KOMO! Say it ain’t so. We already hate your conservative owners, but you should never, ever write headlines like this: “Mariners’ super power is staying the course no matter what.” Were you born yesterday? Are you new to the city? Have you not heard of the infamous “Seattle choke”? Many of us recall Dikembe Mutombo grabbing that ball from the Sonics’ greatest season. Many of us are still stuck on that 1-yard line in Super Bowl XLIX. Those in the know, know what I’m talking about. We should keep our traps shut, proceed one step at a time, and be happy that we have three guaranteed playoff games in Seattle that will force a hoard of Canadians in Vancouver to cross the border and blow a bunch of cash on our city. That is our bird in the hand.
By the way, the big and bad money behind Mayor Bruce Harrell bought ads that will attack his opponent, Katie Wilson, during Monday’s semifinals match between the Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. The ads will say all sorts of nasty things about a perfectly good person. Money. Money. Money. Such is a rich man’s world. The Seattle Times has the sorry story.
Busting That Does Not Make Us Feel Good: This incident happened on Sunday, while the musician’s band, Unpresidented Brass Band, played the Ghostbusters theme across the street from the city’s notorious ICE building. The clarinetist, “a 38-year-old child and family therapist,” is being held without formal charges. “Ain’t that [Trump’s] America.” The musicians in the therapist’s band wore banana costumes.
The pic above was taken on Saturday (October 12) in a war zone called Downtown Portland. One could walk, in a matter minutes, from here to where the clarinetist in a banana costume was arrested. And what did I see on that fine rainy day? Portlanders doing Portlandish things—drinking coffee, drinking in dive bars, walking, biking. So, what’s all this war zone nonsense really about? Trump is punishing a predominantly white city for demonstrating, at the beginning of this decade, the importance of Black lives. This was the original sin. This, and nothing else, fuels the obsession with Antifa. White people caring about Black people. Trump would not be in power if the majority of white people recognized the humanity of brown and Black people.
How do we explain the power of Portland’s frog and other inflated creatures? I recommend watching this clip from Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film La Chinoise.
Those familiar with the birth of cinema (1890 to 1910) will understand the young professor’s meaning. Film historians usually present Lumière brothers work as real (snapshots of everyday life) and those of filmmaker/magician Georges Méliès, as fictional. After all, the clips produced by the former were called “actualities;” and the short films by the latter were clearly fantasies. But the professor in Godard’s film insists that the opposite is true in the context of cinema. The shots of everyday life by the Lumière brothers are fantastic; and those by Méliès, such as Le Voyage dans la Lune, are the actualities. This, in my view, is what’s going on in Portland. Trump’s administration claims that it is the real, the actuality, but it is in fact the fantasy. And Portland’s inflated creatures are real because they reveal that the real is actually a fantasy.
This is why you must always live in a city. What does Everett do after the Fred Meyer closures? Offer, for the next 6 months, a free transit route that has access to locations with grocery stores. Of course, all bus routes should be free all of the time. But a city also needs to find ways to be less dependent on corporate supermarkets and drugstores. We are not like the rural areas, which don’t have the efficiency of density on their side. When a giant goes in a city, it has the means to easily fill the hole with smaller and local businesses. Indeed, exactly this is happening right now in Federal Way: “As Walmart prepares to close in Federal Way, local small grocery stores are finding success.” That city, by the way, will soon (December 6) be connected to Link’s Line 1.
Yes, it’s nice and (almost) cold. But the sun refuses to be done with us. What gives? We need the rain to resume, which, unfortunately, will not happen today, which will be much like yesterday—sunny but, thankfully, sweater weather. The clouds are expected to gather tomorrow and gradually grow as the week progresses.
