In a meeting with House and Senate Democrats, Biden sought to turn down the heat. Credit: Andrew Harnik / GETTY

Have we complained enough about the heat yet? Yesterday was the peak of this godforsaken heat wave, but today is another scorcher with a high of 87. Thankfully, the current heat advisory from the National Weather Service expires at 5 pm. Our region’s new normal of sweltering summer temperatures costs more than sweat. According to the Seattle Times, more and more people are spending hundreds or thousands to install air conditioning in their homes. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of air-conditioned homes in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties increased by 44%.

Because I was heat-addled and bored, I asked the Washington Post’s new climate answers AI chatbot if climate change will destroy Seattle, which probably wasn’t productive given the electricity demands of AI. The bot told me that while its information did not “specifically predict the long-term destruction of Seattle due to climate change,” the extreme weather events like this heat wave were consistent with the broader patterns of climate change. The chatbot added (condescendingly, I’ll add, as it was a computer, and I was still wet from a 10-second cooldown shower and pitched between box fans) that I should already be aware that these conditions pose immediate risks to our health and infrastructure.

Now to Ashley, who walked around in the heat to bring you this story…

Council Member Tanya Woo reports hateful graffiti to the FBI: Northwest Asian Weekly ran an op-ed last week condemning some graffiti in the Chinatown-International District (CID) that targeted Woo. The original article had only one example of the messages scrawled across parts of the neighborhood, so we went out and found the rest. None of the messages featured explicitly racist language, though some people argued that putting the graffiti in the CID and targeting Woo specifically could point to racist intent. Couple things to note: Woo submitted the op-ed on behalf of the writer. She also said she never saw the graffiti herself and instead members of the community brought it to her attention, but the op-ed writer said they both saw the graffiti together. Woo ignored multiple requests for comments on this story.

Reichert watch: Today Washington State Dems launched a site highlighting gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert’s conservative record. If people type in reichertforgovernor.org, reichertforgovernor.net, reichertforwa.net, or reichertforwa.org they’ll be redirected to the website “ReichertRevealed.com,” a page that recounts his anti-abortion views and pro-MAGA track record. Washington State Democratic Spokesperson Hannah Kurowski said the website highlights what’s at stake for Washington and also “Reichert’s willingness to say one thing in public and another behind closed doors.”

Back to me!

Blurring the lines: Current and former staffers told the Seattle Times that Hillary Franz used her position as state public lands commissioner for political gain in a past race for Governor and in her current congressional run. Staff said they were pressured into organizing official DNR events influenced by her campaign needs and encouraged to attend her fundraisers.

Zapped: Regional power planners say Washington’s booming data center industry could push the state power grid beyond its limits in just five years. The centers will consume enough electricity to power five Seattles by 2029. If the industry overflows our capacity, planners warn the region would need to find more power sources to keep the lights on, which conflicts with our goals of phasing out fossil fuels and meeting environmental mandates that protect salmon.

Overnight fires: Seattle firefighters responded to three fires that killed two people Wednesday morning, KOMO reported. In Belltown, an apartment fire on Vine Street killed one person, left another in critical condition, and injured several more. A fire on the upper floor of a residence on 12th Ave South in South Seattle killed one person. In Ballard, SFD quickly put out a residential fire on 12th Ave Northwest before anyone was injured.

Should he stay or should he go? Sources told the Washington Post that it seemed as if dozens of lawmakers could call on President Joe Biden to step aside this week, but that mood shifted after the Congressional Black Caucus embraced him. On Tuesday, House Democrats gathered at DNC headquarters. As they left, most dodged reporters, and those who dared to stop gave only meek comments. Take Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who told House leadership in an off-the-record call just days ago that Biden had to go. He said his concerns were now “beside the point.” So far, 10 House Dems have publicly called for Biden to step aside, according to the Post. This morning, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested time was running out for Biden to make a decision. Seattle-area Congressman Adam Smith is still out here giving him the business, though: 

What about the Senate meeting? The Hill reports that Senators were concerned and anxious about Biden’s candidacy after the woebegone debate, but they are not anxious enough to call for his replacement. Someone familiar with the meeting told the Hill that Sens. John Tester (D-Montana), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) think Trump will beat Biden. Several senators warned that the party is in trouble if Biden stays in, while several others said Biden’s determination had mostly settled the debate for now, and that he has the pledged delegates to stave off any challenge at the DNC. 

