Mayday: Two crewmen flying a Navy aircraft crashed into a mountainside east of Mount Rainier on Tuesday. So far, no one’s been able to get to the wreck or do any rescuing. The Navy is deploying search and rescue teams out to the site as is the Yakima County Sheriff. Weather has obstructed visibility for the recovery missions thus far.
Carry-on from hell: Last month, during an encampment removal, social service workers found luggage with hellish contents. Shannon Reeder had been murdered with an ax or hatchet between June and September and then shoved into the suitcase. They found the case under the makeshift bed of Steven Nguyen, 57. Nguyen, who has a history of violent felonies, was booked and charged for Reeder’s murder. He’ll be arraigned on October 30.
Time for me to get another kitten…? In the three weeks since Hurricane Helene, the NOAH Center, an animal shelter in Stanwood, Washington took in 28 kittens and two adults cats who lost their homes in the storm. Those kitties had to travel more than 2,000 miles. From Seattle, you’ll have to travel only 58.7 miles to go scoop up a new lil guy to love forever. Fuck, I’m selling myself on this. My cat, Cricket, does need a friend…
The weather: We should actually get some weather this weekend! Wind advisories across the Puget Sound region will go into effect Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. Then, it’s atmospheric river time, baby. Heavy rains are expected. Gales! Gushers! Get your galoshes ready.
🌧️ The first atmospheric river of the season will bring significant rainfall and gusty winds to western Washington this weekend. Stay updated on the latest forecast at https://t.co/K3pghVqzhw #WAwx pic.twitter.com/ngYiFxZyZi
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 18, 2024
Amazon says fuck your work from home dreams: Last month, Amazon said all employees must return to in-the-office work five days a week. Workers have until January 2 to adhere to the mandate. Around 37,000 employees who are part of an internal Slack group advocating for remote work aren’t so keen on the new policy. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman shut down those hopes. Garman told employees in a meeting that if they didn’t like the new policy then they could leave.
Drone delivery gone wrong: Delivering drugs via drone is illegal. A California man is learning that the hard way. Christopher Patrick Laney, 34, allegedly dropped off some fentanyl and other drugs via drone. To make matters worse, one of his customers overdosed on the fentanyl he supplied. Now, he’s feeling the heat for allegedly using an unregistered aircraft to deliver illegal narcotics and for being complicit in someone’s death.
Stop it! Washington’s Traffic Safety Commission knows you’re peeking at your phone while driving. According to their report, “25% of all trips made statewide involved some form of cellphone distraction.” Previously, that number was just 9%. Stop scrolling for deals on TikTok shop! No checking your fantasy football scores—you’re losing anyway! Quit playing Candy Crush, it’s not 2014 anymore! No, but really, this behavior is what kills people. If you want to be on your phone, take a bus.
Bruce’s blah zoning plan: The mayor released an updated zoning map in the modified Seattle Comprehensive Plan that doesn’t do a whole lot. Sure, it allows more density than Seattle allowed before, but much of that is because of a new state law mandating new forms of density in zones previously reserved for single-family homes. The whole thing amounts to adding “six new neighborhood centers” to concentrate six-story-high complexes around transit centers. That sounds well and good—and yes, in a housing crisis any added density is great!—but previous recommendations called for 16 new neighborhood centers. The other thing that sucks about this is Harrell’s plan is anti-bodega. In the plan, according to Publicola, Harrell & Co. limit new neighborhood “corner stores” to literal corner lots and restrict their hours from 7 am to 10 pm. Boo! No vision! No lust for a midnight bacon egg and cheese!
I recommend turning off the layer that adds a border to every neighborhood and urban center – it lays things a little more bare. https://t.co/AiDfrDY4u1 pic.twitter.com/nrC97pzFGf
— Ryan Packer (@typewriteralley) October 16, 2024
Okaaaay, ceasefire now? Well, looks like the Israeli military killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Joe Biden called Sinwar’s death “a moment of justice” that could raise “the prospect of a ceasefire.” We’ll believe it when we see it, Joe.
This was the solution? Wildfire risk is high in Wyoming’s Shoshone national forest. Park rangers now have a solution to lower that risk. They’re going to stop using explosives to blow up the carcasses of dead horses. Duh.