Let’s get this right. In 2023, Argentina voted for a libertarian, Javier Milei, because he promised that, if unleashed from the government, the creative and wealth-generating powers of the market would explode. Two years later, nothing of the kind happened. In fact, Milei received government cheese from Trump to keep his free market dream alive. And it gets worse. The BBC: “Trump says upcoming Argentina elections will decide how ‘generous’ US will be.” Meaning, if Milei loses power, the US is “gone.” Meaning, the US is only offering socialism for free markets and not for the poor or working classes. Trump: “I’m with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win – I think he’s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we are gone.” Need one say more.
new ayn rand just dropped
#argentina #milei #javierMilei #bailout #uspol #aynRand #atlasShrugged #meme #memes
— ⚯ Michel de Cryptadamus ⚯ (@cryptadamist.universeodon.com.ap.brid.gy) October 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Brett Hamill, myself, and Seattle’s next mayor, Katie Wilson, are doing a thing this Friday at Town Hall. Because Hamill will be in character, Burl Dirkman the powertool man, I promise to be John Houseman, the snotty law professor in the 1970s show The Paper Chase. I have no idea who Wilson will be.
Let’s end Slog AM with a tune that brought D’Angelo fame, “Brown Sugar.” He became a shade yesterday. But as long as I’m here, your “going to live on and on.”
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I ain’t afraid of no (brittle authoritarian wannabes)
Looking forward to peaceful, festive, and MASSIVE No Kings protests Saturday. Don’t let the Trump trolls tell you simultaneously that you’re both wasting your time and endangering your lives.
I just can’t get enough of the inflatable cartoon characters and creatures from the Portland ICE protests. Here’s the viral video that was my point of reference:
https://www.tiktok.com/@heather34897/video/7559447639511534862
I am reminded of the adorable Pikachu that became a famous figure in the anti-government protests in Türkiye earlier this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qcoqTX3HgI
I mean, what kind of monster doesn’t love Pikachu?! OK, Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance, Trump himself, Kristi Noem,… I guess I could go on.
Our weekly Pout AM from Charles.
The banner photo is a death threat, is it not? Shame on Viv.
At this point, only two of those Seattle games are guaranteed…
“But as long as I’m here, your [sic] “going to live on and on.””
Corrected: “Trump is punishing a predominantly white city for 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 caring about Black people.”
No charge.
Charles always has to make it all about black people, never mind the fact that the goofy naive white-guilt libprogs in Portland are protesting outside the ICE facility about deportations which overwhelmingly affect brown (not black) “Latinxes”, and said brown Latinxes are actually classified as “white” by the Feds and almost every state law enforcement agency when they commit crimes (which unfairly inflates the “white crime rate”).
Regarding the recent debate as to whether Republicans are horrible people, strong evidence for Ms. Vel DuRay’s side has emerged:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/young-republicans-racist-group-chat-messages-leaked
@7 I assume he lacks the capacity to differentiate between performative and sincere action, generally speaking, so it’s as real to him and his confederacy of dunces as anything else.
Count Cuckula Vel DuRay
It’s funny how the local Horrible People (TM) are now claiming the George Floyd protests were just performative, whereas for the past several years they’ve been denouncing them as the cause of the Defund movement which they considered very real and catastrophic. Horrible but not very consistent people apparently.
@12 – things like white-guilt libprogs protesting for George Floyd (etc.) can be performative and very real and catastrophic at the same time.
@11 – That’s not like you. Cut it out.
If we want to add another layer of tin foil hat conspiracy theory to the Argentinian debate, Argentina is where a LOT of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers ended up settling post-WWII.
Republicans don’t have the money to avoid Medicare/Medicaid cuts or extend the ACA subsidies, but we have $20B to give to a failing government under a batshit crazy politician that Trump likes (oh and we also assisted with the 1976 coup against Isabel Perón)? Make it make sense.
@8:
If Latinx people are considered “white”, why then did the White Supremacists on the Supreme Court recently rule that it’s okay for ICE to profile individuals based on the color of their skin? It’s not like you see them bum-rushing and giving beat-downs to people with hideous spray-tans, eh?
16: Pssst. Latinos and Latinas don’t like to be called ‘Latinx’ – groan.
@16 – I don’t know the answer for “why”, but you can start by asking the FBI and almost every Sex Offender Registry in almost every state, for starters. Texas is a great one to browse. You can look up the pervs by zip code. Wow look at that overwhelming number of brown Latinxes that are erroneously classified as white! Brown latinx sex offenders that white-guilt libprogs like you would be crying about if they were being deported, crying “white supremacy is oppressing brown people!”
