First things first: I know we are seeing the sun set earlier and earlier, but the summer weather is still here! On this beautiful Thursday, Seattlites can expect clear, sunny skies all day. The morning will start out in the low 60s, steadily climb to the mid 70s and peak at around 4pm. If you don’t have time to picnic with the girls today, don’t fear. Tomorrow will be even warmer.
FYI: Are you a Providence patient with an Aetna insurance plan? Well, according to the Seattle Times, you could soon lose your coverage if the two companies don’t resolve heated negotiations over a new contract soon. If only the United States treated healthcare as a human right. Sad!
Tune in: Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz will appear on CNN tonight in their first major, unscripted interview since President Joe Biden’s departure from the race. This comes after Harris’s critics dogged on her for weeks for assuming the position without a real primary or the full scrutiny of the media. She’s still facing criticism for doing the interview with Walz instead of solo, but, as Twitter noted, presidential candidates appear with their VP picks all the time.
Okay, Meghan. https://t.co/zJ2iI2r9O4 pic.twitter.com/ljK4waasXF
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 28, 2024
Fork found in kitchen: Turns out, Brittany Mahomes, the NFL wife who always dresses like its Christian Girl Autumn in 2016, is most likely a Trumper. Some Swifties wonder if this will be the end of once-Biden supporter Taylor Swift’s friendship with Mahomes, but if Mahomes’s assault apologia wasn’t a dealbreaker, I think we can expect to see them chumming it up in the stands this football season.
Tax the rich: According to a new report from the Tax Foundation, Seattle and Tacoma rank #1 and #2 in a list of cities with the highest combined sales tax rate. With a boost from the 6.5% state sales tax, Seattle levies a 10.35% sales tax and Tacoma a 10.3%. Sales tax pays for important stuff, for sure. But it’s an incredibly regressive way to generate public funds as it disproportionately burdens working class people. We desperately need to flip over the State’s upside down tax structure so that the wealthiest people pay more than the poorest. If you disagree and you’re reading this, I can almost guarantee you are fighting against your own economic interest.
Dismissed: A Federal Judge dismissed a lawsuit against Seattle Police Officer Noah Zech who shot and killed 24 year-old Shaun Fuhr after the cop chased him following a domestic violence incident in 2020. For those following the news at the time, you’ll remember the cop shot Fuhr while he was holding his infant daughter.
Protect the free press: A Nevada jury sentenced Former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles to life in prison for killing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in September 2022. The Clark County District Attorney said the verdict should send a “clear message that any attempts to silence the media, or to silence or intimidate a journalist, will not be tolerated.”
Question for the culture: A Twitter user asked why he did not see the Seattle City Council at the YIMBYs For Harris Zoom event. As I pointed out, I don’t think many of them have the cred to attend. Lucky for them, if they want to support Harris, there’s a Zoom fundraiser aimed at just about every interest group. So, fill in the blank. The Seattle City Council should host a _____s For Harris. Sound off in the comments below!
The council who rejected developer incentives for projects led by BIPOC orgs may not qualify as “YIMBYs For Harris” https://t.co/kbrlbrY5fr
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) August 29, 2024
Israel attacks West Bank: In one of the largest attacks the West Bank has seen in months, Israeli Defense Forces launched a raid into Jenin and Tulkarm yesterday, killing at least 10 Palestinians. This morning, the AP reports Israeli has killed an additional six people, including a local commander. The AP claimed that Israel deemed most of the victims “militants,” but do note Israel does not consider any Palestinian an innocent civilian.
Idaho update: Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, wants to move his trial outside of Latah County. He and his lawyers fear a Latah County jury will be biased against him.
Random lore drop: This song, but its me when I was in love with my ex boyfriend’s ex girlfriend:
10.35% sales tax rate??!!! Talk about inflationary in this already expensive town. There’s nothing preventing us from levying a flat tax income rate — the WA legal problem is when the taxing rates differ. I bet a 5% rate gets us there? But I won’t sign on until I’m assured this isn’t some Trojan horse to just more taxes (ie, repeal the sales tax, like Oregon).
A Hamas commander is in fact a militant, not an innocent civilian. Make a note of that for future reference.
@1- income tax, yes. Flat rate, no. Given the political realities in this country, I’ve NEVER seen a flat tax proposal that doesn’t absolutely screw single people or those without kids.