Texas Supreme Court halts execution: Robert Roberson, 56, was slated to be executed in Texas yesterday for the death of his two-year-old daughter in 2002. The powers that be accused Roberson of killing his daughter, determining she suffered “shaken baby syndrome,” a diagnosis the scientific community is dubious about. Her same ailments could have been caused by pneumonia. Additionally, during the trial, according to the New York Times, the jury may have seen Roberson’s lack of emotion or grief—a byproduct of his autism—as guilt. In the eleventh hour, his lawyers and advocates rallied to stop Roberson’s execution. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not issue a reprieve. The Supreme Court did not either, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor urged Abbott to do so. Running out of options, a bipartisan group of Texas House of Representative members intervened by issuing a subpoena for Roberson to testify for the Legislature. That weird procedural loophole caused the Texas Supreme Court halted the execution. Temporarily. Roberson and his team have 30 more days. The clock restarts now.
Drowsy, depleted Donald: Donald Trump keeps canceling interviews. He flaked on NBC in Philadelphia, CNBC’s Squawk Box, 60 Minutes, and now The Shade Room. What gives? A Trump adviser told Shade Room producers Trump was “exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change,” Politico reports. In his stead, the adviser told The Shade Room they could interview Waka Flocka Flame. Other Trump advisers reject the notion that he’s a wee tired babe and said he’s actually “running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.”
A song for your Friday: Pssssst. Did you know this song is 19 years old?
A zoning plan == affordable housing. And the value of land just went up, welcome to the vicious cycle of trying to legislate affordability in a free market.
@1: Yep, government-subsidized housing is the only way. Real estate developers are never going to build houses for poor people because poor people don’t have any money. This free-market trickle-down stuff is pure fantasy. I’m baffled that so many progressives have bought into it.
Kamala should have attended last night’s Al Smith dinner instead of sending a cringing video that upset Catholics. She can’t afford any more unforced errors.
“Other Trump advisers reject the notion that he’s a wee tired babe and said he’s actually ‘running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.'”
the donold’s gonna be Forced
by his Age and a vicious Prez
campaign into derr Fuehrer’s
own stamina-enhancing
prescription: Meth-
amphetamines
this shit’s gonna
get very Very
Interesting.
@1 — indeed.
Housing as Commodity is a
famously failed* free
marketeers’s
Delight.
*see: all the
Homeless?
THE STRANGER CALLS FOR PAPER DOME SYSTEM TO PROTECT CIVILIANS IN MIDDLE EAST!
Under the plan, The International Court of Justice would print their rulings on chemically treated paper so it won’t burn. Civilians on all side of the conflict can stack it thick enough to stop bullets, artillery shells, bombs, and even ballistic missiles.
Said GreenwoodBob, “The plan shows promise. The ICJ, UN, and other bodies should start making even more allegations and rulings on human rights cases, while using fireproofed paper, so the rulings can be stacked by civilians for protection against military munitions.”
CDKathes added, “Finally the work of these international human rights groups will actually accomplish something for the civilians they are claiming they protect.”
Kristofarian called the plan poetic justice for the people of Palestine.
AverageBob criticized the plan. “The rulings won’t differentiate between being used as protection for civilian or military assets as required by international law.”
Benjamin Nutenyahoo criticized the Paper Dome System because he feared the ICJ would eventually overwhelm his handpicked Israeli Judges hearing matters related to corruption charges.
@1: You have it backwards. Seattle has long been interfering in the free market with anti-affordability legislation such as large mandatory minimum lot sizes, apartment bans, and restrictions on ADUs. This plan is another step in reducing anti-affordability legislation.
@6: Right, right, we just need to deregulate so the wealthiest Americans will finally be free to spread their wealth to the rest of us, lol! And lower their taxes, too, while we’re at it, that way they’ll have even more of their money to share with us! 😂
Everyone knows America’s Catholics famously wait for the uhhhhh… Al Smith dinner before deciding their vote. Which candidate has the best zingers?? The entire election hangs in the balance! Can’t believe Kamala chose to campaign in Wisconsin instead of rubbing elbows with a bunch of celebrities and politicians at a fancy roast in New York. Does she even want to win?
@7: You’re almost there. Consider this example:
Elderly Seattle homeowner financially stressed by rising property taxes who wants to age in place: “I’d like to sell my side yard for hundreds of thousands of dollars to a tech worker looking to for a place to build a house.
