It’s hot: There’s a heat advisory from the National Weather Service until 10 p.m., significantly increasing the risk of heat-related illness, particularly for pets, the old, the young, and anyone without water and AC. Save your jog for this evening, but if you have to be outside, take breaks inside or in the shade. Expect sun and a high near 87 today. We’ll cool down to the mid-70s tomorrow, the low 70s Thursday, and the high 60s with likely showers Friday.
Another Day, Another Primary Election Ballot Drop: Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson holds 50.72 percent of the vote to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 41.24 percent, widening her lead to more than 9 points in the latest drop.
Other Progressives Still Leading: With 58.42 percent of the vote, Dionne Foster is far ahead of City Council President Sara Nelson (35.36 percent). Erika Evans has 55.82 percent of the vote to City Attorney Ann Davison’s 33.43 percent. Alexis Mercedes Rinck has 78.28 percent of the vote.
The Man Bellevue Police Killed on Friday: Bellevue police say 60-year-old Patrick Sathyanathan shot at them with a “high-velocity air rifle” that shot “metal projectiles,” before they shot him in the head with a gun. As part of King County’s Independent Force Investigation Team, the State Patrol is on the case. Some high-velocity air rifles are used to hunt deer and small game, but it’s still unclear what kind of air rifle Sathyanathan had, or how powerful it was. According to The Seattle Times, the Bellevue Police Department did not release new details Monday.
Misidentified: King County Prosecutors dropped arson and murder charges against the 25-year-old Amazon software engineer police suspected of setting fire to a house in Wallingford. Letian Shi’s attorney alleges Seattle Police got the wrong man “based off a rushed and racist misidentification.” Seattle Times reporter Sara Jean Green talked to KUOW about the case yesterday.
Not a Drag Queen, Just Corruption: A new report from InvestigateWest and the Mercer Island Reporter found that the Mercer Island School District kept quiet about a longtime English and journalism teacher accused of pursuing one student and sexually abusing another years later. Read more here.
Another Day, Another Shooting: Three people are dead after a shooting at a Target in Austin, Texas. We’re not going to pass legislation to prevent this from happening. Here’s the last 72 hours of gun violence in America, tracked by the Gun Violence Archive.
Two Seattle Shootings Monday: Two men were shot and killed at Virgil Flaim Park in Lake City. Another man was seriously injured after he was shot in the parking lot behind a South Park bar.
Speaking of Things We Have the Power to Stop: Israel has starved five more Palestinians to death, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The agency attributes 222 deaths in the past three weeks to severe hunger.
Even More Good Supreme Court News: A Washington gun shop is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to review our state’s ban on high-capacity magazines, and Kim Davis, the ex-Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, is appealing her case and asking the court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that legalized same-sex marriage 10 years ago.
Nothing Surprising Here: President Donald Trump says he had to send the National Guard to DC. He had to exploit the Home Rule Act and had to seize control of the city’s police. There was a crime emergency (read: crime is down). I’ve heard and seen people call Trump a hypocrite for calling in the National Guard for this, and not on January 6. Trump is a proud, bold, and intentional liar. He coats the world in a slime of lies. Of course he is a hypocrite. January 6 was an insurrection, or a coup, depending on who you ask. In either case, it was for him. So of course he was cool with it. Like he was cool with sending the National Guard to Los Angeles, another city that did not need the National Guard, to scare people and flex his power. Like he was cool asking former Defense Secretary Mark Esper in 2020 if soldiers could shoot protesters outside the White House “in the legs or something?” While Esper wouldn’t do that, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just might.
Soon to a City Near You! The Trump Administration is evaluating a Pentagon plan for a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of 600 National Guard troops ready to deploy to protests in American cities at all times, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post. In these documents, National Guard officials wrote that through the Pentagon’s traditional budgetary process, this program could not be created and funded before 2027. It’s unclear if an alternative funding source could establish this program sooner, or if Defense Secretary Hegseth has seen this plan.