Unscripted interview?
If she speaks coherently, in complete sentences, and somehow manages to answer a question we’ll know it wasn’t unscripted.
As for a cop shooting a wife beater, I doubt the officer made that decision lightly. The child wasn’t harmed and there is one less domestic abuser in the world. Let’s call it a win.
I read an article elsewhere that reported Washington is seeing a billion dollar loss in tax revenue because a lot of parents didn’t go back to work after The Plague. The state legislature won’t be lightening the tax burden for anyone, rich or poor.
that’s not at odds with anything in hannah’s summary
@7: No, it just so happens Hannah’s summary drops all of the contextual information in the linked story. Reading Hannah’s summary, there’s no way to know Fuhr was armed, had allegedly just assaulted the infant’s mother, and may have been in the midst of a kidnapping.
Other than that, it’s perfectly faithful to the linked story.
The handgun was not confirmed anywhere in the reporting. Did they find a gun on his body? Doesn’t say. Important detail! Of course he could have tossed the gun at some point. Was a gun found anywhere? Also doesn’t say. But it definitely says the cop shot him while he was holding a baby.
@3, do you really think the current 10.35% sales tax is serving single, parentless citizens well? Flat tax is same-same, not sure why “the screwing over” is perceived.
@1 it will never happen. Any income tax proposal has never included a reduction in other taxes. It’s always about new revenue.
@4 Assuming the capital gains tax survives in Nov I would bet you’ll see numerous proposals in the legislature to. lower the threshold to make up for deficits and fund new programs.
@2 “I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. ” A. Einstein
Destroying infrastructure in the West Bank is as much a war crime as it is in Gaza. Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories is still illegal by international law.
Illegal occupation is illegal
@3 Yes, we need to campaign for progressive taxation like an income tax and for getting rid of the sales tax at the same time to preempt typical conservative fear-mongering about “TAXES”
@9: “But it definitely says the cop shot him while he was holding a baby.”
Sure does. Hannah’s summary still says nothing about how Fuhr had allegedly just assaulted the infant’s mother, and may have been in the midst of a kidnapping.
@11, Ok so the goalposts have shifted from “this 2 sentence summary of a linked article is incomplete” to “the police are trained to shoot people holding babies.” What’s most important is that you have something to complain about or concerns to minimize.
@15, The post says the shooting occurred “following a domestic violence incident” and it doesn’t take much effort for the reader to infer the guy holding a baby while actively fleeing a crime scene was in fact kidnapping the baby. But if that’s not enough information for you the article it’s summarizing is helpfully linked in the post.
Also worth noting the word kidnapping does not appear anywhere in the linked reporting so perhaps the Seattle Times is also worthy of a sternly worded scolding in the comments.
The Stranger shouldn’t rail against regressive taxation and also blindly support every property tax levy put on the ballot, which as currently structured is also a regressive tax.
The middle class and the poor pay a greater share of taxes with a flat tax than a with a progressive tax so the argument that we “need” a flat tax because a progressive tax will lead to “people” paying more in taxes is rather fallacious
@14 is it really fear mongering when the WA legislature has never indicated they are open to lowering taxes? The capital gains tax could have easily been structured in such a manner (or at least included a small reduction in sales taxes) but it wasn’t. Until they demonstrate otherwise I don’t think its fear mongering to assume any new tax proposals will all be new revenue.
@13: so therefore, killing a Hamas commander is a war crime? is that your point?
Sales tax is a burden on the poor. Seattle needs to tax the billionaires already. Constantly submitting to the extremely wealthy to the detriment of literally every other person that exists is not a sustainable model. The homeless and poor are not destroying Seattle (or the United States), the wealthy and the greedy and all of the politicians doing their bidding are. Either things change drastically or we’re all going to be living in more of a dystopian nightmare than we already live in. Enough already!
@22– tS’s
Commentariat’d
much prefer a little
Dystopian Nightmare
than taxing their fabulously
Well-to-Do ‘benefactors” one
more Dime. besides, all that damn
SOCIALISM!!! just makes the weak even
Weaker; oddly, it doesn’t seem to affect the
Fabulously-Well-to-Do like it does their Lessers
it’s just
Nature’s
fucking Way.