Seattle’s zoning: “No, you can’t.”
High time to fix this and many more problems our zoning poses for folks who aren’t rich!
@3: i’ll ask my church-going catholic family members if they’re upset. odds are very high that 1. they don’t know what the al smith dinner is, and 2. they’ve already absentee-voted for motherfucker because fetuses.
are you catholic? were you upset?
@5,
Ba-dum-bum.
@9, Is this a bit? An elderly homeowner sitting on a lot worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and a buyer looking to build a new SFH are both rich by any measure. This is completely out of reach to people of ordinary means.
@12: Kind of gave away the game, though, when his hypothetical involved a tech worker hoping to buy out long-term homeowner, lol!
@12, Ordinary Means = $121,000
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattle-median-household-income-hits-121000-census-data-shows/
$121K is about 1/2 the income needed to be able to buy a home in Seattle
https://komonews.com/amp/news/local/seattle-real-estate-housing-market-how-much-do-i-need-to-make-money-down-payment-income-needed-buy-home-house-condo-townhome-afford-washington-california-bay-area-new-york-house-hack-san-francisco-san-diego-los-angeles
@10: No I’m not. I’m disappointed that she didn’t attend. The optics would have been helpful and avoided Donald monopolizing the whole show trashing her.
Doesn’t Tim have Wisconsin in the bag? I guess not.
@15, Because we limit supply with zoning that favors those already own.
We also don’t do a good job of subsidizing people’s training (and living expenses while they do) to upskill and upincome.
“If you want to be on your phone, take a bus. “
And please, please stop using the speakerphone function when you do.
@18, You can request all you want; however, without enforcement of some kind, how will the behavior change?
If they cared what you thought and how they impacted you, they would already be not be using speaker phone.
@3. Your lukewarm take is an unforced error.
@12: An elderly homeowner with lots of home equity but limited income is indeed better off than many, but still potentially in a financial pickle if they want to age in place…flexibility to convert equity to cash while lowering their property taxes is a good option for them to have. (If you want an example that would help folks of ordinary means, maybe our elderly homeowner will look out for the little guy and only sell to a developer who wants to build a fourplex.)
@13: Nope, it’s not “buying out” the homeowner. The whole point is that today’s zoning prevents the homeowner from lot splitting while remaining in their home place. But it shouldn’t.
@16: I wish she’d gone as well – get right in his face at any opportunity. but Catholics by and large DGAF about the al smith dinner – unless you’re a NYC Irish-Catholic.
I also wish they’d just discontinue an event that trivializes the election. when one candidate is an authoritarian, it’s just not time for jokes.
@21: I see you worrying a lot about taxes and tech bros, so here’s a proposal for ya: Tax the tech bros till they all fuck off to Florida! 😂🤣😂🤣
Civic bonus: maybe they look out for the little guy by turning Florida purple again, lol!
Lot splitting is fine but the scale of the housing crisis is well beyond anything that it could solve on its own, and depending on the good will of a homeowner to only sell to “ordinary” buyers is even more delusional than assuming an “ordinary” buyer could secure financing for a new build in the first place.
Our cities need high density housing that is heavily subsidized to contain costs. Anything else is just going to help rich people get richer.
@23 nails it. We can’t fix the supply problem because land is limited, and the high income earners will bid up cost of land and price of unit every time. But we can diminish demand by high income earners, who will go away and leave more housing in a market of folks with less resources to spend. The best housing prices are when recessions hit, not when someone manages to subsidize .00001% of supply.
Phoebe dear, no one cares about the Al Smith Dinner, which is mostly attended by old people and/or Catholic clergy, and I’m certain none of those in attendance were pleased by trumps potty-mouthed dementia babbling.
@24, “Our cities need high density housing that is heavily subsidized to contain costs.”
Subsidies don’t contain cost, they just shift who bears the cost.
@25, We can keep increasing land available for each housing unit by increasing density. The same land produces more units. Land cost per unit decreases with density.
It’s truly incomprehensible that anyone things anything VP Kamala Harris does or doesn’t do is going to cost her the election when she is running against a turnip.
What will cost VP Harris the election, if she loses, is that there are literally so many assholes in this country whose single issue voting issue is hate and that they will vote for the hate filled, hate mongering, hate spewing turnip. That’s it.