Is it settled, though? If polling is to be believed, Biden is doing badly. Shortly after the Senators broke from their huddle, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report showed Trump gaining electoral ground. The forecaster reclassified toss-up states Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada to “lean Republican.” Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District moved from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat.” A national survey from top Democratic pollster Bendixen & Amandi found that of the 86% of likely voters who watched all or part of the debate, 61% thought Biden didn’t have the mental acuity or physical capacity to hold power for another four years. Only 33% said Biden should continue as the nominee. The survey also found Vice President Kamala Harris led Trump.

Thanks? To leverage this moment of Democratic confusion, failed Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley released her primary delegates and urged them to support Trump in a show of conservative unity. It means nothing. Trump only needed 1,215 delegates for the Republican nomination. He has almost twice that number. Haley had 97. Considering she wasn’t even invited to the Republican National Convention this year, it’s embarrassing, too.

Don’t be fooled: The New York Times reported that the Republican party has followed Trump’s lead and adopted a platform that’s softener on abortion, but it seems like a dupe. Trump knows abortion restrictions are a liability for his campaign. Bans appealed strongly to his evangelical base but repulsed many voters, and so he spun the issue into a question of states rights. For Slate, Susan Rinkunas argued that Trump and the Republicans can claim they’re not for a national abortion ban all day long. Their “new” position still leaves the door wide open for one. As President, Trump could enforce the 19th century Comstock Act and direct the FDA to revoke approval for the abortion drug mifepristone, and a Trump-y court could establish fetal personhood under the 14th Amendment.

Residents near a Bitcoin mine in Texas are living a “nightmare”: People in the city of Granbury, Texas, an hour outside of Fort Worth, told Time Magazine that the constant and “dull aural hum” emanating from the nearby Bitcoin factory is causing their splitting migraines, vertigo, fainting spells, heart palpitations, hypertension, tinnitus, and panic attacks. There is a growing body of research that shows the noise pollution from these virtual “mines” can cause the kind of mass public health problems one would only expect from a real one. In response, the industry is lobbying expeditiously to exempt themselves from noise restrictions. 

🎵Pee-Pee Man 🎵 Elton John allegedly whipped out his Elton Johnson in the middle of a shoe store in France to pee in a bottle on Monday. The shopkeeper told TMZ that he hadn’t known who John was, and that he didn’t possess good aim.

Vivian McCall is The Stranger's News Editor. In her private life, she is a musician and Wii U apologist. If you’re reading this, you either love her or hate her.

29 replies on “Slog AM: It’s Still Hot, Three Seattle Fires Kill Two, Dem Rebellion May Be Quelled for Now”

  1. Nadler is exactly right. It is irrelevant now, since Biden isn’t (apparently) going to quit and Biden is the only one who can make Biden quit.

  3. You don’t ask the elderly to stop driving. You take away the keys. Or you learn the hard way. Trump II is a twenty car pile up.

  5. Why would Woo speak to the Stranger? They have been consistently hostile, cannot be trusted to report in an unbiased fashion and have proven (see last election) their impact is minimal.

  6. @1,

    Yeah, I guess we’ll sink or swim with him. I’d say he’ll benefit from having precious few events between now & the election where he’ll be unscripted and forced to react to questions in an impromptu manner. But then he’s even having a demonstrably hard time just reading shit off a teleprompter lately. Jon Stewart calls attention to some more embarrassing gaffes in Monday’s TDS opening segment.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9LZXheHddI

    I’ll support him unequivocally, but he’s also unequivocally an asshole.

  10. smoulderin’ Joe

    oughtta take a Cue

    from Eltrumpfster and

    just End presidential Elections

    Before the

    Fascist does.

    “Republicans”

    can Always count

    on Dems obeying the Rules

    whilst they

    Shred ’em.

