans.
@48: “what do you imagine Trump will do that’s worse than what’s currently being done to Gaza? I don’t think there’s really anything worse than genocide”
The daily death toll in Gaza is something like ~40 persons per day, which is low for ongoing urban combat within an unevacuated city of 2 million people. People who think the war in Gaza is some kind of genocide that couldn’t possibly get any worse have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. It could get worse. It could get hundreds of times worse. Luckily, something like half of Hamas’s fighters have already been killed, so it’s more likely to get better than it is to get worse. Get a grip already, you’ve had more than a year to figure this shit out! 😂
@56: Just to be clear, you are hand-waving away private dinners with the US vice president as being of no consequence? OK, my dude, lol!
@57 & 58 honestly think Trump will “carpet bomb” Gaza or otherwise multiply the civilian death toll hundreds of times over but I’m the one who’s at a “rhetorical dead end” and need to “get a grip.” As thumpus would say: 😂
@60: lol, in the November 18 Slog, you described Hamas’s videotaped beheading of a wounded civilian as an act of Palestinian self-defense, so you very much do need to get a grip! 😂🤣😂🤣
But what I was laughing about in @58 was a different whacky belief of yours, namely, your belief that the war in Gaza couldn’t possibly get any worse than it already is. 🤪 Bruh, if you think the death rate in Gaza (ca. 40 lives per day) is as bad as the war could get, then you’re even more credulous than I thought, ha ha! Israel’s been taking it very easy on the Gazawiyn, a restraint for which we should all be grateful! 😘
@57: “Carpet-bombing the territory with B-52s?”
We probably couldn’t get basing or overflight rights for a B-52 strike on Gaza. If, for some crazy reason, we wanted to dump mass tonnage on Gaza, we’d more likely use the B-2 fleet, coming in over the Mediterranean directly from the US mainland. But there’s scant value in a strike package of that nature. There are not enough obvious targets in Gaza to bomb in a single, massive fell swoop. A much more realistic US air-weapons deployment would be small but repeated sorties by Strike Eagles flying out of Jordan or Egypt or else Super Hornets flying off a carrier. 💥💥💥
@61/62 lol bruh Trump would most likely deploy an Ohio Class sub to launch Trident II nuclear warhead armed SLBMs if he wanted to take a massive dump 🤪
@63: lol OK dude.
@60: You’re the one who asked a really stupid question, as a direct result of having chronically mistaken your overheated rhetoric for some external reality. I “honestly think” that Trump could do just about anything, and so I just used the famous example of American brutality against a helpless local population. (As our Very Own Divine Mrs. Vel-DuRay has noted, Trump’s backers include folks who think of Gaza as prime Mediterranean real estate opportunities, and he thinks of himself as a successful real estate developer, so ‘bulldozers not bombs’ might become their chosen route.)
speaking
of Hunter B
and Pardons
from
Heather
Cox Richardson’s
‘Notes From an American’:
Trump also pardoned for various crimes men who were associated with the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian operatives working to elect Trump.
Those included his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and former allies Roger Stone and Steve Bannon.
Those pardons, which suggested Trump was rewarding henchmen, received a fraction of the attention lavished on Biden’s pardon of his son.
In today’s news coverage, the exercise of the presidential pardon—which traditionally gets very little attention—has entirely outweighed the dangerous nominations of an incoming president, which will have profound influence on the American people.
This imbalance reflects a longstanding and classic power dynamic in which Republicans set the terms of public debate, excusing their own objectionable behavior while constantly attacking Democrats in a fiery display that attracts media attention but distorts reality.
The degree to which the media endorsed that abusive power dynamic today does not bode well for its accurate reporting during Trump’s upcoming term.
It also leaves the public badly informed about matters that are important for understanding modern politics.
oodles
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-2-2024
“This imbalance reflects a longstanding and classic power dynamic in which Republicans set the terms of public debate, excusing their own objectionable behavior while constantly attacking Democrats in a fiery display that attracts media attention but distorts reality.”
–Heather Cox Richardson
like
right
Here @tS’s
comments section?
bingo,
Heather.
@65 my mistake was using the word “imagine.” I assumed you would intuitively understand I was talking about the real world, but that was probably putting too much faith in your cognitive abilities. Trump has the ability to nuke Gaza, but no serious person thinks he will. Likewise he will not commit the American military to a war he is on record as wanting to end before he even takes office. His social media post was designed to pressure Hamas to reach an agreement before then, the same way he’s been directly pressuring Netanyahu. If you believed a Trump social media post was a true statement of actual intent you have no business accusing anyone else of stupidity.