The turnip is just the symptom of the very deep, very real, thoroughly repugnant and revolting depraved indifference to EVERYTHING, LITERALLY EVERYTHING in this country by the greedy, misogynist, racist filth that believes that if they can’t have everything, then no one can have anything.
MAGAts are literally nihilists. They don’t care that the turnip hates them. They don’t care that the turnip is using them every second of every day. They will vote for the turnip in the hopes that he will destroy everything and wipe everyone off the face of the earth and if that includes them, well they don’t care about that either.
@24: “Our cities need high density housing that is heavily subsidized to contain costs. Anything else is just going to help rich people get richer.”
In fact “many things can help essential workers own homes.” Mr. Market is not a panacea, but we are already seeing ownership opportunities with new townhomes and condo-zed ADUs and DADUs that two-earner couples of essential middle class workers like public school teachers, nurses, and skilled tradespeople can afford to buy being produced without the need for subsidies all over the city – when and where they’ve been allowed through public policy changes.
@27, No fucking fucking shit. We’re not talking about the total cost of building, we’re talking about the cost to buyers. Housing prices are always going to be set by the going rate for parts and labor but if the government covers some of the building expenses the savings can be passed on to buyers.
30, Yes many things can help people buy homes and I agree that lot splitting could be one of those things but you seem to think it will solve everything when in fact it would barely make a dent in the problem.
“They will vote
for the turnip in
the hopes that he
will destroy everything and
wipe everyone off the face of the earth
and if that includes them, well they don’t care about that either.”
@29 — now That’s a Bingo.
the Fascism
runneth Deep
here in the land of the
free, the home of the brave and
the Neues Vaterland des Nihilismus.
@30: Tax the tech bros out of town, and your “public school teachers, nurses, and skilled tradespeople” will be able to afford a lot better housing than the shitty townhomes and “condo-ized” ADUs you are offering them. 😀
This upzoning crap serves no one but the wealthy. Tax the bastards till they leave, and in the meantime their taxes can pay for subsidies.
One’s phone can be an essential tool while driving, for example, Maps. It’s not just a distraction.
@35,
Eh, people have been driving for nearly 100 years without constant access to digital maps. And I can only hope you’re just using voice assisted navigation and not actually looking at maps on your phone while driving.
@31, Then perhaps you shouldn’t have used the words “contain costs.” If we have policies that reduce costs, then it doesn’t matter who covers it, everyone contributing to the cost pays less. That is where the focus needs to be.
Sinwar’s manner of death in the war was unusual. He is one of the 25% of combatants killed by bullet, not artillery or bomb. In war, 75% of deaths come from artillery and bombs. Infantry shooting other infantry is unusual.
@38: He was apparently struck by an explosive projectile beforehand, leading him to deploy an electrical cord as an improvised tourniquet for his crushed arm. So maybe half a kill each in the bullet and bomb buckets?
@34: “This upzoning crap serves no one but the wealthy.”
In the Seattle area the median income of households living in apartments is about half the median income of households living in single family detached homes.
Freeing land near transit and jobs currently locked up solely for homes that they can’t afford to possibly become the location of homes they could afford serves the former.
@39, “Sinwar killed by bullet to head, chief Israeli pathologist says” – CNN
Nathalie correctly reports the opportunity for a ceasefire following Sinwars demise then fixates on Biden. WTF?
Khalil al-Hayya, the spokesperson (of the moment) for Hamas, issued a defiant refusal to surrender…he himself in comfortable quarters of Qatar.
Perhaps Nathalie thinks Khalil takes orders from Biden.
@41: “‘But [the improvised tourniquet on his arm] wouldn’t have worked in any case,’ Mr. Kugel [who oversaw the autopsy said. ‘It wasn’t strong enough, and his forearm was smashed.'” —NYT
@40: Your “public school teachers, nurses, and skilled tradespeople” would all be able to afford houses if it weren’t for the tech bros and investment owners bidding up real estate prices. You’re probably new in town, but I grew up in a neighborhood where actual public school teachers, nurses, and tradespeople all owned houses. Real houses, not the garbage townhouses or embarrassing “condo-ized” ADUs that you are pushing! 😂 Tax the parasites out of town, the rest of us all will get along fine without them! 😀
from
In the Public Interest
“Goodbye Lebanon” –High Israeli Official.