  11. Smokin Joe’s

    Gotta go

    nyt:

    Live Election Updates:

    Biden Faces More Calls to

    Drop Out as Allies Remain Uneasy

    George Clooney, a Biden fund-raiser, and Representative Pat Ryan, a vulnerable New York Democrat, said President Biden should step aside.

    Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and a longtime ally, appeared to ignore Mr. Biden’s insistence he’s running and said he must decide soon.

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/10/us/biden-trump-election

    Biden Tries to

    Silence His Doubters

    by Lashing Out at the ‘Elite’

    President Biden is pushing back

    against those who say he is

    not up to the job.

    He was the favorite of the Democratic Party elite. He had been around for decades, knew everyone who was anyone, was a regular habitué of Sunday talk shows and appeared to be the safest choice to take on President Donald J. Trump.

    Four years later, President Biden is now aggressively attacking the establishment that once formed the core of his support, deriding the “elites,” the pollsters, the pundits, the donors and balky members of his party while making himself out to be the victim of unfair persecution. “I don’t care what those big names think,” he declared this week.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/us/politics/biden-democrats-trump-election.html

    As Biden Struggles,

    the Fight for the House

    Takes On New Importance

    Only four seats separate Democrats from the House majority, making the chamber a potential bulwark against complete Republican control. But gaining even a handful of seats will be difficult.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/us/politics/house-biden-trump.html

    one reader’s comment on the latter:

    The House and the Senate are the other half of the problem with Biden staying in the race.

    He would create losses in both, thus giving complete control of the three branches of government with Trump’s victory; Executive, Legislative, and the branch they have obviously already captured, the Judicial.

    The opposite would be true if Joe steps aside when a new, charismatic, and much younger candidate is put forth. The excitement/ enthusiasm created would bring millions of swing voters, undecideds, angry, and frustrated voters to the polls,and bring the House and Senate enough victories for control by Democrats.

    The opportunity is right there for the taking.

    Every day is crucial. 115 days till the election, earlier for early voting. Democratic Party leaders need to lead and they need to do it now.

    –r2d2; Longmont, Colorado

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/us/politics/house-biden-trump.html#commentsContainer

  12. I felt compelled to email my representative and senators to ask them to respectfully encourage Biden to stand aside. You can too!

  13. I Love Joe Biden.

    But We Need a New Nominee.

    guest essay by George Clooney:

    I’m a lifelong Democrat; I make no apologies for that. I’m proud of what my party represents and what it stands for. As part of my participation in the democratic process and in support of my chosen candidate, I have led some of the biggest fund-raisers in my party’s history. Barack Obama in 2012. Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden in 2020.

    Last month I co-hosted the single largest fund-raiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden’s re-election. I say all of this only to express how much I believe in this process and how profound I think this moment is.

    I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.

    But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010.

    He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.

    Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign.

    –by George Clooney; July 10, 2024

    Mr. Clooney is an actor, director and film producer.

    oodles more:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/opinion/joe-biden-democratic-nominee.html

  14. @11 May I suggest that you read some different sources? The NYT has already decided that Biden needs to go, and are running a full court press on both the news and editorial pages. Consider, for example, this takedown of Sanger’s piece about Biden’s speech at the NATO summit:

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/07/10/the-lie-david-sanger-told-to-sustain-nyts-non-stop-campaign-against-joe-biden/

    Among other things, Sanger pretends that that Biden’s presence at the NATO summit is all about the Biden campaign and that doubts about the US’ commitment to NATO are just now surfacing. The latter is despite an article that he himself wrote a few months ago tracing those doubts to statements that Trump had made back then.

  15. Well, Elton John was the (pocket) Rocket Man.

    And Biden has gone full Captain Queeg! Lash yourselves onto the mast, maties!

  16. boatgeek @14, yeah, and MSNBC tried to do a whole big takedown of the Times story about a Parkinson’s specialist visiting the White House eight times in eight months.

    Unfortunately, neither MSNBC nor the random source you dug up on the Internet can produce a takedown that Biden’s performance in the debate or in the ABC News interview was an elaborate hoax.

