First things first: If you take a look outside this morning, the glimmer of sun and lack of rain may deceive you. Do not be fooled. You definitely need a jacket, and, if you run cold like me, then you need a thermal under-layer for the first part of the day. Temperatures will start in the upper 30s this morning, warming up to about 45 degrees at around 4 pm. Temperatures will fall again after the sun sets at 6 pm.
SUPERRRR TUESDAYYYYY: Happy Super Tuesday to those who celebrate. If you’re a Stranger reader who’s registered to vote in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, or the US territory of American Samoa, then make sure you cast your ballot before the polls close tonight. With so many simultaneous elections, today is the biggest day in the whole cycle—well, it would be if either race felt contested. This time around we’re just waiting to see if Nikki Haley performs badly enough to call it quits.
Vote uncommitted: The campaign to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming Democratic primary held a rally downtown yesterday. Supporters you may recognize include King County Council Member Teresa Mosqueda, UFCW 3000, and of course, the baddies at the Stranger Election Control Board. Think it’s dumb to use a low-stakes primary election to send a message against genocide to the highest elected office in the country? I encourage to read our reasoning here.
“We cannot vote for a president who supports the violence in Gaza”
Community leaders and politicians are gathering this morning in downtown Seattle to launch the Uncommitted Washington campaign, asking Democratic primary voters to select “uncommitted” to protest the genocide. pic.twitter.com/k6aKpcTVyO— Guy Oron (@GuyOron) March 4, 2024
Speaking of Joe: The Biden administration filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court Monday asking the judges to temporarily block Texas’s new racial profiling law. The law would allow state cops to arrest people they think may have crossed the border illegally. The court granted his request, but I wouldn’t celebrate so soon. The court delayed until March 13, just three days from the bill’s initial start day, March 10. According to CNN, the pause gives the court more time to decide if they agree with a lower court’s decision to block the nutso law last week.
Wait a sec: The Biden Administration will end its free at-home COVID-19 test program. Stock up before Friday because people definitely still get COVID everyday!
Kamala 2024: VP Kamala Harris’s staffers told NBC that she’s allegedly not as into genocide as Biden seems to be. They claim that officials at the National Security Council watered down her recent speech calling for a six-week pause, making it less critical of Israel than she had initially intended. According to the staffers, she probably would have called off Israel’s bombardment a while ago if it weren’t for Biden. The staffers may have pitched the story just to make themselves feel better about working with such an evil administration, but some Twitter users speculate that at least a faction of the Democratic Party wants Harris to replace Biden as the nominee since he’s tarnished any sliver of goodwill he had with youngsters when he ran in 2020.
If this is a soft launch for Harris 2024… know that this didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree… https://t.co/Ev9PmnmEYv
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 5, 2024
Let’s Go Washington: The State Legislature decided Monday to pass outright three of the six conservative initiatives brought forward by a wealthy, farmer cosplayers’ signature-gathering campaign. The initiatives will ban an income tax (redundant), implement a “parents’ bill of rights” (sorta redundant, but still bad), and rollback laws that keep cops from chasing just any old car (bad!). The campaign’s other initiatives will go to the November ballot—repealing the capital gains tax, repealing the carbon tax, and make the long-term care act optional. To translate, the initiatives would gut public education to give the ultra-wealthy a tax break, let corporations pollute without consequence, and destroy our social safety net for the elderly and disabled. Vote no!!
Rest in peace: The beloved owner of Full Tilt Ice Cream, Justin Cline, “moved on to the great ice cream shop in the sky” on Sunday morning, according to a GoFundMe launched after his massive heart attack last month. Cline seemed like a really cool person, rolling out ice cream flavors and promotions to support abortion care, children in Palestine, and the Black Lives Matter movement. He will be greatly missed. Read about his legacy here.
Tragedy: Janice Burgess, you brought so much joy into my childhood and then again in 2021 when the world revisited the Backyardigans’s soundtrack. Thank you.