Biden Says OK,
So Far.
Biden’s bombs and missiles, dropped daily on Lebanon, a U.S. ally, by his puppet master Netanyahu, is wreaking havoc in this small defenseless country. The Israeli genocidal machine is waging an incinerating assault on fleeing civilians and critical facilities.
The scorched-earth Israeli strategy is the same as what we have seen in Gaza. Attack in Lebanon anyone who moves or anything that stands – whether a hospital, a dense residential area, a café, a municipal building, a market, a school, or a Mosque – and allege there was a Hezbollah commander or a Hezbollah site here or there.
Two recent New York Times headlines express some of the impact of this latest Israeli war: “In Just a Week, a Million People in Lebanon Have Been Displaced” and “Lebanon’s Hospitals Buckle Amid an Onslaught: ‘Indiscriminate’ Strikes Overwhelm Health System, U.N. Says.”
Historical note: Hezbollah, also a political Party and social service organization, was created to defend impoverished Shiite Muslims in southern Lebanon in 1982 right after the Israeli army once again invaded Lebanon and badly mistreated the residents during an 18-year-long military occupation.
No matter what or who the Israeli Air Force’s American F-16 fighter aircraft bomb, no matter the deaths and injuries to thousands of Lebanese families, many of them children and women, Biden keeps unconditionally and savagely shipping weapons of mass destruction.
He is violating six federal laws requiring conditions be met – such as not violating human rights or not obstructing U.S. humanitarian aid.
Netanyahu is violating these and other conditions and mocking his major benefactor, the United States government.
–by Ralph Nader; October 18, 2024
Oodles more on OUR
Little War in the M.E:
https://mailchi.mp/nader/goodbye-lebanon-high-israeli-official-biden-says-ok-so-far?e=ae71353e32
they’re Mocking
Us Laffing their asses
Off at our Ineffectualities
Jesus: won’t
Someone Tell
Sleepy Joe there’s a
fucking Election Looming’?
too many Voters’re
NOT in favor of
Arming fascists
tho some just
Love it!
“but I
grew up in
a neighborhood
where actual public
school teachers, nurses,
and tradespeople all owned houses.”
yeah lil thumpfer
but then Ronny Raygun
fucking GUTTED the Middle
Class, destroyed our Unions and
strip-mined America In Service To
the point-Oh-one-percent; now ‘private
equity”s buying up all the Houses with Oodles
of Cash on Hand and putting The Squeeze on America
it
ain’t
fucking
Leave it to
Beaver anymore.
More self-indulgent vapidity from Journalism Jism.
@44: I grew up in a neighborhood where lots of families lived in apartments because they couldn’t afford buy houses.
Relying on existing SFH homeowners to build us out of the hosing crisis by creating is a ridiculous plan. The zoning changes will merely facilitate a modest increase in density, and the new housing created will still be quite expensive.
Just look at where we currently are with ADUs. Although ADU permitting and construction has increased dramatically in recent years, that’s not making a dent in the availability of low income housing. That’s because:
The median sales price of ADUs is $757,500.
Only 1/3 of ADUs are long-term rentals.
source: https://seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=13134437&GUID=BD27EA78-D4C4-4695-B315-E6F7669B4B8F
housing-as-commodity’s
gonna bust America
Wide Fucking Open
unless eltrumpfster
can get there First
@36: Awkwardly. But Nathalie implied that drivers are using their phones for entertainment and other distractions. That’s not the case.
@36: What could be more distracting than a printed street map?
@3 That is truly clueless. The folks who might have been offended by her sending that video were not going to vote for her anyway. No decent Catholic would ever vote for Trump, so she’s fine with them.
@5 Not even close. I have called for the end of all aid and train while Likud is in power, and that America’s goal with Israel needs to be regime change. The ICJ is a joke.
37, Sounds like you’re in over your head here because the entire conversation is about making housing affordable for home buyers
@45: Nader, who took Republican money in 2004 to siphon off votes from Kerry, now talks about how Biden is Bibi’s “puppet.” Takes one to know one, eh?
If Nader wants to demonstrate his expertise on the topics of Lebanon and Hezbollah, he can tell us about UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which bars the latter from the southern portions of the former. Now, the UN Security Council passed that Resolution as recently as 2006, so maybe ol’ Ralph’s a little slow on the uptake, but what took Hezbollah so long to start leaving?
