Back to Bobness: Bob Ferguson issued three executive orders on his first day as governor. The first directed the Department of Health to gather experts, doctors, and policymakers and come up with a plan to strengthen our strong reproductive health laws. The second told state agencies to examine, streamline, defer, or eliminate various regulations on housing, permitting and new construction. The third directs the state to speed up the permitting process and will refund application fees when the state misses deadlines. The Seattle Times reports Ferguson reiterated his three top priorities during his inauguration speech, which are housing affordability, universal free lunch, and public safety.
Not for you: After growing the power and size of the state attorney general’s office for 12 years, Ferguson wants to take away tens of millions of dollars from the office to cover the state’s budget gap. New Attorney General Nick Brown says that would directly impact the office’s ability to take on civil rights and antitrust cases. As AG, Ferguson aggressively fought the Trump administration. With Trump coming into office with more power, and serious threats of mass deportation, it seems counterintuitive to dull the state’s best defensive weapon. Republicans liked what they heard in Ferguson’s inaugural speech. Ferguson didn’t mention climate once and said he wasn’t there to “defend government. I’m here to reform it.”
Governor Ferguson’s Inaugural Ball tonight is hosted by the Chamber of Commerce; with a swearing-in speech that made no mention of taxing the rich to fund services we all use, many Washingtonians may wonder whether his economic agenda is as well.
— Shaun Scott 🌹🤝 (@eyesonthestorm) January 15, 2025
Military doctor sentenced for sexually abusing patients at JBLM: Maj. Michael Stockin, an anesthesiologist and pain-management specialist at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison Wednesday. Last week, he pleaded guilty to 36 counts of abusive sexual contact and five counts of indecent viewing. Between 2019 and 2022, 41 patients accused Stockin of fondling or staring at their genitals for no medical reason. Stockin faced a 330-year sentence before taking the plea deal.
Bus $$$: The federal government granted King County $79.7 million to launch the Metro RapidRide I Line to expand speedy service to Renton, Kent and Auburn. Officials say we’ll be able to hop on in 2027.
Weather: Nothing exciting. Expect temperatures in the mid 30s, low 40s and showers.
Ceasefire: Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza, which killed at least 46,000 Palestinians—and possibly as many as 64,000—since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, could stop this week. Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to stop the war and exchange hostages. It’s expected to begin Sunday, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a last-minute “crisis” is holding up Israel’s approval. Since the deal’s announcement, Israel has killed at least 72 people in Gaza. President-elect Donald Trump and Biden both claim credit for the deal. They shouldn’t be so proud. The United States supplied money and weapons that made Israel’s war possible and has always had outsized power and influence over the destruction and indiscriminate killing. The timing, so close to Trump’s inauguration, is interesting. Someday, we’ll know who did what and why. If the ceasefire holds, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will still live in a fundamentally-unequal state.
LA fires update: Firefighters there still contend with “extreme hazards and the potential for fire growth,” as one Cal Fire official told CNN. Particularly dangerous conditions have waned, but forecasters said the Santa Ana winds could pick up next week. FOX11 Los Angeles reported this morning that the combined efforts of fire crews from California, the country, Canada, and Mexico have not yet contained the massive and destructive Palisades (22% contained) and Eaton (55% contained) fires that have killed 25 people and left thousands more homeless. LA landlords have done their part by jacking up the price of rent.
How do the LA fires compare to the great Seattle fire? KUOW mapped it out. TL;DR: way, way bigger, and our fire destroyed much of old Seattle. Los Angeles is so sprawling that maps can distort our perception of how much has burned.
Send in the clowns: Our senators are evaluating Donald Trump’s picks to lead federal agencies. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general who held the position in Florida. Bondi wouldn’t say if Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, or rule out probes of Trump’s political enemies. Trump’s CIA nominee John Ratcliffe told senators he wouldn’t fire people based on their perceived political beliefs or let politics skew the agency’s findings. (If Ratcliffe means that, he may not be around for long).
Speaking of politics and intelligence: Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson removed Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner as chair of the powerful House Intelligence Committee. Turner supported Ukraine and disagreed with Trump’s stances on foreign policy, and pissed off the right when he voted to reauthorize a surveillance bill last year (bad, to be clear). Johnson said the “intelligence community and everything related to [the committee] needs a fresh start.” The Mar-a-Lago-friendly Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas is expected to replace Turner, according to CNN, but it’s not official.