Smoke up, Folks: To distract our great nation from all the goosestepping and Jeffrey Epstein’s naughty list, Trump is floating the idea of kicking marijuana down from the list of Schedule I drugs like meth and heroin, to Schedule III with testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. Reclassifying pot wouldn’t #legalizeit, but would lessen criminal penalties and provide tax benefits to the pot industry, which has so generously poured millions into Trump’s political groups, according to The Wall Street Journal. This wasn’t Trump’s idea; it’s been in motion. President Joe Biden asked HHS and the DEA to review marijuana’s classification in 2022, and both agencies have since recommended this transfer.
The Mercer Island case reminds us that public school teachers are often the most prolific sex predators. Weird then that we are urged to defund the police when they violate the public trust, but I’ve not heard a peep from the left about defunding public education. It’s almost as if they don’t care about these episodes of sexual violence.
It would be great if law abiding citizens had their rights restored to purchase “high capacity” magazine for their firearms. Luckily, most of us bought several additional magazines before the ban and our ownership is grandfathered.
When DC has a higher murder rate than Bogota, then yes, they do require the National Guard. Only Trump has the balls to send them in, while other Presidents have been content to let DC’s population suffer.
A Quick Reaction force is an excellent idea, President Trump. We need a means of rapidly disabling and jailing protestors who attack Federal courthouses and immigration detention centers.
@1: You’re so silly. Memphis TN has the highest murder rate in the US but he ain’t declared martial law there, and crime is down over all in DC and has been falling over the past 2 years. I’m surprised he didn’t just take credit for that and call it a win.
Seattle cops are the worst. A month in jail on the flimsiest of evidence is no laughing matter. I hope Letian Shi sues the shit out of SPD.
@3 almost as bad, their incompetence let the true murderous arsonist remain at large. Unbelievable fuckup by SPD
@1:
More typical Conservative whataboutism: “If I personally have not heard about X, then clearly it is because ‘the Left’ refuses to report it”, even though you probably never watch anything but Right Wing propaganda.
Y’all are always going on about how the MSM NEVER covers this shit, when a simple Google search (on which you are so fond of spending hours rabbit-holing whatever RWNJ conspiracy theory you’ve adopted at the moment) would quite easily prove you wrong.
Here are a few examples for starters:
https://www.google.com/search?q=school+teacher+sexual+abuse+of+students&udm=14
@1 says:
“We need a means of rapidly disabling and jailing protestors who attack Federal courthouses and immigration detention centers.”
Go fuck yourself. We needed a means of jailing protestors who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and that motherfucker Trump pardoned them.
@4 Unfortunately, the fuckup by SPD isn’t unbelievable. Unforgiveable? Absolutely. But totally plausible.
@7 Exactly. I would personally use words like “unsurprising” and “expected,” but unforgivable is also good. In a country full of shitty cops, SPD is about as bad as they get.
@6 I wouldn’t get too worked up about what Slog’s favorite Trump troll has to say, they literally post this RW fan fic every single day. The biggest Trump worshipping fascists in America could never even dream of competing with their level of boot licking.
@2 – the President started with DC because he has express authority to take control of the police force in the event of an emergency (4th highest murder rate in the US). Trump indicated he was greatly concerned about other cities but he needs constitutional authority to act. I suspect you will see Trump push many Police departments into Consent Decrees (thank you Obama) by declaring dangerous cities like Memphis are not protecting the civil rights of their citizens.
@6 – he pardoned MOST of them. It was a very reasonable action, considering most did nothing but walk around the Capitol taking photos.
@8 – I am a proud man, not a “they”. And you are a disgusting piece of shit for not respecting my pronouns.
@9 If you don’t introduce yourself with your pronouns, nobody knows what they are. That’s not our fault.
@10 – “That’s not our fault.” Oh yes it is. Haven’t you folks been yammering on about how you should ask someone their pronouns if you don’t know? Yes, yes, I believe you have. (Collective “you”, obviously, I don’t know your precise views.)
@1 The most prolific sex offenders other than catholic priests, you mean?
10: I was wondering which group of “trolls” @8 was referring to since “they” was used, so it was a plural issue – not a woke pronoun thing issue.
@13 It was pretty obvious who it was a reference to. WereBackBaby is the main bootlicker. You just kinda sniff em occasionally when he’s done.
