Pro-Palestine protesters block Sea-Tac airport: At around 3 pm Monday, a group protesting the US-funded genocide in Gaza parked cars along the airport’s expressway. Some locked their arms together and sat on the pavement. In response, the airport closed the road, cops hopped on bikes to confront the protesters, and trucks towed away the vehicle blockade as some travelers exited their conveyances to approach the airport on foot, according to footage from KOMO. The road to the airport reopened about three hours later, and police arrested 46 people at the peaceful protest. 

The airport protest happened in concert with demonstrations across the country, including in San Francisco (where they shut down the Golden Gate Bridge) and Chicago (where they blocked a terminal at O’Hare). In a statement, the Seattle group called out politicians for ignoring calls for a “permanent ceasefire” and approving weapons sales to Israel. The Seattle action aimed to hit companies such as Boeing (which builds weapons) and Alaska Airlines (which works with Boeing) in their pocketbooks. “While the full economic important of today’s action is yet to be quantified, the blockade will cost the airport money in delayed flights as well as reduced commerce inside the airport,” they wrote. An airport spokesperson described flight disruptions as “pretty minimal,” according to the Seattle Times, thanks to the slow time of day and to Sea-Tac’s rapid response plan. 

A transit strategy? According to KING 5, travelers en route to the airport yesterday filled the light rail when news of the protest broke. The outlet quoted an airport employee saying, “I’ve never seen that many crowded people ever in my life coming out of the airport going to the train.” 

Washington gubernatorial candidates weigh in: On x.com, Democratic frontrunner and WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson called the demonstration “unacceptable” and congratulated the cops for clearing the blockade. On the other side, establishment Republican Dave Reichert said he did not take freedom of speech “lightly,” but, he argued, “When a protest is imposed on everyone else’s freedom, it’s neither lawful or justified.” With these statements, both candidates clearly want to accomplish the same goal but from different sides. Ferguson wants to come off like a fascist to appeal to so-called independent voters who are open to voting blue this year because Trump man bad, and Reichert wants to come off like a thoughtful gentleman cop to appeal to people whose only politics are civility politics. 

Protest while you can, everybody: On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case against Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson, which leaves a decision from the batshit Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in place. That decision renders protest leaders financially liable for the behavior of anyone who shows up to protests and breaks something or someone, which means that staging a mass protest in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana just got a whole lot riskier, reports Vox.

Speaking of bad Supreme Court rulings: Yesterday, SCOTUS ruled that Idaho can enforce its gender-affirming health care ban, which threatens doctors with 10 years in prison if they prescribe care backed by “every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association,” according to the Associated Press. Expect more refugees from Idaho and other states to visit Washington for care, stressing a health care system that’s already stressed by the nationwide legislative assault against trans people. Moreover, analysts say the procedural arguments underlying this decision restricts judicial power to temporarily block laws that violate civil liberties as they move through the courts, which leaves us all more vulnerable to right-wing lunacy. 

Good news break: 

It’s time for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to hang up the keys. Jay Willis over at Balls and Strikes makes the case, and he’s right: “The case for Sotomayor’s retirement, in other words, is not about her precise position on an actuarial table. It is certainly not about the clarity of her voice, or the quality of her jurisprudence. It is about the urgent need for Democrats to reconceptualize what it means to serve responsibly on the Supreme Court, where a single bad break can disappear a cherished fundamental right in two years flat.” 

Local democracies aren’t very democratic: New research from Professor Katherine Levine Einstein at Boston University proves what we’ve been screaming about for years: Seattle’s decision to hold local elections on odd years leads to a vast overrepresentation of old homeowners who do not reflect the city’s demographics.

The Stranger’s Pizza Week hath begun: More than a dozen pizza places all over town are offering FRESH and FANCY-LOOKING pizzas for $4 per slice or $25 for the whole pie. I have not eaten any of these pizzas, but judging by the promo photos, Stevie’s Famous “CHEESE!” pie looks right up my alley for crust reasons, as does Palermo’s “chicken, bacon, ranch swirl.”I attribute my deep appreciation of that flavor trio to my Missouri roots, one of the few graces of growing up in the midwest.