(Oh, and had Nader actually cared about transparency now, he would have stated he’s of Lebanese ancestry.)
@53, The opposition in Israel is calling for escalation, and likely increases in oil prices right before the U.S. election (with predictable results in outcome), by bombing Iranian oil infrastructure. I am not sure what you think would change with the war with a different Israeli government.
Netanyahu, IMO, is of the same cloth as Victor Orban and other authoritarians. I would shed no tears if his government fell and he were prosecuted; however, after 10/7, I have no illusions that it would change Israeli war conduct one iota.
@9 maybe if there some options, that person could age in place in a smaller space. No one needs a 2500 sq ft house to live alone. The property taxes and utilities will be ruinous. How is it that so many other cities can offer apartments/flats to own for all income levels but so many US cities refuse to allow it?
@55
Yeah, @45
was Not about Nader
nor the Election Overturned
by the Rehnquist Court, stopping
the State of Florida’s vote Recount
a recount showing Al Gore WON in Fla
something you neo-libs and cons use
to blackwash any and all Third Party
attempts at giving America a
Choice: Ranked Choice
Voting does that.
back to Chris Hedges:
There are few reporters I admire more than Robert Fisk, who died in 2020, and who spent over four decades covering the Middle East. His book The Great War for Civilization is a masterpiece.
It remains a vital book for understanding the modern Middle East. An Arabic speaker, his reporting spanned the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan – he was one of very few western reporters to interview Osama bin Laden – the civil war and Israeli occupation in 1982 of Lebanon, the Iran-Iraq war, the Islamic revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was unsparing in his reporting on the apartheid state of Israel covering the first and second intifadas or uprisings by the Palestinians.
He documented the brutal repression of the Islamic movement and civil war in Algeria, spent considerable time in Iran and Lebanon where he was based. Most important, he saw war up close and did not flinch from describing its senseless brutality, the bungling of Western governments, the despotic Arab regimes that have sold out their own people and the Palestinians, the lies told to mask war crimes and the suffering of those, including children, caught in the terrible maw of war.
The power of the book is not simply his lyrical writing and dogged reporting, but his erudition — he had a PhD in political science from Trinity College Dublin. He was acutely aware that without historical context nothing that takes place in the Middle East can be understood.
He distrusted all authority, a distrust no doubt spawned by being packed off as a young boy, as I was, to a boarding school, an experience we both loathed.
He excoriated the sententious mandarins in the press who eat out of the hands of government and military sources and function as stenographers for power.
[the Wormtongues of the world]
He knew who he was writing for, those the world forgets, those whose voices are silenced, those who suffer, those who are reviled. And he had an unflagging commitment to the truth, even when it reflected badly on those, such as the Palestinians, he cared about.
“Terrorism is a word that has become a plague on our vocabulary, the excuse and reason and moral permit for state-sponsored violence – our violence – which is now used on the innocent of the Middle East ever more outrageously and promiscuously,” he writes.
“Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. It has become a full stop, a punctuation mark, a phrase, a speech, a sermon, the be-all and end-all of everything that we must hate in order to ignore justice and occupation and murder on a mass scale.
–Chris Hedges
Oodles:
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/robert-fisk-and-the-great-war-for
hate on Nader
all you wanna but
read Robert Fisk’s Book:
“His book The Great War for
Civilization is a masterpiece. It remains
a vital book for understanding the modern Middle East.”
–Chris Hedges, Former NYT Middle Eastern Bureau Chief
Shoved outta the nyt for Not supporting
gee dubya bush & the dick Cheney’s
Debacle in the Middle East.
turns out, Hedges was
Correct. the nyt,
Not so much.
NYT: “Drone Hits Building Near Netanyahu’s Home in Coastal Israel”
Aww, don’t be bitchy, Hizbollah! Ha ha ha!
@58: If you want to quote a paid Republican stooge (from 2004, btw, not 2000), I cannot stop you. Praising the jihadi terrorist gang Hezbollah as if it’s some kind of social-services organization for Lebanon is a new low, even for Nader and this place. Lebanese suffer every day because Iran uses Hezbollah to keep Lebanon a failed state. But as usual for the Stranger and supportive commenters here, Lebanese or Palestinian lives matter only to the extent you can blame Israel; anyone else can harm or kill them indiscriminately, with not a peep of protest from you.
