Good Morning! We’re in for some more perfect weather today. High 60s, partly cloudy. Can’t get outside today to enjoy it? That’s okay. It’s gonna be like this for the next 10 days at least. Just don’t call it Spring out loud, or it’ll get spooked and go back into hiding.
Alright, let’s do the news.
The Big Beautiful Bill: Trump may have signed a record number of executive orders in his first 100 days, but this legislative session has been exceptionally unproductive. So yesterday, when Trump showed up on Capitol Hill, he was ready to force some action, saying that failure to pass his bill “would be the ultimate betrayal.” Despite some major inter-party concerns about healthcare cuts, House Republicans fell in line. They started their debate before midnight, had a slumber party, and by dawn, they passed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, 215-214. This bill extends $4.5 trillion in Trump 1.0-era tax breaks, and makes good on his campaign commitment to get rid of taxes on tips. It also would cost 8.6 million people their healthcare coverage, and push 3 million people off of SNAP benefits. And of course, it adds $200 million in spending on deportation and border security. Next up: the Senate, who plan to have their version ready by the Fourth of July.
ICE-ing Our Courtrooms: Does anyone still think Trump gives a rats ass about decency? This one will help wipe that glimmer of hope from your mind. ICE agents are lurking in the halls of Seattle’s immigration courts like vultures, waiting to see if judges dismiss people’s deportation cases. If they don’t immediately object or appeal, ICE agents swoop in. “What that means is that they can be on a plane out of here in three hours,” Eilish Villa Malone, one of a handful of immigration attorneys awaiting their clients’ cases, told KUOW. Attorneys are worried that this could scare people out of showing up for their court hearings, but they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Not showing up is a fast track to deportation as well.
Israeli Embassy Staff Members Killed: Last night, while walking out of an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC, two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot and killed. According to police, the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested. Both Trump and Netanyahu called the attack, which appeared to be a response to Israel’s war in Gaza, “antisemitic.”
Shipwrecked: One man was rescued and three others are presumed dead after a 26-foot fishing boat sank off the coast of Everett yesterday. The weather was extremely mild, so it’s not clear what caused the boat to sink.
Trump’s Having a Bad Week in Court: This morning, a federal judge blocked Trump’s attempt at shutting down the Department of Education through mass layoffs, demanding that he immediately rehire them while the case moves through the courts. And yesterday, a different federal judge determined that the Trump admin violated a court order when they sent eight migrants (who are largely not from South Sudan) to South Sudan. A DHS spokesperson complained about “activists judges” and a White House spokesperson said they “do not apologize for acting to protect the American people.” Boo hoo. Now the question is, will Trump act on the orders of the judicial branch? He hasn’t been great at it so far.
Pour One Out for the University Book Store: Next month, Barnes & Noble will take over virtually all of the book selling in the building, but don’t fear—University Books isn’t completely disappearing. Textbook sales will remain under the University Book Store, and Boon Boona Coffee will still run the cafe. The indie bookseller has been around since 1900, which means it existed before ballpoint pens, motion pictures, and bras.
We have a new Air Force One, and it’s giving everyone the ick. The Pentagon confirmed that they accepted the $400 million gift from Qatar, and “work to ensure proper security measures” to make it safe for use by the president. In case there was any question about what kind of message this “gift” is sending the international community, when the president of South Africa visited the Oval yesterday, he listened to a list of Trump’s accusations about “white genocide” in South Africa, and then said, “I’m sorry we don’t have a plane to give you.” “Me too,” Trump replied.
Speaking of Planes: While trying to land at a small regional airport, a Cessna 550 crashed into a residential San Diego neighborhood this morning, killing everyone on board and setting several homes on fire. The people who live in the neighborhood were evacuated quickly and there were no serious injuries.
The IRS Is a Snitch: On Tuesday, ICE and Border Patrol carried out their second workplace raid in Washington, arresting 17 people at a Kent beverage manufacturing company. But this time, they brought their friend, the IRS, along. In February, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “WTF is Habeas Corpus” Noem told the treasury secretary that she wanted to deputize IRS criminal investigators to help uncover immigration violations, and it appears she’s done it. “I haven’t seen anything like this,” Seattle immigration attorney Adam Boyd told the Seattle Times.
The DOJ Plans to Cyberbully Trump’s Enemies: Faced with the inconvenience that many of Trump’s enemies have done nothing that warrants federal prosecution, Ed Martin, the DOJ’s “weaponization czar” says that if he can’t charge them with anything, he’ll just “name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed.” As the NYTimes wrote, “naming and shaming is antithetical to its mission of pursuing justice impartially.” But it’s perfectly aligned with our cyberbully-in-chief.