Senate confirmation hearings continue today for Scott Bessent, the billionaire who may become treasury secretary, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to dismantle lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Committees will also question former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior and Scott Turner for Housing Secretary. Outside witnesses will speak on Bondi.
So long, Joe: In a farewell address to the country, President Joe Biden warned the concentrated economic power of oligarchs and the emerging “tech-industrial complex” threatens democracy in America. This much is clear, but what has his administration done to curb these dangerous and powerful forces, which prolonged economic pain, class resentment, and political instability have in part enabled? Biden failed to deliver on his central promise that his presidency would return the country to normalcy and end the chaos of the first Trump administration, which quieted only for a moment. Oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos will have prime seats for Trump’s inauguration.
President Joe Biden used his farewell address to the nation Wednesday to warn of an “oligarchy” of the ultra-wealthy taking root in the country and of a “tech-industrial complex” that is infringing on Americans’ rights and the future of democracy. pic.twitter.com/O1UfbOKaQB
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 16, 2025
The other President: Poor Steve Bannon. He won’t kick “evil” Elon Musk out of the Trump administration before Inauguration Day after all. The New York Times reports Musk, the richest man in the world who makes billions from federal contracts, is expected to have office space in the White House to run his and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It’s unclear if Ramaswamy will have office space or the same privilege and remarkable access to the president. We should probably stop calling DOGE a department. Departments are congressionally-authorized parts of the government. DOGE is an advisory commission. We still do not know exactly how it will work, what it will do, how much it may cut, what authority it will have to make cuts, and so, so much else. As the Times noted, it’s unclear how Musk’s position will interact with our criminal conflict of interest laws and government transparency laws. But maybe we’re entering our “it-doesn’t-matter-actually” era.
“still live in a fundamentally-unequal state”
Yeah, that tends to happen when you store your missiles inside your schools! 😂
Unfortunately, Hamas is walking away from this round with its governance intact, so there will almost certainly be another round as soon as Hamas can muster the strength. 🤪
“Biden failed to deliver on his central promise that his presidency would return the country to normalcy and end the chaos of the first Trump administration, which quieted only for a moment.”
Sounds like you’re blaming Biden for Republicans being assholes, Viv. I saw 2 years of “normalcy”, and then the American People chose chaos. Twice.
a Correction:
nyt: “The researchers concluded that the death toll from Israel’s aerial bombardment and military ground operation in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024 was about 64,300, rather than the 37,900 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.”
‘the death toll . . . between October 2023
and the end of June 2024 was about 64,300′
but June was Seven Months Ago
and bibi’s Genocide did.
not. stop. in June.
so we can liklely Double
the current ‘estimate.’
and then there’s
Those still Buried
under the Rubble.
Our. Tax.
DOLLAR$
Money poorly $pent
to say the very Least.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/16/us-veterans-protest-over-gaza
@3: lol, the “researchers” published in The Lancet, which is notorious for fudging casualty numbers through modeling rather than direct evidence. Not that direct evidence has ever persuaded you of anything! 🤣🤣🤣
Shorter @5 “whoever demonstrates the extent of Israel’s war crimes is antisemitic, including peer-reviewed articles*”
… nothing but slander to defend the indefensible, per usual.
*peer-reviewed statistical analysis, led by epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Just like Iran releasing the hostages minutes after Reagan’s inauguration, the timing does make one wonder.
Oh we are well into the “it doesn’t matter, actually” era. Like anyone is going to enforce the law. The feeding frenzy is about to begin.
@2
When did you see 2 years of normalcy?
The democrats did a lousy job of selling their vision. That’s no one’s fault but their own.
@3,
“Our. Tax.
DOLLAR$”
So you don’t give a shit about Gazans as long as Hamas and the IDF get there weapons and funding from some other source.
Thanks for clarifying.
@2 “then the American People chose chaos”
because Democrats failed to convince? why?
@6: lol, well whoever is anti-semitic is anti-semitic, actually! 😂 Sorry if you see yourself in that description, but you’ve demonstrated many times that it fits, lol!
@4, Apparently you don’t give a shit about Gazan lives either (see @10) as long as the means of their death and suffering is accomplished without U.S. weapons or dollars.
@11 Failed to convince that Donald Trump is a horrible candidate for President and not worth of a vote? If you needed “convincing” at that point, you’re part of the problem. Which, based on your comments, it’s absolutely true. But the left loves to not take responsibility for any of their fuck ups…. it’s always someone else’s fault.