I look forward to your futile and impotent attempt to prove me wrong, though.
It’s an artifact of how race and ethnicity are tracked. Hispanic is an ethnicity for people from Spanish-speaking countries and that spans multiple races. They can self-identify as any race they want bc race is tracked separately but there isn’t a latino option (though that will be changing soon) so people will typically check other or white.
@19 – in the case of the sex offender registries and other crime records, it is the various government agencies that are checking “white”.
My point stands: The erroneous classification of brown, non-white Latinxes (lol) erroneously and unfairly inflates the “white crime rate”, especially the “white sex offender rate” that white-guilt libprogs love to “cite” as some kind of “gotcha” when discussing crime and race.
What does it mean for that “stereotype” of the “white sex offender”, when at least 75% of the “white” sex offenders in the Texas Sex Offender Registry (and other registries) are not actually “white”, but are brown people that white-guilt libprogs would cry about (because of the brown color of their skin) if they were being deported?
Ok
Listen everyone the Texas Sex Offender Registry is the ultimate authority on what race someone is, if it says they’re white they’re white, period.
We have two games guaranteed in Seattle (because it’s a best-of-seven series). The only way a third game would be guaranteed is if they lose one of the first two. Please hire a copy editor.
@13 Who constitutes sincere protestors to you? QAnon Shaman, Zip Tie Guy and taking a shit on Congress floors? Hey, at least liberal protestors are housebroken!
Given ICE’s decision to operate outside of the law, I think peaceful protestors mocking them with silly costumes is entirely appropriate. But you keep flogging your “black on black crime rates” and “Latinos are the real sex offenders” strawman arguments to make yourself feel better.
@23 – “Listen everyone the Texas Sex Offender Registry is the ultimate authority on what race someone is, if it says they’re white they’re white, period.”
I merely used the Texas Sex Offender Registry because their website for looking up sex offenders by zip code is relatively easy to navigate, but most states’ sex offender registries do the same thing, erroneously classify brown, non-white Latinxes (and others) as “white” when they commit crimes. .
@25 – “Hey, at least liberal protestors are housebroken!”
Is that why they throw balloons full of piss and bottles full of piss at ICE officers?
Are they really doing that, biped dear, or is that just your usual hysteria?
(If they are, good for them. ICE are pigs.)
@12 – “It’s funny how the local Horrible People (TM) are now claiming the George Floyd protests were just performative, whereas for the past several years they’ve been denouncing them as the cause of the Defund movement which they considered very real and catastrophic.”
How about that CHAZ/CHOP lol? Both performative and very real and catastrophic. LOL
Checkmate
@28, here you go, dearie:
CNN (July 27, 2020): “Seventy-six people were arrested Friday night for allegedly blocking off a street with barrels filled with water, urine and bleach, according to Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief LaVita Chavous.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/27/us/us-blm-protests
…
WLKY News (July 24, 2020): “Officials also seized blue barrels at the protest that contained water, urine and bleach… Some also face assault charges for allegedly throwing bottles at police.”
https://www.wlky.com/article/protesters-block-e-market-in-nulu-police-threaten-to-make-arrests/33418550
…
Willamette Week (June 23, 2017): “Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman said today that riot cops pushed antifascist and anarchist protesters out of downtown parks June 4 after the protesters used slingshots to launch balloons filled with urine, feces and unknown chemicals into police ranks.”
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2017/06/23/portland-police-chief-says-antifa-protesters-used-slingshot-to-launch-urine-and-feces-filled-balloons-at-riot-cops/
…
Portland Mercury [THE STRANGER’S SISTER PUBLICATION] (June 23, 2017): “Marshman says demonstrators were throwing more than bricks. He says people in Chapman Square hurled ‘urine and feces filled balloons,’ along with marbles and rocks.”
https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2017/06/23/19112478/mike-marshman-say-detaining-photographing-demonstrators-was-necessary-to-curatil-violence-in-june-4-protests
…
BOSTON – ABC News (August 19, 2017): “Police Commissioner William Evans said at a news conference this afternoon that some urine-filled bottles were thrown at officers.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/thousands-expected-boston-free-speech-demonstrators-counter-protesters/story?id=49303084
…
BOSTON – Reuters (August 20, 2017): “Thirty-three people were arrested, largely for scuffles in which some protesters threw rocks and bottles of urine at police dressed in riot gear.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-protests/boston-march-against-hate-speech-avoids-charlottesville-chaos-idUSKCN1AZ0BU/
….