You Like Rocks? If you’re looking for something to do tonight, EverOut’s Lindsay Costello recommends that you tap into your inner geologist and head over to Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park for a talk with Alison Jean Cole, author of A Rockhound’s Guide to Oregon & Washington. You might find out that you, too, are a rockhound.
Yesterday, my email was graced with the actual worst thing I’ve ever seen, and now I have to share it with you. “We are working with a faith-based tech firm,” the PR email read, “which is using AI to bring Bible stories to life.” And then they shared a YouTube link to “Noah’s Ark, But It’s a Country Song Music Video.” I watched it, and now it’s my Ring video. So here you go.
@49:
Israel Is A Uniquely Evil Society
A former Knesset member
named Moshe Feiglin went on
Israeli television on Tuesday and
proclaimed that “every child, every
baby in Gaza is an enemy” of Israel, and
that “not a single Gazan child will be left there”.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-is-a-uniquely-evil-society
even if they
hafta blow
‘em to bits
lol!
Lol!
LOL!
Enjoying
the Genocide,
are we, thumpfuck?
🤣🤣🤣
@50: Somebody in a non-policy-making position wants to make a bad policy? oh my god call the International Court of Justice, this is an emergency! 😂
@50 if they say it out loud, then it qualifies as genocide, right? And now they are shouting it from the Knesset. Or do they need it signed and notarized?
‘Columbia University violated federal civil-rights law by ignoring the harassment of Jewish students by classmates, a government investigation found.
‘The school acted with “deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students” since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Department of Health and Human Services’ civil-rights office said Thursday.
‘The office said the university didn’t investigate or punish vandalism including repeated drawing of swastikas; didn’t enforce rules for protests; didn’t abide by its own policies when handling Jewish students’ complaints; and didn’t establish ways to combat antisemitism until last summer.’
(https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-investigation-civil-rights-violate-0cc7b7d7?mod=hp_lead_pos4)
Obviously, this is the fault of the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, along with persons who tiresomely persist in knowing what the words, “genocide,” and “terrorism,” actually mean. The only proper response demands we smash more buildings at the UW. River! Sea! etc.
@53: “no those were antizionist swastikas, not antisemitic swastikas! We would never condone antisemitism!” 🤣🤣🤣
@53 oh wow the wing of the Trump administration run by a guy with a brain worm “found” that a university Trump has been antagonizing for months did a bad thing? No reason to doubt that conclusion!
@53, @54, @infinitum & @vomitas
@Wormtongue+sicsokbott
aka Heritage Foundation
AIPAC & IO(d)F:
“River! Sea! etc.”
“every child, every baby
in Gaza is an enemy” of Israel, and
“not a single Gazan child will be left there!”
“WHY are there
NO Schools in
GD Palestine?”
“A. IT’S NOT
GENOCIDE!”
and
“never Mind all that!
Pedanticy is MORE
IMPORTANT than
MASS MURDER!”
What would Emily
Fucking POST (&
Jesus!) fucking
Do? seriously!
lol! lol! lol! lol
😘😏😥😂
😉😉😉
🤣🤣
🤣.
Ah! eyou guys
crack me
UP!
@55: I think you meant to say “CIA false flag Mossad.” Isn’t that usually the progressive defense? 😉
@55: The WSJ article continues:
“The civil-rights office said its findings were based on witness interviews, media reports of antisemitic incidents and reports from the school’s own antisemitism task force.”
Yeah, it’s all a secret conspiracy run by RFK, Jr.
@57
see: Left Wing Terrorism
DWARFED BY REICH
50-1, Experts Say
https://www.msm.lookit/up/yourbutt/yourmama//Blewitfailfartfail
@48 If Israel is a uniquely evil what does that make Palestinians?
tensorna 🤝 Trump
exploiting bad faith
antisemitism claims
What does Horseshoe Theory have to say about that?
@35: No, I never implied CM Sawant was harmless. She did a huge amount of damage to Seattle, especially considering the limited time and power she had. Blaming Amazon for a homeless crisis it had no part in creating, assaulting the integrity of the Pike Place Market’s historical district — in an attempt to stop housing from getting built during a housing-affordability crisis! — and threatening a political rival’s family in their own home; all harmed the civic and civil discourse in Seattle. Like her counterpart Trump at the national level, she built no coalitions, relying instead on cartoonishly excessive rhetoric, and destructive exploitations of power, to create polarizingly divisive fractures amongst and within communities, which she then tried to harness for her own political gain.