Hey, Thumpus… please enlighten all of us on the magical tax you intend to enact to “tax the tech bros.” It ain’t gonna be an income tax and in about two weeks, your precious capital gains tax is going go bye-bye. Keep crying.
Or just keep blaming workers for the housing issue… certainly beats facing the truth and accepting that the current housing shortage is due to poor planning by government officials over a period of decades. But that’s just a bit too deep for your thinking.
@61: Head tax on the company. $2,000 per employee per month ought to do it. Consider yourself enlightened! 😁
@61: “…the current housing shortage is due to poor planning by government officials over a period of decades.”
US Census’ population figures for Seattle, per decade:
1960: 557,087
1970: 530,831
1980: 493,846
1990: 516,259
2010: 608,660
2020: 737,015
So, over the fifty years, 1960-2010, the total population growth rate for Seattle was 9.25%, or 0.185% per year.
From 2010-2020, Seattle’s population grew by 21.1%, or 2.1% annually — more than ten times the annual growth rate of the previous half-century. (And most of that growth happened in just a few years, mid-decade.) If, in 2010, government officials had started planning for a 2.1% annual growth rate, and started spending public money appropriately, there could well have been a citizen revolt, and for good reason: nothing in the previous fifty years would have justified such expenditures.
Also not helpful: the Stranger’s crack team of economic writers decided adding 70,000 highly-paid tech workers had little to do with the rise in Seattle’s housing costs, instead blaming Seattle’s housing crisis upon — wait for it! — Sinister Asians.
“Demand is up, but it’s not simply driven by population growth. Yes, our tech sector is growing. Welcome to Seattle! Happy you’re here, you 70,000 people who have joined us since 2010. Tech workers, however, are not the problem.”
[…]
“Hot money has been flowing out of China and into Vancouver since the 1990s, as several conditions made that the easiest place for wealthy Chinese people to purchase real assets to stabilize their portfolios.”
[…]
‘This flow of Chinese money is looking for the next housing market, and it appears that Seattle and California cities are emerging targets. According to The Guardian, it is underway now. “Geographically, Chinese buyers are concentrated in the most expensive markets: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.”’
(https://www.thestranger.com/architecture/2017/04/20/24442014/hot-money-and-seattles-growing-housing-crisis-part-one)
Authors of that piece were Charles Mudede and Cary Moon. The former remains defiantly a Marxist, while the latter went on to a double-digit defeat in Seattle’s subsequent Mayoral election.
@63: Tech has worn out its welcome, for sure, and not just locally in Seattle. Ten or fifteen years ago it used be cool to say you work at one of these places. Nowadays it’s more like working at an oil company, you try not to admit it and you have to give excuses for why you do.
64: That’s like saying medicine has worn out its welcome.
I don’t think it mattered to the Munchkins whether the Wicked Witch was killed by the house crushing her head or she bled out after her arm got crushed.
And really, not one comment about the size of that camper’s carrion bag? You people are leaving easy money on the table.
@66: “I don’t think it mattered to the Munchkins whether the Wicked Witch was killed by the house crushing her head or she bled out after her arm got crushed.”
Oh, the Munchinks were fussier than you might expect with regard to the circumstances of the Wicked Witch’s death. They insisted on verifying it legally that she was morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably, and reliably dead. They weren’t willing to celebrate until the coroner had averred that she was not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.
@29 xina: Although I consider DJT more fittingly an Orange Turd than a turnip (I get it though; Trump described as a vegetable is an apt metaphor), bingo, bravo, and kudos for the WIN!!!
~75 million blindsided idiots for the Orange Turd who have absolutely no clue how to vote wisely should have their voting rights permanently yanked.
@61 says ” It ain’t gonna be an income tax and in about two weeks, your precious capital gains tax is going go bye-bye. Keep crying.
A wrongo boyo according to Elway: https://www.cascadepbs.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2024/10/combopolldoc1024.pdf
2109:CAP GAINS
Yes 29%
No 56%
Undec 15%
@55. (Oh, and had Nader actually cared about transparency now, he would have stated he’s of Lebanese ancestry.)
Questioning the loyalty of semites is not allowed. Rules, you know.