Fremont Brewing sold: The Seattle Hospitality Group, “which holds stakes in Ethan Stowell Restaurants, Pike Brewing and more,” will own the brewery started by Matt Lincecum Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. They didn’t reveal the price tag, but I wonder if the sale includes the anti-homeless eco blocks surrounding the Ballard facility. 

One-hundred more affordable homes coming to Capitol Hill: St. Mark’s plans to turn that big building next to the cathedral into apartments that people can sort of afford! Capitol Hill Seattle blog has the details.

Gaza updates: Images from a UN satellite show that Israel has destroyed at least one-third of Gaza’s farmland as famine grips the country, Al Jazeera reports. The outlet also flagged an increase in violent acts from settlers in the West Bank. And the US keeps talking about of both sides of its mouth with regard to Iran. Even as US officials allegedly urge Israeli leaders not to continue the retaliation cycle, State Department weasel Matthew Miller called our commitment to defending Israel “sacrosanct.” This whole thing is and has been getting way too holy war-ish for me. 

Speaking of weapons: After weeks of failure, US House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to separate military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan into three different bills, and then propose a grab-bag bill that would tie the military aid to a TikTok ban and sanctions on Russian billionaires. According to Politico, some hard-right freaks still seem prohibitively skeptical, but Dems could decide to help out if they join Republicans on certain procedural votes that would force floor votes on the bills, which they rarely do.  

First president to fall asleep at his own criminal trial: The Trump Trial Show is off to an amazing start, as one might suspect. As a judge considered a bunch of pretrial motions that could determine his fate as a free man, “Mr. Trump appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest,” the New York Times reports. Trump later asked the judge to skip next week’s hearing so he could root for / bully the Supreme Court Justices, who are slated to hear arguments on his presidential immunity case, but the judge rebuffed him. The jury selection process continues today, and analysts think it could take two weeks to find an impartial group in NYC. 

I leave you with this: Over the weekend, I saw a video of Olivia Rodrigo joining No Doubt onstage at Coachella to sing “Bathwater,” and it made me ache for ska Gwen Stefani. 

Rich Smith is The Stranger's former News Editor. He writes about politics, books, and performance. You can read his poems at www.richsmithpoetry.com

47 replies on “Slog AM: Dozens of Pro-Palestine Protesters Arrested for Blocking Sea-Tac Airport, SCOTUS Allows Idaho’s Gender-Affirming Care Ban to Take Effect, Trump Nods Off at Trial”

  1. Of course Ferguson came out against the airport-blocking protests. Where else are progressives going to go? Mullet? Bird? Riiiight. Sure, progressives can just not vote at all, but how many people will decide not to vote for governor over that particular question? Almost none. And coming out in favor and/or taking no position would have been fodder for millions of dollars in anti-Ferguson ads.

    I’m surprised the piece about Fremont Brewing didn’t mention Sara Nelson. And I guess they’ll have to take the “family owned” stuff off the marketing materials.

  2. Super smart fucking idea: asking a democratic-appointed Supreme Court Justice to retire in an election year, about 6 months before the election, with the Senate barely in democratic control because of 3 independents. What could possibly go wrong? She’s 70, no spring chicken but certainly not on death’s door. And, more importantly, it’s HER FUCKING DECISION. Jeebus.

  3. Dozens of Pro-Palestine Protesters Arrested for Blocking Sea-Tac Airport – and I’m sure they’re very proud that their ‘look-at-my-virtue-signaling’ stunt caused hundreds, if not thousands of travelers to miss their flights, unnecessarily delaying their return to family and work, costing them money and potentially their jobs.

    Everyone – raise your hand if these idiots won you over to their cause.

  4. The pro Hamas crowd stages a protest that will accomplish nothing other than making people miss their flights.

    That’ll show Netanyahu.