@60
equating Palestinians
w/Hamas is yet Another
propagandistic Reich-Wing
Trope, best left to the Pages of
Derr Stormer and FOX and Fiends
but
Par for
the Course
for tS’s FAR Right
Commentatiatators
FORE!
@62
“Blaming
Amazon for a
homeless crisis it
had no part in creating…”
so Sayeth the
Anti-Progressive
Denier* of the Reach &
Scale of Vulture Capitalists
Overnite Rentals and the Utter
FAILURE of Housing-as-Commodity
to
Rectify
our Disastrous
Shortage of Affordable
Housing, an Human Right in
the Developed, Civilized World.
Pay that
Wormtongue
No nevermind.
*and hypocritical and
hypercritical Champion of
The Civil Discourse Mandate
@63 you equate all Jews with Israel so seems only right however removing Hamas from the equation do you think Palestinians would accept Israel has a right to exist, give equal rights to women and minorities, allow for free speech and the practice of other religions and live in peace with their neighbors?
@61: Is this part of the “bad faith antisemitism claims” you’re on about?
‘The anti-Israel demonstrations around Columbia University turned threatening and antisemitic Saturday night, as they have repeatedly across the country. On social media, you can find footage of crowds taunting Jewish students to “Go back to Poland!” and chanting, “We don’t want no Zionists here!” There is a masked protester with a sign that reads “Al-Qasam’s Next Target” with an arrow pointing at Jewish counterprotesters nearby. Al-Qassam is the military wing of Hamas. A protester screamed at Jewish students, “The 7th of October is going to be every day for you!”’
(https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/columbia-protest-anti-semitism-campus-israel-jewish-students-justice-palestine.html)
Obviously, having the UW divest from Boeing would fix all of this, right? Or would protestors have to vandalize yet another building on the UW campus for that to work? “We break this lab equipment in the name of a Free Palestine,” perhaps? Do tell.
@65
I got as far as
“… you
equate all
Jews with Israel… “
which is where
your Lies lost me
@66 now do South Africans singing “Kill the Boer”
Here’s a thought: Could Slog do a daily Gaza/Israel news thread? All the other articles get lost in the morass of The Usual Suspects saying The Usual Things.
@68: Why? Do you want to validate Trump’s nonsense concerning South Africa? If not, what has that to do with the stridently anti-Jewish demonstrations on many American college campuses last year?
Tensorna dear, you and a few other commenters just won’t shut up about it. Almost every single thread turns into the same dreary exchange. It’s like that episode of the original Star Trek where the black/white person is battling the white/black person and the crew of the Enterprise doesn’t know what the deal is until one of them explains it to them.
(Yes, I am perfectly capable of being a nerd)
@71: Well, my question was specifically addressed to @68, who was trying to belittle some recent, well-documented harassment of American Jews. I happen to think we should take such harassment seriously, and so I responded. If you don’t like my calling out such belittlements, I’m sorry, but I happen to think the correct response to such speech is more speech, not just letting the denial sit there and possibly take root. (“Silence, like a cancer, grows…”)
Furthermore, this very headline post mentions some recent, murderous harassment of Jews in our own national capital. Do you believe our comments should not address the headline post? If you don’t like headline posts with such material, then please let the Stranger know, as they’ve run a large number over the past two years which address such topics.
I do apologize tensora dear. I’m not at my cognitive best in the mornings.
But I stand by my original post. What’s happening in Gaza is terrible, full stop. The attack on Israel was terrible, full stop. Anger at the Israeli government’s actions should not be directed at the Jewish population anywhere on this planet, and lots of Israelis are as appalled by this situation as we are. Anti-Semitism has no role anywhere, especially on college campuses. Violence is never the answer (except for all the Abrahamic religions, who thrive on it). An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, etc.
That’s about all that can be said about it. But too many threads on Slog just rehash it over and over. At the end of the day, that discourse means nothing. It’s just mental masturbation, and there are much better things to masturbate about.
An exception would be when something happens locally. Like the horrible attack on the Jewish Federation, or the blockage of I-5, or the interruption of civic events, like the Westlake Christmas Tree lighting, or the stuff that went down not only on the UW campuses, but also the community schools. Threats against local Jewish and Muslim sites of worship, etc – all of that deserves discussion.
But that’s just my opinion. It’s tedious to have to wade through the endless discussion/argument/whatever. Like reading an Ayn Rand novel, where you have to skip chapters because a Howard Roark or John Galt is droning on about something.
@73: “But too many threads on Slog just rehash it over and over.”
And I’ll reiterate, the Stranger decides the contents of the headline posts. If you do not want repetitive comment threads, then perhaps you should appeal to the Stranger to cease repetitive headline postings?