@9, If you want people online to respect your pronouns you need to announce them every time because who can keep track. Maybe just be happy people are using neutral pronouns and not making assumptions about your gender because when i put your comment into a gender analysis application it thinks you’re a woman.
https://app.readable.com/text/gender/
15: It appears all text is programmed to render as feminine. I even tested “Donald Trump” and “Steve Bannon”. It’s a joke website and you fell for it.
@11 Actually, what we hoped for was that if someone cared that deeply, they’d tell us what to use. In a meeting, it’s be the meeting organizer or first speaker’s responsibility to set expectations, introduce themselves with their own pronouns and ask others to share theirs. Since you were the first commenter, you clearly fell down on the job. Again not our fault you can’t be bothered until it’s an excuse for faux outrage.
Of course, now we know that you’re 100% a man (for the longtime Savage Love readers, is that like 100% straight?), we’ll all know that we should refer to you as a jackass.
@15 I’m questioning the gender analysis there. 9 comes off as solidly masculine, but maybe I was primed by 1, which the gender analysis site did say was pretty masculine. Maybe because only conservative men have those kinds of Daddy fantasies.
@16, Well no, it thinks your comment was written by a man. Why would you expect a text analyzer to predict someone’s gender just by typing in names? You’re not very bright.
18: Ugh. But shade on you for randomizing us with your clickbait.
@6
Still blathering on about Jan 6?
If the right had really intended to overthrow the government they wouldn’t have shown up with some jack knob wearing an animal skin hat.
Your mostly peaceful No Kings protest did a ton more damage and, like the J6 peeps, accomplished nothing.
When observing the likes of Barth and WBB sparring one is immediately reminded of Kissingers reply to a question regarding his thoughts on the Iran Iraq war when said “its a pity both sides can’t lose.”
Nevertheless, for the sake of our republic, let us light votive candles that such a miracle may come to pass.
@20, People had weapons, someone laid pipe bombs around the capitol, and a bunch of people died. I agree everyone looked like slobs but that’s par for the course with you people. They still thought they were doing something.
@20 “If the right had really intended to overthrow the government they wouldn’t have shown up with some jack knob wearing an animal skin hat.”
Respectfully, of course they would. The right aren’t ALL tech incels and Gordon Gekko fanboys.
What does “Too much freedom can lead to the souls decay” refer to?
@8 – I am a proud man, not a “they”. And you are a disgusting piece of shit for not respecting my pronouns.
You’re an impotent little cuck, whatever your pronoun is.
“President Donald Trump says he had to send
the National Guard to DC. He had to exploit
the Home Rule Act and had to seize control
of the city’s police. There was a crime
emergency (read: crime is down).”
cadet bonespurs
HAS to do all this shit
to prepare us for Martial Law
so hair furor can declare hisself KING
and be Done with those
Silly, Expensive, & obv
Rigged Elections. our
wee Democracy is
hanging on by a
tensie-wensie
shred of no-
thingness.
credit to our reichwing
liars babyback valvolini
the Wormtongue and of
course mr fucking magoo
and apologies to any I may’ve
inadvertently left out ~ feel
free to pipe up and
be Counted.
“President Donald Trump says he had to send the National Guard to DC. […] The Trump Administration is evaluating a Pentagon plan for a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of 600 National Guard troops ready to deploy to protests in American cities at all times,”
Anyone surprised by this, even in the slightest, needs a court of competent jurisdiction appoint them an even stricter guardian. Now. Before they cut themselves to ribbons with objects even duller than their minds.
Of course Trump tries to become a Failed Autocrat. He’s made an entire career as a Failed C.E.O., and in his mind, the President both is a government C.E.O., and should be an autocrat, so therefore, he must become a Failed Autocrat. (Look for his “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” to go full-out Kent State on a MAGA crowd near you, for loudly clamoring he’s not being MAGA enough.)
“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming,” and Nixon wanted a paramilitary guard for his autocratic ass, too: ‘…President Richard M. Nixon faced the same objections when he had uniforms designed for White House security. Teased in the press for adopting the costumes of a “banana republic,” the president finally gave up and recalled the uniforms, which were presented for use to the marching band of a local high school.’ (https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-press-was-not-impressed)
Why does anyone engage with WereBackBaby? There’s not point, they are a joke.