Kamala Harris Paid the Price for Not Breaking With Biden on Gaza, New Poll Shows
Twenty-nine percent of non-voters who supported Biden in 2020 said U.S. support for the genocide was the top reason they sat the 2024 election, according to a survey by YouGov.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/kamala-harris-gaza-israel-biden-election-poll
Trump will soon tire of Musk and Musk will soon tire of running the DogeAbteilung. I predict a short tenure and little to show for this.
@12 Nothing but slander, per usual
@14 You blame a majority of voters then you claim to take responsibility? Are you as stupid as you sound?
averagebob @15, as much as it pains me to say so, congratulations on your victory on November 5. As much as we have to take any polling with a grain of salt anymore, clearly the operation to suppress the Harris turnout which you were tirelessly and valiantly supporting had some meaningful impact.
@19 forgot to take your pills again?
@6, So what has hopefully caused a ceasefire that is saving lives? The ICJ, ICC, UN Resolutions, UN Reports?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells us in his PBS Amanpour and company interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bceWovEjKco
Hamas lost the means to fight because in order to continue they needed “the cavalry” ( Blinken’s term) to come to their rescue. The U.S. made sure that Iran couldn’t do that. The IDF made sure Hezbollah couldn’t do that. Everyone made sure the Houthi couldn’t do that.
Force was applied so one side lost the means or will to fight.
How will the ceasefire be preserved according to Blinken? An international FORCE to police Gaza so that Hamas can’t threaten Israel again from Gaza.
Imagine how many more Gazans would be alive today had more force been applied sooner to Hamas to achieve that outcome sooner instead of farting around with mere words at feckless international bodies.
averagebob @20, snappy comeback. Sure, in the year 2025 I guess I must stand out as the crazy person on a Slog AM thread.
But hey, you’ve earned every right to be spiking the football now and rubbing our noses in it (to mix metaphors). I’m sure you’ll be watching the inauguration on January 20 with a sense of glee, as will Benjamin Netanyahu.
@15, Not a big enough number of voters to have saved Harris. That 29% of non-voters, even had they participated, would not have won it for Harris.
@21: Cool story, but the reality is that Hamas is giving up exactly nothing in this ceasefire. All Israel has achieved is the mother of all “mowing the grass” operations. Mind you, attriting Hamas’s fighting force by 50 percent is not nothing, and we should all be happy for it, but it’s not what Israel set out to do at the beginning of the war. Israel was supposed to depose Hamas from governance, which did not happen. This ceasefire is a climbdown for Israel, and it’s likely that the prospect of a Trump presidency did play a role in Israel’s decision to throw in the towel far short of victory.
I’ve been saying all along that a Trump presidency was likely to be good news for Hamas, and bad news for Israel and every other American ally. I think events have borne out my prediction. 😄
As for progressives, there are no doubt many policies Trump will pursue that progressives dislike. But a weaker, crappier America is something progressives have always craved, and Trump is very likely to deliver on that! 😂
@21 Hamas agreed to these terms almost a year ago, it was Israel who changed their position. Related:
@10 no but if you’re financing the action you have a huge amount of influence over whether and how it continues. Seems like someone finally actually exerted that influence hence Israel’s changed position. Finally:
@2 as much as you may want to deny Biden agency in order to excuse his failure as President, a significant portion of the country did hold him to account for his broken promises and overall ineffectiveness hence his massive unpopularity which caused Kamala to lose–at least in part–when she couldn’t or wouldn’t distinguish herself from him.
@9: i suppose the biggest problem was making “normalcy” a “central promise”. i don’t remember that promise being made, TBH. my memory has a Covid-shaped hole in it.
but remember the infrastructure bill? that was a normal thing.
apologies in Ad-
vance for bursting
your Bubbles, baby but
this, just In from the
Chris Hedges Report:
“Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game. It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases.
The first phase gives Israel what it wants — in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza — but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace.
It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter.
If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.”
–bu Chris Hedges
oodles More
most edifyingly:
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-ceasefire-charade
if it’s gonna Land the
bibi in Jail, it just
Ain’t fucking
Gonna
Hap-
pen.