Janice Burgess, creator of The Backyardigans, has passed away at the age of 72. pic.twitter.com/YNPKRCKFBS
— Pop Base (@PopBase) March 5, 2024
Comp plan: This morning, Mayor Bruce Harrell unveiled his long-awaited Comprehensive Plan, which sets allowances for upzones and housing growth for the next two decades. I wrote about it here. To be honest, as something of an urbanist myself, I don’t love it. His plan would allow “at least” 100,000 new units over the next 20 years. Maybe the plan will overperform, but Seattle needs more than that to address the current housing deficit, not to mention the 200,000 people expected to move to Seattle by 2044. I love Seattle so much, and I really want it to be a welcoming and affordable city to all its residents and to anyone who wants to move here in the future. A plan for 100,000 units is a plan to exclude, to price out, and to fail.
Losing her lefty credit: US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clapped back at Brooklyn protesters yesterday who demanded she call Israel’s bombardment of Gaza a genocide after refusing to do so in TV interview. She told a protester filming her that its “not okay” for them to follow her at the movie theater. He responded, “It’s not OK that there’s a genocide happening and you’re not actively against it.” She said he was “lying” and claimed she had already called Israel’s attacks a genocide. She said that their action did not help people in Palestine.
https://t.co/N5DcE7BL3O pic.twitter.com/oh3QpEKKL4
— Theron Gilliland, Jr. 🌿🕊⚖🗳 (@hotgayscientist) March 5, 2024
Haiti: After gangs freed thousands of prisoners in Haiti, NPR reports that the country is headed into a second day in a state of emergency. Here’s what you need to know.
Breaking up with Spring break: Miami Police Department is cracking down on Spring Breakers this year. In a corny little PSA, actors delivered cops’ messages, threatening increased parking enforcement, DUI checkpoints, bag checks, restricted beaches, whatever. Here’s the video:
@60: Once this crowd finds the 75-year Arab-Israeli conflict has easily defied their cheaply plagiarized ‘solutions,’ they will all wander away in search of some other Big Issue upon which to signal their Pure Virtue. No biggie.
@61
Pure
Projection
Wormtongue
But we Expect no Less.
@62: Per your definition of “genocide,” did Hamas commit genocide in Israel on 10/7? It’s a simple “yes,” or “no,” answer. (You can type one word, right?)
@63
“there is
NEVER ANY
Excuse for Terrorism.
fucking EVER.”
you, paraphrased.
all those 2Klb
Bunker Busters
we rained down
on Gazans? is the
Terror they’re recieving
Terrorism? Dictionarily, if you would.
and whattabout all their
Homes? Disintegrated
plowed Under along
with how Many 10s
of thousands inter-
red Forever into
the Gazan Soil.
do You Cont-
end that’s
NOT Ter-
rorism
Too?
how ‘Bout
if they’re being
STARVED to DEATH
the Famine barely Days
away — is that not Terrorism?
their
Terrified
children shredded
like wheat. is that not Terrorism
as well? your Learned Opinion is Very
Important to US:
we Need the
Sociopath-
ic POV
too.
thanks,
Wormmy!
@64
substitute
‘Justification’
for “Excuse” and
be more Acccurate.
apologies!
@64, @65: That’s a whole load of cheap melodramatic whataboutism, obviously just to avoid typing a simple “yes,” or “no.”
Is your definition of “genocide” so utterly deficient, it can’t even be employed to answer that simple question?
Or will even your definition produce an answer you simply don’t want to give?
Given your long-demonstrated abject incompetence with all things words, I’d go with the former, but I’m willing to give you credit for the latter, if you’d show your work.
@66
‘a
whole load
of cheap melodramatics’
yeah.
Gazans’
LIVES Are
cheap aren’t they?
ok.
so
you
Refuse
to Answer
as per usual.
“there is
NEVER any
Justification
for Terrorism.
EVER.”
so
Justify
the Gazans’
holy Terror Wormtongue.
we
Know
You can do
it if anyone can.
all those
Dead.
for
What
exactly?
to rescue
the Hostages?
THREE
so far.
in Five
Months.
on the Other side?