@10- the sales tax is equally regressive on those with or without kids. It’s bad, but equally bad.
every flat tax proposal I’ve seen includes huge exemptions for kids, so that the effective tax rate for those without is much much higher. IIRC Steve Forbes, for example, was proposing something like a $11,500 exemption per person including kids. That would mean that a married parent of two making up to $46k (and this was in 2014 dollars) would have paid no tax, while a couple with no kids would have paid the flat rate (his was 17%, which is a far higher rate than under the existing system) on at least half their income. See https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2014/03/07/the-tax-code-make-it-flat/. Hence the screwing. And the “political reality” part of my comment acknowledges that any proposal line that is dead on arrival unless it makes big concessions to families.
To clarify, it’s the pandering to families that is the problem with a scheme like Forbes’.
@21 No, it wasn’t my point. I was providing context given the Israeli far right is making noise about annexing even more occupied land, and as we know killing Hamas people is hardly ever the only result from Israeli incursions, right?
@20 As long as you aren’t talking about lowering the amount raised in taxes I don’t believe you’d find much opposition among Democrats to get rid the sales tax. Hasegawa and 7 other Democrats for example proposed to lower sales tax then have an income tax: “”There’s no new revenue involved in this whatsoever. It’s just a trade-off of progressive taxes for regressive taxes,” said bill sponsor Sen. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle.”
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/washington-state-bill-allow-income-tax-creation-following-tax-cuts/281-ad6d46a0-da42-4986-993b-039280a13467
Republicans are of course against it, which shows that their issue isn’t the people paying more taxes for “new revenue” but having their most important constituency, the wealthy, having to pay more taxes due to progressive taxation.
@27 that bill was for a local income tax not a statewide one and didn’t even make it to the floor meaning it didn’t even have support on the Dem side to bring it to a vote. You can blame R’s and “rich” people but the fact is most people in WA don’t support an income tax for the simple reason they don’t trust those in power (whether it be D’s or R’s) to slowly ratchet it up until its impacting everyone. Looking at the capital gains tax last year a bill was submitted (SB 5335) that would have lowered the threshold for the capital gains tax to $15K (levying an 8.5% tax which is more than the current 7%). It’s just in the nature of government to think they can spend your money better than you can.
more News about our wannabee
Leader of the Free World:
Trump
Calls Out
Arlington National
Cemetery For Hazard-Filled Fairways
August 29, 2024
WASHINGTON—Bemoaning the terrible course conditions he encountered while visiting the military burial site, Donald Trump called out Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday for its hazard-filled fairways.
“I’ve played at amazing golf courses all over the world—like Augusta, Pinehurst, and Pebble Beach—and let me tell you, Arlington National Cemetery was the worst 18 holes I’ve ever played,” said the 45th president of the United States, adding that service was terrible at the 639-acre memorial, from the rude and overbearing guards, to the messy gravestones littered everywhere, to the distracting spectators who kept kneeling down and praying.
“Immediately after I teed off, I had no idea where the holes were, my golf cart started sucking up wreaths, and my ball got caught in this huge trap called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Plus, it was impossible to order a lemonade or a BLT.
The waitress I called over just started sobbing.” At press time, Trump added that this was exactly why he preferred playing at Trump golf courses, where there was only one grave and it belonged to his late ex-wife.*
more:
https://theonion.com/trump-calls-out-arlington-national-cemetery-for-hazard-filled-fairways/
*presumably
Dead when he
buried her but with
with eltrumpfster the
Truth is always Elsewhere
“It’s just
in the nature
of government to
think they can spend
your money better than you can.”
–@d13r
precisely
what Bezos
Suckerberg MUX
and eltrumfpster’ve
Always said: Taxes are
Communism! or Marxism!
or whatevertheFuck.
Let Them spend it!
they know Better
Than Anyone
how to cheat
the System.
it’ll All
trickle
down
soon
eno-
ugh
……
….
.
@12 — “Any income tax proposal has never included a reduction in other taxes. It’s always about new revenue.”
This is false. The 2010 income tax initiative explicitly contained a 20% property tax rollback and only applied to incomes above $200k. It still lost in every county in the state. It lost 54/45 in King County!
https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20101102/initiative-measure-1098-concerning-establishing-a-state-income-tax-and-reducing-other-taxes.html
This is why an income tax in WA remains a complete pipe dream. The public simply doesn’t support it. The only thing people hate more than the way things are is change.