Anti fascists are back too baby. Same as we ever were in the French resistance, the Palestinian resistance and the present American resistance. We never give up and we never surrender. FREE PALESTINE AND FREE AMERICA from zionist government.
@27
“Anyone
surprised
by this, even
in the slightest,
needs a court of
competent jurisdiction
appoint them an even stricter guardian.
Now.
Before they cut themselves
to ribbons with objects
even duller than
their minds.”
more Gold:
“that’s SOLID Gold, Jerry!”
from our local AIPAC rep/fascism promoter
seen Here
soft-pedaling
his Support for Most
Things far Far FAR ‘right’ Wing
@26, 27 & 30
from The Intercept:
Trump’s Trial Run for a Police State
President Trump’s “federalization” of Washington, D.C.,
is a test of the limits of his power — and,
by extension, of our democracy.
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT announced in January that violent crime in D.C. hit a 30-year low in 2024. So far this year, it’s down 26 percent from that.
This, in other words, is a curious time for the president to declare that the nation’s capital is a violent cesspool that demands the sort of crime-fighting expertise that only a 79-year-old man who fetishizes dictators and whose entire worldview is perpetually stuck in the 1980s can provide.
The motivation for Donald Trump’s plan
to “federalize” Washington, D.C., is same as
his motivation for sending active-duty troops
into Los Angeles, deporting people to the CECOT
torture prison in El Salvador, his politicization of the
Department of Justice, and nearly
every other authoritarian over-
reach of the last six months.
He is testing the limits of his power — and, by extension, of our democracy.
He’s feeling out what the Supreme Court,
Congress, and the public will
let him get away with.
And so far, he’s been able to do what he pleases.
–by Radley Balko, August 11 2025
oodles:
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/11/trump-washington-dc-federalization-national-guard-troops/
thedjt’s
just gonna
Steal it Away
America is soon to be
Cadet Bonespurs’
little Kingdumb
where our our Patriots?
handing him the
fucking keys?
29: What’s the matter you little revolutionary trouble maker you? You can be explicit. Say free from THE JEWS. No need to be coy saying “zionist government” – just say what you feel. You’re a JEW HATER.
@29
^
these fucking
Reich Wing Idjts
so calling out a country
for Genocidal Acts is now
not only “anti-Semitic” but
also labels one a “Jew Hater.”
an
Orwellian
Dystopia aka a
Republican Utopia’s
our FINAL Destination:
& Cadet Bonespurs’s
taking us – well, thedjt
& his stark Raving Madd
Pscyophants, like the Pro-
GENOCIDE Maniac, above.
are taking Us there
shall we begin
by taking America
BACK from these wan-
nabee Nazi-Loving Fascists?
I say
YES.
Ooopsies!
not for @29
you Dummy! @33
was for the Other Dummy, @32
apologies
for all the
Misconfusion!
@29: Big, brave words you’ve got there — and larded with plenty of unearned compliments for yourself, even though you will never actually face a real Gestapo torture chamber. (Unlike some of those true resistance fighters, whose hard-won glory you just appropriated for your self.)
But actions count for more than words. And your actions include voting for one of the biggest — if not THE biggest! — Trump supporter Seattle ever had. So, instead of priding yourself on accomplishments you neither made nor shared, how about you go find one of those persons who’d correctly identified “Seattle’s Very Own Trump of the Left” for what she really and truly was (well, she showed that “Left” part to be wishful thinking, now didn’t she?), and ask that person to instruct you in the mysterious ways of politics. While I cannot say you’ll ever actually learn anything, not even from such a wise source, making the effort will at least demonstrate you do truly care.
Good luck with that.
(Please let me know if you need help with finding such a person.)