@68: As at least one other commenter noted, it is ludicrously easy to “imagine” far worse things happening in Gaza than anything over the last fourteen months there. (And if your imagination fails you, you could always take a real look at Ukraine.)
“If you believed a Trump social media post was a true statement of actual intent…”
Well, no; it should have been abundantly clear I don’t actually believe anything he says, but I appear to have again over-estimated your cognitive abilities.
Continuing with both of those thoughts:
“… he will not commit the American military to a war he is on record as wanting to end before he even takes office.”
Anyone who knows anything about Trump knows he’s always true to his word. /s
@31 – he was going to pardon all of the J6 assholes in any case. I’m sure he’ll be hosting them at a “Patriots’ Feast” at the White House.
Let’s just keep lowering our standards to the asymptotic lowest common denominator so we can enable a marginally higher circle of hell on Earth.
@10: He was never charged because his dad was pres. This goes way deeper than just Hunter, his dad is into it up to his neck too, he’s just better at hiding it.
@69 “it is ludicrously easy to “imagine” far worse things happening in Gaza than anything over the last fourteen months there. (And if your imagination fails you, you could always take a real look at Ukraine.)”
Ok let’s look at Ukraine. From February 2022 to October 2024 just under 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed.
https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15857.doc.htm
From October 2023 to November 2024 over 43,000 Gazan civilians have been killed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5wel11pgdo
So 3.5x as many civilian deaths in less than half the time compared to Ukraine. Which do you imagine is worse again?
@73: As even you should know by now, the casualty figures from Gaza do not distinguish between Hamas’ combatants, and the civilians Hamas combatants’ use for human shields — which Hamas uses with the intent of raising the civilian casualty figures.
Including combatants in the Ukraine figures — which is what you did with the Gaza figures — increases the total by at least 31,000 by September 2024:
“As for Ukraine – it rarely comments on the scale of its deaths on the battlefield. In February, its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, but estimates based on US intelligence suggest greater losses.”
(https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr3255gpjgo.amp)
So, using the death tolls for both civilians and combatants — again, as you did for Gaza — the numbers are at least equal, and likely higher for Ukraine.
You’re welcome.
@74 so even if you add every Ukrainian combatant the death toll is about equal–in, again, less than half the time. It makes sense you ended with “you’re welcome” because you just proved my point.
@75
Wormtongue’s
Genocidal Denials
likely cost Dems the Election
not as Gleefully
Smugly* as his
🛴, but in the
Same fucking
Ball Park.
you can easily See how
his Guilt shows whilst he
Constantly labors to Blame Ka-
shama Sawant ~ but it’s merely Just
Another one of his Oodles of vile Projections.
*’it’s
All about
The Cruelty!’
–Wormtongue,
not that long ago
tho he’ll be Certain
to Deny it ~ he’s FROM
de Nile for Fuck’s F’g Sake.
@75: What is your obsession with numbers of casualties, and length of time? Ukraine has nuclear facilities. If these are damaged in the fighting, the resulting environmental catastrophe could be immense — again, it’s not difficult to imagine a situation far worse than Gaza is now.
The equivalent (or maybe not) death toll in the shorter period testifies to Hamas’ stated intent to cause civilian casualties. While that’s not a good thing, it’s also not characteristic of most wars. Deliberate use of civilians for human shields is a massive ongoing war crime by Hamas, one which Ukraine does not commit. And yet, the casualty figures are approximately the same. It should therefore be very easy to imagine a situation far worse than exists in Gaza now.
@77 what are you even talking about now? How are Ukrainian nuclear facilities relevant to this discussion? You said to imagine how things could get worse in Gaza I should look to Ukraine, so I did, and their civilian death rate is much lower. What should I look at if not casualty figures? Is the issue just that you’ve confused yourself by arguing in circles?
@66 That points to my other complaint about some liberal sources criticizing Hunter’s pardon. No, it is not giving Trump a basis or excuse. He had already broken all the pardon norms his first term, including pardoning a relative. A relative he has now appointed to be our ambassador to France. Granted, that post is figurehead post, as the government ties are deep and direct, but it is the plum of the figurehead ambassadorships.