As many of us have said all along. eradicating Hamas never was the object of killing over 60,000 Palestinians and destroying Gaza. in the words of Blinken himself Hamas is as numerous now as it was on Oct 7: “Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone …. Hamas will grow back. This is exactly what happened….We assess that Hamas has recruited as many militants as it has lost”
@27 Same is happening in southern Lebanon where Israel has bombed and killed more than 200 civilians since the “ceasefire” while settlers are planning to build settlement in southern Lebanon. Onward to Greater Israel ….
@28: Sounds like they are still hungry for more Israeli firepower. If that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get! 😉
@10 & 12 aka mister magoo
your Strawmen
you build only to
shoot ’em right down
Bang! Bang! look!
you’ve bagged Another!
@30 yep — and WE
ARE PAYING FOR IT
🛴🔨 😂😎🤔
murder most
Definitely.
@30 Israel firepower IS great for Hamas recruitment, it’s true. Too bad Israel’s leaders are too stupid or sociopathic to figure that out. And civilians on both sides pay the price (as always).
I’ve long assumed that Netanyahu, despite his bluster about “total victory” would ultimately choose to leave a severely weakened Hamas in charge of Gaza rather than allow a less strident, more technocratic Palestinian government to form, as the latter would inevitably start agitating for a state. So that part of the apparent ceasefire agreement (not finalized as of this moment) doesn’t surprise me. But I did think he was keen on permanently occupying northernmost Gaza (i.e., above the Netzarim corridor) to placate the settlement fanatics in his governing coalition. If that was the case, and is now not going to happen, it’s a significant concession. Perhaps he now believes that with Trump’s backing he can remain in office without the extremist parties.
@32 “Israel’s leaders”goals are to seize the land and make Palestinians disappear/2nd class citizens so killing civilians works out quite well as far they are concerned
@32: lol, Hamas has never suffered from a recruitment problem. “Death to Israel” is a very popular policy proposal in Palestine, and a plurality of Palestinians are willing to suffer a few Israeli punches now and then to try and get there. It’s entirely up to Palestine to decide how many punches to take before accepting that Israel isn’t going anywhere. 😁
@15: Glad to see progressives taking full responsibility for electing Trump. Your inability to understand the global picture, your refusal to admit Hamas shot at Israel from behind human shields in Gaza, your ceaseless demands for a ceasefire on Hamas’ terms — all of this got you what is likely a temporary ceasefire. Trump and Hamas remaining in power will cause great damage for a very long time. That’s your judgment at its finest, and we liberals will remind you of the effects, early and often. Enjoy!
@28, If the terms of the final phases of the ceasefire framework aren’t implemented (e.g. An international force to police Gaza, including Hamas) then @30’s prognostication is inevitable.
Hamas and Hezbollah both were formed to oppose the PLO, and other Palestinian groups that recognized Israel and gave up on taking Israel out as the means of addressing Palestinian grievances. Until there is an international, preferably Arab, preferably Palestinian, force to combat such groups, the IDF will be the default, with or without U.S. support regardless of @25’s wishful thinking that the Israel won’t fight without U.S. weapons.
@35 ““Death to Israel” is a very popular policy proposal in Palestine”
Gee I wonder why
“…wishful
thinking that
the Israel won’t fight
without U.S. weapons.”
–@M.Magoo
Israel’ll do what
Israel doth. I Never thought
I was voting for killing Palestinians
when I voted for smokin joe. that’s on me.
but I don’t
wanna fucking
Pay to kill ANY Palestinians.
@36 I know that you like that up is down kind of twisted logic but the poll says that supporting Israel’s genocide elected Trump, not the opposite. No doubt you’ll keep claiming the opposite like you were claiming for months on end that “Gaza doesn’t drive vote” but it won’t it true.
What did we learn from regressives and other weirdoes so far today?
arguing that warmongering and enabling genocide will depress the vote, like progressives have repeatedly said, is in fact actively working toward depressing the vote. It’s kind of a favorite 2nd degree tactics of the “I say we should do something so that we do the exact opposite” type (it’s snark …. just in case)
Supporting policies that depress the vote do not depress the vote, the opposite policies however do depress the vote despite what the data say
killing 10,000s of Palestinians does nothing to advance the claimed policy of eradicating Hamas, so let’s kill more Palestinians
@25: “Hamas agreed to these terms almost a year ago, it was Israel who changed their position.”
If constantly repeating Johnstone’s nonsense could make it come true, kristo’s obsession with her would’ve done that trick by now. Again, I quote from The Wall Street Journal:
“The agreement isn’t much different from the terms that were available months ago when more Israeli hostages remained alive and before thousands more Palestinians lost their lives. But several factors have pushed the parties closer recently.