  6. Sotomayor is only 69, she’s 15 years younger than Ginsburg was during than 2016 election year, these cries for her to resign so she can be replaced by Joe Manchin and Sinema are truly baffling.

    @5, SeaTac is a major regional transit hub, most of its users don’t live on the one solitary light rail line that can take someone there without driving.

  8. “Ferguson wants to come off like a fascist to appeal to so-called independent voters who are open to voting blue this year because Trump man bad, and Reichert wants to come off like a thoughtful gentleman cop to appeal to people whose only politics are civility politics.”

    Obviously, when the main results of your protest actions just so happen to sound exactly like people telling you that your protest actions are alienating them from your cause, your only path forward is to double down on your attack rhetoric, and then whine about “civility politics.”

  9. Thank you @3 for saying what needed t be said. We have a man running for president who says he is going to be a dictator on day one, Americans dying from gun violence, corporations bleeding the American people dry and this is what they are fighting for to inconvenience their fellow citizens. All of this so they can post their “heroics” on social media and get kudos though their efforts will result in nothing other than the aforementioned inconvenience. Seattle seems to be at the forefront of this stupidity, as evidenced by a man who is destroying a park but being bailed out by an anonamyous source not once but twice. Stupid is as stupid does.

  11. The pro – Palestinian protesters keep getting stupider and stupider. The result of all this is going to be a lot of people who never even thought about Palestine now know that the Palestinians made them miss their plane. Really fucking smart and guaranteed to build support. Also, regardless of how you feel about Boeing, Alaska Airlines has less than nothing to do with what’s going on in the Middle East. And the people engaged in commerce at the airport certainly have nothing to do with it. It’s really becoming almost impossible to comprehend how fucking stupid these people are.

  12. @9- The Proud Boys may not have blocked access to airports, but they certainly tried to block access to an orderly transition of power. Which do you think is worse?

  15. @3, 4, 10, 12:

    Please see #11. I suppose y’all would have complained about the Selma march of 1965 and how inconveniencing all those poor, innocent, law-abiding drivers unable to get across the Edmond Pettus Bridge did absolutely nothing to garner support for the protesters’ cause.

  17. The protestors masking with respirators and N95s is because…? Covid?

    Hide identities from the press? Hide identities from right wing bloggers?

    Hide identities from the cops? They’ll figure out who you are after you’re arrested.

  18. The First Amendment doesn’t protect illegal actions taken while exercising the right to speech. Like for instance it’s protected speech to say “I don’t care what every single investigation into these allegations has shown, this election was stolen!” but it’s not protected to storm the halls of Congress and say it with your feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk because that last part is a crime. Not because of the words, but because of the location and circumstances of their utterance!

    Just apply the same logic to speech you agree with, and you’re starting to get it.

  20. @2 The Chicken , @6 98102CH , @12 and @13 dvs99 +4 for the WIN!!!!

    @9: Eat your paste before it hardens, raindrop dear.

    I’d SO love for the Orange Turd to drop dead from a stroke within the last few months before this nightmare election. For me it would be entertaining to see how long before all the rabid MAGA dipshits realize their Gropenfuhrer isn’t just nodding off but in dire need of a coffin to be publicly shat, pissed, and spat on. Then it can be caught on video worldwide. The cheering throughout what’s left of our KKKorporate RepubliKKKan and RWNJ devastated planet would be loudly echoing around the globe.

    Additionally, Vladimir Putin’s dropping dead soon would also be a big help. We’d still have China’s President Xi Jinping, North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un, and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deal with, but Ukraine and the West Coast would certainly be a good deal safer. May all these neofascists get cornholed in hell.

    And WTF is up with gun control laws that voters passed here in Washington State getting repealed because automatic weapons “didn’t exist in 1791” ?!?!?!? Fuck all MAGA turds and RWNJs hellbent on returning to Colonial Slave Trade and Civil War Era lawlessness!

  22. @11 Depends what the desired effect is. It’s not going to convince politicians (absent a shift in public opinion) or people stuck in traffic. It might build solidarity among the protesters. It might increase visibility of the movement. But unless the police come down so hard that it builds public sympathy, it’s unlikely to shift public opinion.