@79
the Corruption shall
run like Rivers thru our
streets instead of flushing
them it’ll only multiply the
numbers of Homeless whilst
Private Equity is allowed to Strip-
Mine America & Congess Insiders trade
on foreknowledge yet’re STILL beholden to
whomever Pays them well enough.
‘Citizens United”ll likely
be the Death of Our
little Democracy
or Republic.
whatever-
the fuck:
Adios.
@78: “You said to imagine how things could get worse in Gaza I should look to Ukraine, so I did, and their civilian death rate is much lower.”
You don’t know that, because (once again) you included combatants in the Gaza civilian figures. To answer your fatuous statement @48, again, there’s plenty that could be worse in Gaza. The IDF could stop using the restraint it has so far shown. Whatever remains of Hamas could do an even better job of getting civilians killed. Blinding yourself by misusing the term, “genocide” means you’re really not capable of seeing what could be worse.
@76: “…Genocidal Denials
likely cost Dems the Election”
So, it’s Bernie’s fault now? Wow, you really are desperate to blame anyone — anyone, of course, except someone who actually did try very hard to get Trump elected. That person remains utterly ineligible for your criticism.
(Also, calling the Democratic President “Genocide Joe” had no negative effect for the Democrats. At all.)
— Berntongue
speaking of
Wormtongue’s
one-man-War-on
the term ‘Genocide’:
from Democracy Now:
Amnesty International: Israel
Is Committing Genocide in
Gaza with Full U.S.
Support
Amnesty International has released a landmark report that concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, making it the first major human rights group to do so.
The nearly 300-page report examines the first nine months of the Israeli war on Gaza and finds that Israel’s actions have caused death, injury and mental harm on a vast scale, as well as conditions intended to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza.
Both Israel and the United States have rejected Amnesty’s conclusion. Amnesty researcher Budour Hassan, who covers Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, dismisses the criticism and says, if anything, Amnesty’s intervention took too long because of how carefully the group gathered and verified its information.
“We tried to be absolutely true to the definition of ‘genocide’ under the Genocide Convention,” says Hassan, who urges U.S. officials in particular to do more to stop the bloodshed.
“If there is any country that has the capacity, the power and the tools to stop this genocide, it’s the United States.
Not only has the United States failed to do so, it has consistently awarded Israel. It has consistently continued to flout the United States’ own laws in order to continue giving Israel the weapons — the very same weapons that are used by Israel to commit the genocide in Gaza.”
oodles more right Here:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/6/amnesty_genocide
YOUR
Tax Dollar$
Hard af at Work
Oh and
Pay no Nevermind
to the Wormrtongue, above:
he’s most Likely on bibi’s Payroll.
oh and
THANKS
genocide joe!
you pulled a RBG
and, along with our
wormmy, handed it All
over to eltrumpfster. way
to GO, genocide fucking Joe.
you
Too, @
wormmy.
well
Okay
he’s not
genocide
Joe at the Moment
but for a Moment he Was
he could Still
do a LOT in
his remain-
ing Time.
my expectations
however’re
Quite
low
.
@82: “one-man-War-on
the term ‘Genocide’:”
So, now Bernie’s not a man? (Wow, tough crowd!)
The only persons at war with the term, “genocide,” are the ones who keep misapplying it. Bernie has tried to educate you on this, but you won’t listen to him. Sad.
@83:
“Okay
he’s not
genocide
Joe at the Moment
but for a Moment he Was”
No, you’re stuck with it. Forever. You accused a sitting president of genocide, and it was a lie.
A lie that, like Sawant, helped to get Trump elected. That is your legacy, and you will own it. Forever.
Love,
Berntongue
“No,
you’re
stuck with it.
Forever. You accused
a sitting president of genocide, and it was a lie.”
your
Word
salads’re
becoming
more unHinged
with every posting
Wormtongue. have Fun
with that one wormmy who
Denies bibi’s keep-outta-Prison
Gambit could POSSIBLY BE GENOCIDE
until the
Whole fucking
Planet concurs. or
Armageddon which-
Ever one comes First.
when you Side
with Genocide
you Side with
the Wrong
Side of
Hist-
ory.
@85: If you have a problem with Bernie’s continued refusal to use the word “genocide,” to describe the current situation in Gaza, then please take it to him.
Love,
Berntongue
gosh.
Bernie
can Call
it WvrTF he
FEELS like calling it,
Wormtongue: he’s an Adult.