@29
oh
don’t
Worry
too much
about innernet
scold cum Tough Guy
aka the Wormtongue, Ivy R
he parades around here as a centrist Dem
and is Full of Advice on how to rid
ourselves of Fascists & Nazis
whilst he Supports Nutnyahoo
and all things Far Right.
taking ‘advice’ from ol’ wormmy
is “worth” even Less Than
what we pay for it
Not including the
gratuitous and demeaning,
causal Insults sprinkled like fairy
dust from our resident bully cum AIPAC rep.
we’ll soon have More Than Enough
Opportunities to lay our Lives
on the Line
from The Guardian:
Trump says he’ll seek ‘long-term’ control of DC
police and signals he’ll target other cities next
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask Congress for “long-term” control of Washington DC’s police department and signaled he expected other Democratic-led cities to change their laws in response to his deployment of national guard troops and federal agents into the capital.
The president’s comments came as the White House took credit for dozens of arrests overnight in Washington as part of Trump’s campaign to fight a “crime crisis”, which the city’s leaders say does not exist.
Trump earlier this week invoked a never-before-used clause of the law that sets out the federal district’s governance structure to take temporary control of the police department, but will need Congress’s permission to extend it beyond the 30 days allowed under the statute.
“We’re going to need a crime bill that we’re going to be putting in, and it’s going to pertain initially to DC,” Trump said during a visit to the Kennedy Center performing arts venue in Washington.
“We’re going to use it as a very positive example, and we’re going to be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/13/mayor-dc-trump-national-guard
Dictator
on Day One
The Toddler Tyrant
from Now fucking ON.
don’t allow
the Wormtongues
of the World to shape
the Narrative — Unless you
LOVE Billionaires & Soulless Corps
and you believe
Shareholder Value
trumpfs our Humanity
like
wormmy.
speaking
of AIPAC:
here’s one
Sorely in Need
of one of your Famous
Justifications, Wormtongue
work your
Magic on
This baby
NEW U.S. REPORT ON
ISRAEL’S HUMAN RIGHTS
ABUSES IS 91 PERCENT SHORTER
Clocking in at nine whole pages — down from 103 in 2024 — the new State Department human rights report is “functionally useless.”
THE UNITED STATES published its annual report on Israeli human rights abuses on Tuesday.
Last year, the State Department published 103 pages on Israel’s “significant human rights issues.” The new report is just nine pages long.
The congressionally mandated human rights reports, which are used to guide U.S. decisions on diplomacy and aid, have been turned into wholly political documents built to soft-pedal abuses by the administration’s allies and target countries with whom the Trump administration has clashed.
The report on Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip was just one of 200 hollowed-out reports on human rights that the State Department released Tuesday, which, as expected, whitewash the records of some of the world’s worst violators of human rights. Experts said the report on Israel was among the most egregious, with its page count plummeting 91 percent from last year.
While previous editions of the report on Israel — including reports from President Donald Trump’s first term — included significant material on abuses documented by the United Nations and human rights groups, such accounts were mostly omitted from the new report.
“The first Human Rights Report of Secretary Rubio’s tenure can be summarized in just a few more words than it appears to be written in: few truths, many half truths, and nothing like the truth,” said Josh Paul, who spent more than 11 years as the director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department bureau that oversees arms transfers to foreign nations before resigning in 2023 over U.S. military assistance to Israel.
“Its coverage of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza appears to have been written by someone who has been blindfolded, earmuffed, had a sock stuffed in their mouth, and then censored.”
–by Nick Turse, August 13 2025,
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/13/us-report-israel-human-rights-abuses/
Geesh
what a
Surprise!
@29: Following up on @35, maybe education just isn’t your thing. But you must do something. You voted for a Trump supporter. In Seattle. Unless you act, that stain will cover you, that stench will billow from you, for all of the rest of your days in the Emerald City. Luckily, you have a perfect opportunity to help yourself, right now and right there, in Seattle.
Liberal, Democratic Rep. Adam Smith has not one, but two Trump supporters running against him. Simply volunteer for his campaign. You can help him defeat one Trump supporter in the primary, and help him defeat the other in the general election. And one of them will be the very same Trump supporter for whom you humiliated yourself! The abject, pitiable humiliation of voting for a Trump supporter need not follow you unto your grave, and haunt your descendants down through the many generations yet to come. You can do it! You can redeem yourself! I have faith in you!
Or you can forever be a Seattle voter who enabled a Trump supporter. Your choice. Please make it a good one!