@16: “…it doesn’t take much effort for the reader to infer the guy holding a baby while actively fleeing a crime scene was in fact kidnapping the baby.”
@17: “…the word kidnapping does not appear anywhere in the linked reporting so perhaps the Seattle Times is also worthy of a sternly worded scolding in the comments.”
So, it’s ok if the Stranger’s summary gets readers to infer something which may not be correct?
@28, @30
speaking of Billionaires
the hated Government
they’d Love to Drown
in the closest bathtub
& MUX’s Xtwitter and
Raygunesque tripe &
“It’s just
in the nature
of government to
think they can spend
your money better than you can”:
The Egyptian comedian Bassem Yousef, one of the most acute and acid critics of Israel, has suddenly disappeared from X. Many assume he has been banned.
The Jerusalem Post highlights that, shortly before he vanished from X, he had written: “Are you still scared to be called an antisemite by those Zionists?”
Whatever the case, you will see Musk’s X getting a lot more censorious over the next months and years, especially against what he is terming the “faaaaaar left” – that is, disparate groups of people he has lumped together who hold opinions either he doesn’t like personally or that can damage his business interests.
Billionaires aren’t there to protect free speech. They got to be billionaires by being very good at making money – by seizing markets, by inflating our appetite for consumption, and by buying politicians to rig the system to protect their empires from competitors.
Musk understands that the only people against a world based on rapacious profit and material greed are the “faaaaaar left”.
Which is why the “faaaaaar left” are in the crosshairs of anyone with power in our rigged system, from the centrists to the right wing, from “liberals” to conservatives, from Blue to Red, from Democrats to Republicans.
The right and the centrists disagree only on how best to maintain that rapacious, consumption-driven, environmentally destructive status quo, and on how to normalise it to different segments of the public.
They
are competing
wings of a system
designed by a single ruling cabal.
–by Jonathan Cook
tonnes more:
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/first-elon-musk-made-us-pay-for-free
32, What in the fuck are you even talking about. It’s a morning news blog post. Get a grip.
@34: Oh, please. The Stranger ripped details out of context, to create the appearance of a needlessly violent police officer who recklessly shot in the direction of an infant. This supports the Stranger’s anti-police agenda.
perFecto! and
rightr on Cue:
Donors
Quietly Push Harris
to Drop Tax on Ultrawealthy
Vice President Kamala Harris’s
fund-raising has benefited from
a surge of interest from Silicon
Valley and Wall Street.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/us/politics/donors-harris-tax-ultrawealthy.html
we’re
Loosing.
Patrick Mahomes is probably a Trumper too. He’s said nothing about the entire Chiefs fan base being racist, and considers Harrison Butker a buddy. Fuck that team.
@33: What, you mistook the Xitter for some paragon of free speech? It’s a (wanna-be) for-profit platform. The owner has stated that in addition to money, he also wants Trump re-elected. Expect contents of the Xitter to match. (Why the Stranger keeps obsessively linking to a pro-Trump site might be a better concern for you to address — with them.)
@36: Politicians handle multiple issues. If you go to a politician and insist you have one and only one BIGGEST ISSUE IN HISTORY OF EVAH request, and they say No, then you obviously cannot have another one and only one BIGGEST ISSUE IN HISTORY OF EVAH request right behind it, now can you? One per customer.
@38
‘What,
you mistook the Xitter
for some paragon of free speech?”
no
you
idiot.
You
mistake
my rant against
Billionaires as a misunderstanding
of Mxtwitter. small Wonder you’re butthurt:
“Billionaires aren’t there to protect free speech. They got to be billionaires by being very good at making money – by seizing markets, by inflating our appetite for consumption, and by buying politicians to rig the system to protect their empires from competitors.
The right and the centrists disagree only on how best to maintain that rapacious, consumption-driven, environmentally destructive status quo, and on how to normalise it to different segments of the public.”
and
Here
You are*
providing
Cover for both
Billionaires and bibi
nuthnyahoo’s little Genocide
right
on cue.
*@tS
of All
places
@38b
my
God
you’re
tedious.
@39: I was referring to the several paragraphs you’d blockquoted above that quote, starting with:
“The Egyptian comedian Bassem Yousef, one of the most acute and acid critics of Israel, has suddenly disappeared from X. Many assume he has been banned.”
That, and the two paragraphs which followed it, came across as your “golly-gee-willikers the Xitter actually bans folks” statements.