  17. @16 Who said that the ABC interview or the debate performance is a hoax? I’m saying (a) that the NYT is wildly misrepresenting the facts including to the point that their own reporters are ignoring their own stories and (b) that Biden is the only person who can make Biden drop out. If he is deciding not to drop out, then nobody else is going to make him.

    Good of you to mention the neurologist. If the NYT had read the letter that they were “reporting” on for that story, they’d know that Cannard had examined Biden once at Biden’s regular annual physical, that Cannard found no evidence of Parkinson’s in that examination, and that Cannard’s other WH visits were to support military WH staff members at regular neurology clinics. So it’s Fox News-level “Fair and Balanced” reporting to pretend that there’s a story that Cannard’s visits to the WH indicate Biden might have Parkinson’s. And the NYT is rightly being called out for gross misrepresentation of the truth.

  18. @13 — Yes, I agree. Biden has been an excellent president. I think he would continue to be a good president. But this isn’t about his presidency (notice how rarely anyone calls for him to resign). This is about his candidacy. Can he convince enough voters to pick him? I don’t think so. A lot of voters are idiots. They don’t look at accomplishments or competency (or Trump would never be seriously considered). They look at bullshit. And right now Trump is winning the bullshit vote. The timing sucks but it could be much worse. There is a lot of time between now and the election. The “Grab them by the pussy” take was released October 7. Trump sank like a stone, but had time to recover. In comparison this is an eternity. It sucks because the Democratic voters don’t have a real say in who gets the nomination, but the process was always a mess (the order of the states, the various caucuses, etc.). There are worse things than an open convention.

  19. @17 “Biden is the only person who can make Biden drop out”.

    Of course, but that doesn’t mean others can’t convince him. For example, Obama could probably convince him to drop out. A larger group (e. g. Bill Clinton, previous Democratic nominees like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry) would add even more weight. You convince his wife, his inner political circle that it is time to go and he would probably go.

    @16 You brought up Parkinsons. Parkinsons is not easy to diagnose. There is no blood test (like COVID). A diagnosis is based on several symptoms, but not just one. A lot of those symptoms are common with aging. Unfortunately Biden has several of the symptoms and thus it is quite possible he has it, but has not been officially diagnosed with it yet. Just because he has it does not mean he has dementia. But given that voters are idiots, it is unlikely they would be able to make that distinction.

  20. boatgeek @17: “@16 Who said that the ABC interview or the debate performance is a hoax?”

    Nobody. And nobody can. That’s exactly my point.

    You can rail all you want about The New York Times; you can have The New York Times dead to rights; but this is not about The New York Times. That is all a sideshow and a distraction. We don’t need a smoking gun from The New York Times; we already have the smoking guns in Joe Biden’s own conduct.

    As Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, and Michael Bennet said privately, there is no way Biden can win.

    Of course, this is a Slog comments thread, so even the assertion that the sun will rise tomorrow is apt to be hotly debated.

  21. @19 Everyone who can reasonably be expected to convince Joe has had their shot, and he’s still staying in. If you could convince Jill or Barack or whoever else, you would have done it already because those folks see him regularly. Sure, we can bicker and piss and moan and drag this all out until the Democratic Convention when it will in fact be set in stone, or we can take no for an answer and move on. No means no, kids.

    Also re: Parkinson’s: Two of my uncles have Parkinson’s. Now that I think about it, it’s an interesting one to obsess over because (a) people can live a long time with Parkinson’s (both uncles were at 20+ years of life after diagnosis, one still counting) and (b) it doesn’t do that much to cognitive function. It can impair communication in later stages, but that’s far, far less of an issue if this is early stages.

    Again, Biden’s neurologist (who is being bandied about as a Parkinson’s expert!) made an expert diagnosis in February that Biden is not suffering from Parkinson’s. So even if he is showing early signs now, they are extraordinarily early signs and wouldn’t be expected to have a significant impact on a second term.