THIRTY THOUSAND DEAD
and at Least untold Thousands
Buried ALIVE. for Three rescued Hostages.
so
easily
& readily
Dismissed
hand-waved Away
just like Pontius Pilates with your simple
‘a
whole load
of cheap melodramatics’
thank
god it
ain’t Genocide.
67: Per your definition of “genocide,” did Hamas commit genocide in Israel on 10/7? That’s a simple yes or no.
Once you manage to type that one word, we can continue on the topic of hostages:
“U.N. finds ‘clear and convincing’ information that hostages have been raped in Gaza”
‘A senior U.N. official also found “reasonable grounds to believe” accounts of rape and gang rape during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.’
‘“Based on the information it gathered, the mission team found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages,” the U.N. said in a report, adding that it “has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”’
(https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/un-finds-clear-convincing-information-hostages-raped-gaza-rcna141789)
So yes, Israel will continue trying to rescue hostages. Please let us know if you need even more help in understanding why.
yeah
wormmy
BiBi’s really
showed eveyone
his “committment”
to bringing them Home
/S
more on
the Army
you Love
to defend:
Israel Accused
Of Torturing UN Workers
To Obtain False Testimony About UNRWA
A recent UNRWA document says its staff report having been tortured while detained by Israeli forces, who pressed them to provide false statements about ties between the agency and Hamas.
“The document said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, and added that the ill-treatment and abuse they said they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members,” Reuters reports, saying UNRWA workers “reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.”
This is another one of those stories about Israeli offenses that are so stunning that at first you can mistakenly believe you must not be reading it correctly — especially since the western political-media class haven’t been treating it like the jarring news that it is.
If we had anything remotely like an objective news media in the western world, reports that Israel tortured United Nations staff to get them to make false statements against a UN aid agency would be the top story everywhere for days.
–by Caitlin Johnstone
more:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-accused-of-torturing-un-workers
“there is
NEVER any
Justification
for Terrorism.
EVER.”
how ’bout
Torture Wormtongue?
can you Justify that as well?
then
we’ll
‘talk.’
@69: Again, it’s a yes or no question. Even though your inability with language has been tediously self-documented here for quite a loooooooong time, I hadn’t expected just two monosyllabic words to kick your ass with such relentless glee for this long.
Also, your immediate abandonment of the hostage topic YOU had introduced was truly amazing, even for you. Thanks for revealing the absolute upper limit of your moral strength. (As if you then needed to show your obedience to Johnstone’s order for absolute rape denial, you quoted her as a source for your next whataboutism.)
Seeing how you introduced both the topics of Hamas’ hostage, and the UWRWA, yeah, UNRWA has some hostage-related problems:
“Israel told the United Nations Relief and Works Agency last month that Faisal Ali Musalam Naami, 45, and 11 other UNRWA employees participated in or lent support to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that precipitated Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities have said Hamas and allied gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis and took 253 people to Gaza as hostages.”
[…]
“The CCTV footage, located independently by The Washington Post, provides a fuller picture than the brief account in the public dossier, which identified Naami as a social worker and accused him of being part of a Hamas brigade in his Gaza hometown of Nuseirat.
“After he was named in confidential Israeli documents last month, The Post found images of Naami online and then used facial recognition software to find a likely match for him in footage from Oct. 7. The Post found other indications pointing to Naami as the individual in the footage. A Nissan Terrano II in the footage appears consistent with the make and model of car that Naami is pictured with in social media posts, including damaged trim on a rear window.”
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/02/16/unrwa-video-oct-7-israel/)
And now, your single most reliable source (snicker) quotes a UNRWA report which accuses Israelis of abusing UNRWA staff. The release of this ‘report’ comes at a most welcome time for UNRWA, so this is certainly totally obviously a complete coincidence, right?
(What investigatory powers has UNRWA? Can they issue subpoenas? If a witness lies to UNRWA, can the witness be prosecuted for perjury? What are the journalistic standards to which UNRWA is held?)
Whatabout genocide? Did Hamas commit it in Israel on 10/7, with or without the assistance of UNRWA employees?
Please do tell us.