    @16 I’m guessing that the main effect of the protest on the Pettus bridge was to show people outside the South what Southern police brutality looked like. That swung popular support outside the South toward the protesters, which pushed the politicians.

  23. Pro tip: inconveniencing random strangers is not an effective way to garner support or build a coalition. It just makes you, and the movement you support, look like extremist weridos.

    If you really want to do something meaningful for the residents of Gaza, and sitting in a public roadway is your preferred approach, there is no shortage of military facilities in Washington that are utilized for the shipment of arms to Israel and elsewhere. Go blockade JBLM main gate, you’ll definitely get some attention.

  24. @12: Blockading an ambulance on I-5, vandalizing artwork, threatening reporters, and now trying to make randos miss their flights — their curve just isn’t looking up, is it?

    @16: When your first response consists entirely of a speculative argument — one which is really just an excuse to call persons with whom you disagree closet racists — right there, you might want to consider the validity of the point you’re trying to make. (Also, see @24 for what you got wrong.)

    @11, @22: There is such a thing as bad publicity, dear. Read the comments here to learn the effects of it.

  25. @14 Most light rail parking lots only allow parking for 24 hours, and of course that’s assuming you can actually find a spot. Were you under the impression most people taking flights out of SeaTac are on day trips, or were you simply arguing from a position of ignorance?

  26. @16

    Nothing this group of whiney ass Hamas lovers did will have the slightest bit of influence over Netanyahu and how Israel conducts this war.

    All they did was creat a traffic jam and piss people off. (Just think of all the carbon emissions from all those cars stuck along the highway)

    They also had police protecting them and don’t deserve to be mentioned along side the civil rights protesters of the 1950s & 60s.

  27. The protesters are selfish, childish and irresponsible. They don’t care if their stupid virtue signalling protest kept someone from catching their flight they paid thousands of dollars for to visit loved ones, or snarled up people in traffic while trying to get to an urgent appointment, or heaven forbid rushing to the hospital. This ridiculous theater should be prosecuted fully. It is a form of terrorism against your fellow citizens who have done nothing to deserve such treatment.

  28. The author of the piece calling for Sotomayor’s retirement spends about half his word count trying to convince himself. It shouldn’t be persuasive to anyone else. The real Scotus-related danger of a Trump presidency isn’t that one of the centrists will die in office but that Alito and Thomas (both well into their 70s) will retire and be replaced by fascist 40-somethings, which would end any reasonable chance of moderating the court for a generation. This scenario merits consideration by anyone who’s tempted not to vote Democratic in November. (And yes, it also merits Biden’s consideration if he can’t get his poll numbers above Trump’s by August.)

  29. @27: Most people clogging up the airport expressway are dropping off or picking up people. Here’s an idea: drop them off or pick them up at Angle Lake or Tukwila station and let light rail do the rest.

  30. @26 Of all of those outcomes you listed, inconveniencing randos who have other transportation means available to avoid inconvenience (see @33) seems like the least bad option. I’m not saying it’s effective or useful, just not anywhere near as bad as delaying ambulances. And definitely, far, far away from terrorism despite @9’s vapors.

  31. 22: If my one-line vapid online comment on a Seattle-based blog about this protest meets your definition of “effective”, then yes, I guess you’re right.

  32. Was at the airport yesterday trying to get home. Protesters were at the light rail station too. Hilairously (and predictably) it was racist young white people chanting about freeing Palestine, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. But failing to explain why the hell they were still present in North America and not back in Europe. I suppose if you follow their logic, they will return to Europe to expel all the brown people from there?

  33. I wish young people would start thinking for themselves and stop following the boomer handbook for political protest. The only reason these tactics worked then was because everyone had something on the line. The vast majority of Americans can’t fine Gaza on a map and really don’t care either way.