(I notice you still haven’t objected to the Stranger’s repeated use of the Xitter as a source…)
@41
you
haven’t
“noticed”
shit, Wormtongue.
your
bullshit
quota system
is not My concern.
and your
wormming
my comment
into Even More
of your insidious
& oft-repeated Lies
def qualifies
you for ban-
nishment
here @
tS.
fuck
off.
Speaking of Undue Influence
nyt:
Brazil
Blocks X
After Musk
Ignores Court Orders
The social network will go dark
in the nation of 200 million,
the result of an escalating
fight between Elon Musk
and a Brazilian judge
over what can be
said online.
Fucking Bravo. More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-x-blocked.html
here’s a reader’s comment:
In grade school we were taught that freedom of speech didn’t mean you could yell “Fire” in a crowded movie theater.
No one questioned that exception to a cherished American freedom due to the common sense realization that a panicked crowd’s probable reaction would cause massive personal harm.
Why should any responsible society allow an unconscionable billionaire to inflame a country’s social divisions without consequences?
If only
our own leaders
showed similar spine
as exhibited by Brazil’s court justice.
–@Tom; New Hampshire
oodles more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-x-blocked.html#commentsContainer
@43: Yep, looks like the Xitter just got a Brazilian!
(Thank goodness material pulled straight from the Xitter can still be prominently displayed by the Stranger as fact, though. Where else would you get support for your beliefs?)
@33: “The Egyptian comedian Bassem Yousef, one of the most acute and acid critics of Israel, has suddenly disappeared from X. Many assume he has been banned.”
It appears he recently deactivated his account voluntarily: https://www.instagram.com/bassem/?hl=en
Kind of puts the “sinister Jewish behind-the-scenes-moneyed-influence” vibe your quoted author tried oh-so hard to say (but of course, not say) in perspective, doesn’t it?
Where else
would you get
support for your beliefs?”
–@wormmy
if the terlet’s
good enough
for You I ‘spose
it’s ok for me too
tho
I’ll
pass
on Hating
tS whilst having
perfect Attendance.
now that’s ^
Balance.
oh & how’s this for a
Hearty Endorsement of
MUX’s Mxtwitter wormmy?
will you
include this
in your cute little
Scorecard, little buddy?
“Why should any responsible society allow an unconscionable billionaire to inflame a country’s social divisions without consequences?” –@Tom; New Hampshire
I find your constant calls
for Ideological Purity
a stupid distraction
but that’s precisely
your Intention,
isn’t it?
well
That
& Selling
Capitalism’s
Biggest Lies to
tS’s Massive audience.
@46
*yeah
Kamala
even read
MY Comments
–HERE–
and decided to take
a Closer Look at Gov. Walz
who we Decided was Perfect for veep.
so
I’ve got
That going for
Me, which is Nice.
@48: You just keep repeating that until you’re sure.
Meanwhile, the Stranger continues taking large amounts of material straight from the Xitter — a source you claim to despise — without a peep of protest from you. Whatevs, dude.
it’s
Good
to see your
Misrepresentations
Wormtongue. they give
me Hope you’ll reach that
Bad Place sooner rather than
Later
dude.
@47: “I find your constant calls
for Ideological Purity
a stupid distraction”
Well, I was asking if it’s too much for the Stranger to stop linking to a site whose owner wants Trump re-elected. Apparently you agree that it is, that it’s perfectly ok for a “Progressive” site like the Stranger to give clicks and potential revenue to a pro-Trump site. I guess I see my concern as less about “Ideological Purity,” and more about wanting Trump kept out of the White House.
ah Yes
dialogging
with wormmy
oh so inquisitive
Wormtongue always
‘seeking The Truth!’ even
whilst located deeply in De Nile or
is it the Amazon River just like any Candirú
Wormtongue you can keep your factually-free
inquisitions cum extropolations or better yet you
can just put ’em where the sun don’t never Shine.
@52, etc.: It’s fun to see where all of your ranting about billionaires and ‘Fascism’ ultimately ended up: total collapse into limp acceptance of the Stranger linking to a site owned by a billionaire, and not just any right-wing billionaire, either; a foreign-born billionaire, who wants Trump re-elected.
(You must really have trouble understanding why you can’t get anyone to agree with all of your other rants, about “GENOCIDE,” AIPAC, etc.)