SHALL I CONTINUE, DEARIE? Because I certainly can.
Only a moron believes police press releases are 100% credible.
@30 Heh. Epic fail at your claim that protestors were hurling urine-filled bottles at ICE officers. Those incidents were 5-10 years ago, and thrown at police. I also see that you include two stories about single incidents to pump up the numbers and that the first pair merely mentions the existence of urine-filled barrels and doesn’t say what (if anything) was in the bottles thrown at police.
But just like your idols in the White House and Fox News, you can’t tell the difference between 2020 protests against police brutality and current protests against ICE. Just not … quite … smart enough to know what year it is.
@32 – they were Antifa protests and that’s all that matters for my point, goofball.
Just as I expected, biped dear. Your normal state of hysteria. It must be so exhausting to be you. Can’t you ask your doctor for a sedative?
@24: First, anyone familiar with the Mariners’ history of postseason play should feel very, very confident in saying there will be three games.
Second, it remains open to debate which shows more implacable opposition: Charles to ever having a copy editor, or copy editors everywhere to reading Charles’ output.
@30
None of that shows anyone throwing piss at ICE in 2025.
@34
I hear
they’re
doing Wonders
with Bleach & Very
Bright Lights & Sanctioned
By our very own President Cadet Bonespurs!
c’Mon
bippy!
give it
a Shot
olde boy!
so
who
are You
gonna Dress
Up as on NO Fucking
KINGS Day — This fucking Saturday!
the
MAGAtty
Shamaniska?
Pix
or it
Didn’t
Happen!
Antifa were in Portland throwing piss balloons at ICE and I saw one of the piss balloons and it looked at me
Antifa A: “Don’t just stand there, help me fill up these piss balloons.”
Antifa B: “I’d like to man, just don’t need to pee…”
Antifa A: “Here, drink this Old English 800..”.
@33 I mean, except that your claim was that antifa was throwing piss balloons at ICE. And all of the examples were not that. Just man up and admit you’re wrong. It’s less embarrassing in the long run.
@38 Are the piss balloons in the room with us now?
Here = my ranking of balloons based on the overall enjoyment and satisfaction derived from each:
1) Nitrous Oxide
2) Piss filled and thrown at fascist thugs
3) Helium
4) Standard, rubber party fare
5) Hot-Air (fucking terrifying, ranking possibly subject to increase when also combined with nitrous oxide balloons.)
.
.
.
.
.
8,493) Mylar
@38: That is the first time youve cracked a joke that made me laugh with you not at you, good job dude. please enjoy some thumpus emojis 😂😂😂
Charles is the Kristi Noem of the woke left. His naivete makes his writing hard to read. Please post him to Cuba, where he can revel in the wonders of socialism.
Charles is a dick for guaranteeing a Game 5 in Seattle.
@5 maybe Charles had a vision (because tonight was not great – now there will be a game 5)
They
would
not BE
our Mariners
if there weren’t
To Be a Game 7
23 innings l o n g.
@34 Catalina Vel-DuRay and @37 kristofarian: +2 for the WIN!!!!
Bioopsie seriously needs a rabies shot at this point.
I don’t think even a gabapentin prescription will save him.
Really, Charles. If you can’t stand three or four months of sunshine here in the PNW, move to Alaska already.
You can chill in your own igloo–provided you can tolerate large bears, and I understand the Northern Lights (a.k.a.: Aurora Borealis) are pretty spectacular.
Go, Mariners! Shake yesterday off. On to Game Four.
@30: That’s right, bioopsie. Keep on chuggin’ that bottle of hydroxychloroquine.
Paranoia Will Destroy Ya!