  34. I’m glad the majority of comments on the board today are critical of these shutdowns and I’m equally glad to read they were arrested and their cars were towed. I hope they too are charged like their buddies who shut down I-5 a couple months ago. You may have a right to protest but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences, as #37 has reminded us many times the protestors from previous generations expected to be arrested.

    @16 great job winning ignorant comment of the day. Tell me, how many of the civil rights icons that those people were protesting for raped women and killed children as part of the “resistance”? There is no equivalence here. Supporting Hamas, Hezbellah and Iran is evil and equating them to the civil rights movement just shows how incredibly out of touch you are with reality.

  35. One of the most disturbing aspects of this “movement” is the gaping delta between professed humanitarian concerns, and the ennui from this crowd (and their cue card holders including the Stranger) regarding Ukraine.

    30k dead in Gaza and counting. Yes, it is indeed horrible. It is also a rounding error in the cauldron of Donbass. 30k died recently in one battle alone (Avdivka). Hundreds of thousands are dead, and hundreds of thousands more will likely be killed before it is over. The humanitarian sentiment, when sincerely held, is usually accompanied by utilitarian ethics. It’s absence here is revealing.

    For Gen Zs especially, the only “colonization” that you might be a change agent to thwart will be Putins grand project to erase a nation of 43 million. And a nation, BTW, that wants to join the European community, is working for a socially inclusive society, and values human rights and democracy. You should be hopping mad MAGAT Republicans have blocked aid for 6 months. You should be demanding Raytheon, Boeing and Lockhead send their weapon systems to Kyiv that shoot down missiles honing in on schools and hospitals, not calling for their boycott.

    Naa. Better to pick, among a whole coterie of stateless peoples, one that is led by a theocratic mafia bent on global jihad, that throws lgbtq+ persons off buildings, and who stand opposed to every precept of a 206er. Truth bomb – colonization might be bad, but there are worse things than colonization out there. The imagined future of Hamas is certainly one of them.

    Perhaps your grandparents could have donned the checkered kaffiyeh, flush with a Stokely Carmichael speech and feel ideologically inclined to the secular, leftist movement of the PLO. But today, Arafat is dead, and the kaffiyehs in Gaza, if you’ve happened to notice, are emblazoned green, a Shahada and loyalty oath to some martyrs battalion. And this excites you more than Ukraine because…

  36. @33 Ah, got it. I thought when you said “that’s why we built those giant parking lots along the light rail,” you intended to make a point about parking at light rail stations. I didn’t anticipate you’d then move the goalposts, and start arguing about the utility of dropping off or picking up passengers at a light rail station.

  37. @41 Don’t drivers dropping off and picking up people actually park? Or do they usually hop in and out of a moving car? Anyhow, think differently, dude. Driving to the airport is stupid. There are other options.

  38. @39 On the other hand, you’d avoid the utter disaster that is the airport drive (either level) during about 85% of the time when anyone actually uses it.

  40. Tom Cotton calls for murdering and torturing protestors. This is AmeriKKKa. He is a fucking senator in the United States Congress. This country is a shit hole of hate and it getting bombed into the stone age (the way Israel has bombed Gaza into the stone age) is literally the best thing that could ever happen to it. The United States needs to be thoroughly and completely destroyed. If anyone survives maybe they will SHUT THE FUCK UP.

  41. I haven’t flown anywhere in ages, but I often drop people off or pick them up at the airport, because not everyone lives near LINK, and taking a bus to the airport is sad.

    When I drop people off, I just let them off at departures, but when I pick them up I come early and park so I can walk around and people watch, then help my pick up with their bags (I don’t pick up people who just have carry-ons. That’s corny.)

  42. @47: Good to see xina has moved on, from eliminationist rhetoric directed at Israel, to eliminationist rhetoric directed at the United States. (The difference, of course, is that Israel hasn’t provided xina with every last thing our current society can be reasonably expected to provide a citizen.)