One Word.
One
1
Caitlin’s
Johnstone’s
“rape denial”
what? where?
when? Quotes
& Citations or it
came outta your
Asshole.
nyt
‘People Are Hoping
That Israel Nukes Us
So We Get Rid of This Pain’
–by Nicholas Kristof
When President Biden weighs American policy toward Gaza, may he think of a gentle scholar named Mohammed Alshannat.
Alshannat is a Palestinian in Gaza who at the start of the war was working remotely on his Ph.D. dissertation in linguistics for Rhodes University in South Africa. He is the opposite of Hamas, for in his writing he has criticized suicide bombings and rocket firings. He admires European democracy and argues that Arabs and Jews can live in harmony.
I have been texting him during the war, but his main outside contact has been Lindsay Houghton, a fellow doctoral student at Rhodes.
With Alshannat’s permission, I am quoting from his texts to Houghton. I cannot independently verify what he writes, but it meshes with what aid workers describe.
I have trimmed for length,
but he wrote in English
and these are
his words:
Oct. 11: The situation in Gaza is very grave. Forgive me as I couldn’t reply any sooner. I was running for my life. Pray for us please!
Oct. 25: My children are very, very sick. They are sick, hungry, thirsty and scared. My kidney stone medicine has run out and I have been drinking salty water. Please pray for my children.
Oct. 26: Last night, there was heavy bombing in our area. We run for our lives and I lost two of my children in the dark. Me and my wife stayed all night searching for them amidst hundreds of airstrikes. We miraculously survived an airstrike and found them fainted in the morning. Please pray for us.
Nov. 4: Please forgive me for not being able to reply to your messages as we are constantly running from one place to another. Internet connection is not stable and one has to wait three days just to charge your mobile.
My children can’t move around much as we only eat half a meal a day and I can’t carry them anymore. We defecate in the open and my children defecate on themselves and there is no water to clean them.
Nov. 14: We are eating tree leaves.
much, much more,
yet somehow even More disturbingly:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/opinion/gaza-israel-war.html
the top three nyt readers’ comments:
This was so painful to read –
thank you Mr. kristof for not letting
us look away from this terrible tragedy.
— Macl; Atlanta
I worry that the terrible suffering of innocents that is happening in trying to achieve “the complete destruction of Hamas” in fact ensures that the hatred that fuels Hamas (and successor organizations) will just increase.
Hanas was not created in a vacuum – the true way to eliminate such type of organizations is to ameliorate the conditions that allow them to grow and thrive and I fear that what is happening in Gaza is the opposite of that.
–@AKJersey
After the sadness I feel for the suffering of these 2 million people at the hands of of the Israeli response to Oct 7, I am saddened that so many in America are working so hard to insure the bombing and suffering continue, in the name of defeating Hamas.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Hamas holds no power. The Palestinian Authority is dedicated to a negotiated settlement with Israel. But Israel only humiliates them for their efforts.
It is time for our leadership to change course. We can support Israel, but not this Israel and not with this Israeli govenrment.
-Abe; Detroit
well put.
“I am saddened
that so many in America
are working so hard to insure
the bombing and suffering con-
tinue, in the name of defeating Hamas.”
Bingo.
now back to
you, wormtongue.
Oh yes wormmy!
If it IS Genocide
Then Israel’s
Genocide
Is “Justified”?
And they can
Massacre Gazans
Oh and Hamas till
Palestine is free of
All them pesky Palestinians?
Let’s
Let the
War Crimes
Tribunals Begin.
@72: It came not from a such a clean and healthy place, but from the mind of Caitlin Johnstone. I explained it to you here: https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2024/01/09/79336894/slog-am-huskies-lose-the-legislature-reconvenes-trump-argues-for-immunity-from-election-interference-prosecution/comments/70
@74: “…If it IS Genocide…”
“If”?!? That’s the best you can do, after repeated questioning? You seem to have no problem using your personal, double-secret, not-from-the-Genocide-Convention definition of “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions. Why such incredible caution when the actor was Hamas? Why have you failed so miserably?