  22. Man, I’ve vacillated back and forth on this issue an embarrassing number of times already, but every single day more and more folks in positions of influence and authority are coming out and calling for him to step down. When I checked most recently today, there were a couple well respected and moderate (fwiw, the movement really is pretty ideologically diverse) representatives from New York who’d joined the chorus. And plenty of them are noting the threat, not just of Trump, but of potentially real and significantly harmful impact down ballot as well. So hopefully I was wrong there @6 and we won’t yet be resigned to his tenuously dangerous spot on the ballot. At some point the calls really could and would become just too loud and distracting to continue to dismiss, regardless of how stubborn he is.

  23. “Everyone who can reasonably be expected to convince Joe has had their shot, and he’s still staying in. If you could convince Jill or Barack or whoever else, you would have done it already because those folks see him regularly.”

    They could change their mind though. That is the point. There are a lot of people like @22 — they are on the fence. A huge number of Democrats are in that boat, probably including Obama himself. If you ask me a month ago I’m with Biden. He has been outstanding, and at some point I figure the voters get their head out of their collective asses and figure that out. He has a few decent performances (like the debate) and this gets put to rest. But that isn’t happening. It is the opposite. Guys like Jon Stewart are not making fun of him, they are calling for a change. This takes on a life of its own. I’ve seen this show before (with Gore, George H. W. Bush, Dukakis, Kerry). The press loves trying to reinforce a bullshit narrative. Every time Biden makes the simplest of mistakes it becomes news. Maybe Biden can break it at the next debate (pull a Reagan) but if not, it is time for others in the party to let him know it is time to exit the campaign.

    @21 — It varies. Some people with Parkinson’s experience minimal loss in mental capability, but other struggle. To quote https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/non-movement-symptoms/cognitive:

    To some degree, cognitive impairment affects many people with PD. The same brain changes that lead to motor symptoms can also result in slowness in memory and thinking.

    More to the point, it doesn’t matter. Much of the electorate can’t find Ukraine on a map. How the fuck can you expect them to understand the subtleties of a brain disorder? They won’t. They will assume the worst while ignoring the many warning signs that Trump has major mental problems himself.

  25. dear joe

    you lost me

    at the Genocide

    till your debate debacle

    Cuz it

    ain’t about

    hugging bibi &

    giving him Carte

    Blanche — it’s only

    about Function. time

    for your Advisors to put

    a Halt to the elder abuse

    and point you to the near-

    est pasture and set you Free

    and in the

    Process: Defeat

    Dumfuk Eltrumpfster!

    we’re talkin’

    Statues, MISTER

    PRESIDENT. Fucking

    STATUES. of you! on a horse?

    it’ll be

    Up To

    YOU!

    now point that motherfucker

    into the sunset and ride

    Please Mr President.

    Statues!

  26. dear joe

    you lost me

    at the Genocide

    till your debate debacle

    Cuz it

    ain’t about

    hugging bibi &

    giving him Carte

    Blanche — it’s only

    about Function. time

    for your Advisors to put

    a Halt to the elder abuse

    and point you to the near-

    est pasture and set you Free

    and in the

    Process: Defeat

    Dumfuk Eltrumpfster!

    we’re talkin’

    Statues, MISTER

    PRESIDENT. Fucking

    STATUES. of you! on a horse?

    it’ll be

    Up To

    YOU!

    now point that motherfucker

    into the sunset and ride

    Please Mr President.

    Statues!

  28. The Democrats proving, once again, they have the strategic acumen of a 3 year old. Once again, another insipid campaign ensues.

    “Does Biden have Parkinson’s disease?” This was not the high bar that will inspire millions to vote for him.

    Don’t think the future Trump administration won’t harm you. It will, every single one of you.

  29. @22 For every US Rep who jumps off the Team Biden boat, 10 loudly say they’re still on. At a bare minimum, you have the Progressive caucus in the House and the Congressional Black Caucus loudly on board.

    @23 This is starting to sound like a kid asking for a cookie. “Jill, can you get Joe to drop out?” “No” “Pllleeeeeeeeaaase? I’m going to go ask Dad!” No means no. And Obama is most definitely not on the fence. He is squarely behind Joe.

    @25 The most surprising statement I saw yesterday on Biden’s candidacy was from Ilhan Omar. “He’s been the best president of my lifetime and we have his back.” So much for Genocide Joe from one of the most pro-Palestinian voices in Congress.

Comments are closed.