    Thank you, xina, for showing the Stranger where it all ends. Your rhetoric merely takes what the Stranger has been doing re Gaza to the logical conclusion. No nuance, no understanding, no examination of a 75-year, multi-sided conflict in a part of the world where conflict has been the norm for most of recorded history. There is only Oppressor and Victim, Imperialist and Indigenous, Colonizer and Colonized. But if Israel has no right to exist for those reasons, then neither does the United States. Again, thank you, xina, for making this clear.

  44. @51: Just killing everyone would be faster and easier than selectively engaging terrorists who are commingled with civilians. Conventional fighting against other state militaries is something the IDF has proven to be very, very good at, starting on day one in 1948, and continuing at least through Rocket Attack Iran last weekend. But counter-terrorism in urban environments, especially where the terrorists have extensively prepared those environments, is another matter entirely.

  45. Rich, I can’t believe you’re for pushing SCOTUS Justice Sonja Sotomayor to retire! This is nothing but another typical MAGAt plot to ensure 100% neofascism 24/7. If we’re going to oust anyone I strongly suggest the following:

    1. Clarence Thomas and its Ginny-bitch

    2. Brett Kavanaugh

    3. Samuel Alito, Jr.

    4. Neil Gorsuch

    5. Amy Coney Barrett

    6. John Roberts

    and while we’re at it:

    7. Mitch McConnell (let’s NOT wait until his current U.S. Senate term is up!)

    8. Orange Turd’s #1 Howler Monkey, Marjorie Taylor Greene

    9. Matt Gaetz

    10. current MAGA fool Speaker of the House of Misrepresentatives, Mike Johnson

    11. current ‘shroom chompin’ Trump ho, Aileen Cannon

    Better yet, let’s ban ALL RepubliKKKans.

    Agreed with Catalina Vel-DuRay; they’re horrible excuses for people.

  46. @54: Poetic justice would also have the Orange Turd hauled out in an elephant sized garbage bag and hurtled one-way into outer space.

  47. @53 re is it genocide

    or merely Mass Murder

    my favorite reader’s

    comment on

    the nyt’s:

    The Israeli

    Censorship Regime

    Is Growing. That Needs to Stop.

    the comment:

    Israel

    and its

    proponents

    have been caught

    by surprise at the global

    condemnation to its campaign of retribution.

    The savagery of

    Hamas on October 7 was

    bestial, ruthless and appalling.

    But it was also very successful. Hamas

    knows it cannot destroy Israel on its own,

    but it can goad Israel into doing it for them.

    Israel under the reactionary regime of Netanyahu

    has attacked an unarmed civilian population

    with absolutely no consideration of mass

    casualties, Geneva Convention rules,

    guilt or even humanity.

    [speaking of dehumanizing]

    Netanyahu in particular is fighting

    for his political life and personal freedom,

    and no number of piles of dead Palestinian children

    or acres of stolen Palestinian property in the West Bank

    will instill an iota of compassion or even common sense in him.

    Israel’s genocidal fury

    is unjustifiable, dispro-

    portionate and horrifying.

    It is also serving to separate Israel

    from the protection of the West

    which it has taken for granted.

    This

    is precisely

    what Hamas was

    striving to achieve, and will

    leave Israel alone and vulnerable.

    The response has been

    to try to shut down

    all criticism.

    Israel will not permit journalists in Gaza be

    -cause they do not want facts recorded

    nor Palestinians presented favorably.

    The various pro-Israel groups in the West,

    particularly in the US, target free speech

    that demands Israeli accountability.

    Shutting down speech will destroy Israel, not protect it.

    –Shar; Atlanta

    more:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/opinion/gaza-journalists-censorship-israel.html#commentsContainer

    [formatting mine]

    ‘Israel’s genocidal fury

    is unjustifiable, disprop-

    ortionate and horrifying.

    It is also serving to separate Israel

    from the protection of the West

    which it has taken for granted.

    This

    is precisely

    what Hamas was

    striving to achieve, and will

    leave Israel alone and vulnerable.’

    Leaving Jews

    PLANET-Wide

    Vulnerable. Dump Bibi

    Before it’s Too Fucking Late

    Oh and END

    The GENOCIDE

Comments are closed.