“Hamas has been battered and isolated by Israeli attacks that killed much of its leadership and cowed its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, and major backer Iran. Netanyahu, meanwhile, has solidified his governing coalition, reducing the leverage of right-wing parties who have opposed any deal, and has been emboldened by Israel’s wins on the battlefield.”
I know — how could conditions on the battlefield possibly affect ceasefire negotiations?
You just don’t understand.
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal-gaza-hostage-release-cdf9ba32?mod=mhp)
@40: I didn’t say I agreed with progressives’ claim of having elected Trump. I’m just telling you you’re stuck with it. You’re welcome.
Glad to see Shaun Scott making himself irrelevant before he is even seated. Ferguson is much much smarter than Scott but as most people know very thin skinned. Getting on his shit list at the outset is a sure way to ensure he buries your legislation.
Also since the AG is an elected position Ferguson can’t force Brown to cut his budget.
Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire It Rejected Months Ago, Thousands More Died
As President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas from the White House on Wednesday, he repeated a key detail throughout his address: that the deal accepted today was the same deal he helped put on the table in May.
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/15/israel-hamas-ceasefire-biden-netanyahu-deaths/
@45: It’s also likely that Israel’s killing of Ismail Haniyah and Muhammad Dayf in July, Hassan Nasrallah and Fatah Sharif in September, and Yahya Sinwar in October helped clarify some of Hamas’s thinking vis-a-vis a ceasefire. 😉
Biden
was Weak
as Fuck when
it came to Israel
(& bibi in Particular).
which’s why Hamas
was so Successful
in their mission
to make Israel
Over-react
for Oct/7
killing
(likely) a
Thousand for
every Israeli dead
in their Vengeance/keep
bibi the-fuck-outta-Prison campaign
‘little’ Genocide cum ginornous Land Grab
with US as
Co-$ponsors
@46 It’s not what the article cited above says: “[ceasefire agreement] is nearly identical to an agreement that Biden announced in May that was drafted by Egypt and Qatar, which had been hosting negotiations with Hamas. Hamas had accepted the deal, which also drew the support of the United Nations Security Council.”
So, Israel was the hang up. not Hamas as you are claiming
tensorna @36: “@15: Glad to see progressives taking full responsibility for electing Trump.”
It’s worth keeping in mind that, for a certain segment of what we think of as the progressive movement, that’s not a bug; that’s a feature. But don’t take it from a crazy person like me. Take it from that crazy, old lady Nancy Pelosi:
“We have to think about what we’re doing, and what we have to do is try to stop the suffering in Gaza … but for them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin’s message,” she said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see.”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/28/politics/pelosi-criticism-palestinian-gaza-protests-russia/index.html
But no, we need to be reasonable and assume that every anonymous commenter on the Internet is sincerely expressing their genuine beliefs. To suggest otherwise, you’d have to be a raving lunatic.
So let me just put on my tinfoil hat and say that the Biden administration’s acquiescence in the killing of 10s of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza wasn’t enough by itself to depress the vote for Kamala Harris. There also had to be a coordinated influence campaign. It’s no coincidence that in the United States leading into November 5 we heard the word “genocide” exponentially more in reference to Gaza than we did in reference to Ukraine. That reality has nothing to do with the extent to which the Israelis’ or the Russians’ actions actually did constitute genocide.
Sadly, I’ve actually got a day job. I’ve got some work deadlines today. So I’ll have to let that be my last contribution to this wonderfully enlightening thread.
thanks, Pissonya!
some News from
Democracy Now:
We go first to Gaza for reaction from Palestinians to the long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas announced Wednesday.
When implemented, the deal would mark the first pause in Israel’s relentless attack on the Gaza Strip in over a year.
The ceasefire is expected to go into effect Sunday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a Cabinet vote required to approve it. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to strike civilian-dense areas in Gaza.
“The bloodshed is not stopping since the announcement,” reports journalist Shrouq Aila, on the ground in Deir al-Balah. “Nobody knows what the future holds.”
Oodles more from a
NON-CORPORATE
News source:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/16/gaza_ceasefire_deal_reaction
tho Some may claim
Democracy Now is
Just FOX from the
Left, lies are Not
King @ Democ-
racy Now nor
is D.N. Beholden
To easily-disturbed
and equally-disturbing
corporate Profiteers/mouthpieces