@70: I was merely pointing out Nader’s less-than-complete commitment to transparency — something he always used to demand of others.
And, of course, his utter disinterest in how much Hezbollah harms Lebanon. (On that topic, he’s in very good company here.)
@65 nah people love nurses and “hero” type jobs. The folks that WFH and pull in $200k+/ year from corporations quickly aligning themselves with fascists and creepy futures colonizing the moon and replacing everyone with robots, not so much.
@72: Tech also includes vast numbers of WFH contact workers barely making half that with no holiday pay or benefits. I used to be one.
The engineers making $200K a year are also working on special eye glasses so the blind can get around easier in airports, just an example. Such technology is heroic. Not to say that creepy robots aren’t concerning.
from an Opinion piece
in today’s nyt:
College Officials Must
Condemn On-Campus
Support for Hamas Violence
Although college campuses are much quieter this fall than they were last spring, some of the anti-Israel rhetoric at some schools is frightening in its celebration of Hamas’s violence. What feels different is the repeated glorification of the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 people last year on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack.
Indeed, in its statement, the group declared, “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.” It also said, “Where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”
Certainly, there is an important conversation to be had about Israel’s actions over the past year, which has led to so much devastation and loss of life in Gaza.
However, these demonstrations on campuses were not that conversation.
They were largely the celebration of the coldblooded murder and torture of innocent civilians. Regardless of one’s views on the conflict in the Middle East, the celebration of mass murder can only be condemned.
–by Erwin Chemerinsky; Mr. Chemerinsky is the dean of the Berkeley School of Law at the University of California and the author of the book “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”
oodles of tonnes more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/20/opinion/hamas-colleges-free-speech.html
“Regardless
of one’s views
on the conflict
in the Middle East,
the celebration of mass
murder can only be condemned.”
I concur.
This is the
Slipperiest Slope On
our Glorious path to Armafucking Geddeon
setting the Planet
FREE for 20K Christians
& Mordor for the Rest of Us
‘Toallly
Worth it!”
–actual Quote
just before they
Realized they were
NOT on the Manifest
they sang a Very
different tune
after That
and, no, Snidley Wormtongue
your vain attempts to link my every
posting about a group an Endorsement
of said group and therefore I MUST Endorse
everyfuckingThing they’ve Ever done, are doing
and all things the Group May do in Perpetuity. my, oh my,
Snidely ‘tedious’ Wormtongue.
anyway, now Back to our
Regularly-Scheduled
programme already
in progress:
oops: a
slight correction
What feels different is the repeated glorification of the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 people last year on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack.
[actually this pargraph was superseded by:]
Across the country at Columbia University, the group Apartheid Divest posted an essay calling the Hamas attack a “moral, military and political victory.” The group also rescinded its criticism from last spring of Khymani James, a student who had said in a disciplinary hearing that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
[which I cannot commend]
[not this one]
Indeed, in its statement, the group declared, “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.” It also said, “Where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”
which to me sounds
totally Appropriate
the Glorification is
what’s Counter-producive
apologies!
@49- it costs a few hundred thou to build an ADU up to building codes, especially if you want the construction workers paid a living wage. There are good reasons they are expensive.
@62- sure. Get all the tech jobs moved out of Seattle. Then we can go back to the good old days when houses were cheap because no one had any money. Sounds like paradise. Do you really want to go back to the days when Boeing was the only game in town?
@74a-b-c, @75: Whew, that was close! Your comment @74a almost mislead me into believing you were now opposed to calls for violence on campus. Of course you’re not! You just don’t want those calls criticized, as they clearly were in this essay you therefore butchered.
‘The group [Apartheid Divest] also rescinded its criticism from last spring of Khymani James, a student who had said in a disciplinary hearing that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”’
James was, of course, the student you refused to read about in the New York Times last year, because you didn’t want to admit you agreed with his threats of violence against anyone he happened not to like.
Also, thanks for the reminder of why folks like averagebob have lied so hard and so persistently against the ICJ’s non-finding of apartheid against Israel. These pro-violence, anti-Israel campus groups are trying to pretend they’re like the actual anti-apartheid campus activists of 35-40 years ago.
@75: “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.”
Well, OK then, if that’s your attitude, sounds like Palestine’s gonna have to eat a few thousand more JDAMs and 155s!