Landlords Fined: The first violators of a new Washington state law capping rent hikes were fined. It’s now illegal for landlords to raise rent more than 10 percent on most rentals. The limit on manufactured homes is 5 percent. After the bill took effect in May, eight landlords who own properties across the state boosted tenants’ rents for around 250 tenants beyond the new limits. Attorney General Nick Browngave them a heads up that what they were doing violated state law and the landlords rescinded the increases and paid the rent back to their tenants. Each of the landlords still have to pay $2,000 fines from the Brown’s office. If you think your landlord is overstepping these new limits, tattle on them and complain to Brown.
Israel Plans to Intensify War, Take over Gaza City: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to intensify Israel’s military presence in Gaza—you know, the one that’s killed tens of thousands of people, forced people from their homes, and triggered famine throughout the territory. Netanyahu wants Israel to take control of Gaza City by mobilizing thousands of troops and forcibly removing civilians. This new goal is smaller than the original plans Netanyahu aired Thursday where he said he wanted Israel to control all of Gaza, a move the Israeli military did not support. The new Gaza City takeover announcement sparked resistance from international allies. Germany barred the export of any arms exports to Israel. Hamas, meanwhile, said the military takeover would mean “sacrificing” the remaining Israeli hostages in their possession.
Whippin’ It: Over the weekend, Seattle police arrested a Tacoma man after he offered firefighters whippets—or, a balloon filled with nitrous oxide to huff—while he was in traffic. The firefighters politely declined. The man then allegedly rammed his car into the firetruck multiple times. Interestingly, recreational whippet use is on the rise, especially at concerts, where the drug has been popular among jam-band fans for decades (police arrested a man outside a San Francisco Dead & Company show for possession of 100 nitrous oxide tanks). Between 2019 and 2023, deaths from whippets rose 110 percent.
The Weather: No rain today. No rain again for the foreseeable future. I hope you enjoyed your little taste of the months to come. Now, remember how much you miss the sun in those dark, gray months and cherish today’s rays. It’ll reach 76 degrees today. The big sun and big heat returns next week.
In Mosquito News… A woman in East Pierce County contracted malaria. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Washington State Department of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating how she got it. If she got it in Washington, then this would be the first locally-acquired malaria case in the state ever.
Give Up Your Blood: Hey, when was the last time you gave blood? Bloodworks Northwest needs to boost its supply. It’s just sitting there in your veins. This is a simple thing you can do to give back. Sign up to donate here.
The Onion puts out an ICE hiring ad:
From this month’s edition of The Onion.
— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) August 7, 2025 at 9:32 AM
And how does that make you feel? Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill into law this week that bans AI therapists, a first for any state in the US. The bill also bans therapists (human ones) from using AI to make any “therapeutic decisions” or for “therapeutic communication.” Are we all enjoying living in a sci-fi novel? I’m iffy on it so far.
Cartoon Villain Shit: Vice President JD Vance and his family went on a kayaking trip on Ohio’s Little Miami River to celebrate Vance’s 41st birthday. Apparently, ahead of the trip, the US Secret Service asked the army corps of engineers to change the outflow of the river to increase water levels to “support safe navigation.” A source told The Guardian that increasing the water levels was about more than safety, they said it was for “ideal kayaking conditions.” The core of engineers did in fact increase outflows from Caesar Creek Lake to boost the rivers’ water level.
Nothing to See Here: At a meeting hosted by JD Vance, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel, and other Trump officials met to strategize about the Jeffrey Epstein of it all. The Trump administration continues to face criticism for not releasing all of the files, despite Trump promising to do so on the campaign trail. It could have a little something to do with his name being all over those files. Anyway maybe his crack team of idiot goons hatched a brilliant plan in their meeting. I doubt it.
Lowjacked by Meta: Hey, uh, a new Instagram feature may be taking your location and sharing it with everyone you follow. That’s a nightmare. Here’s how to turn it off.
Cringe Warning: Axios tried to write about rap.
It should be illegal for Axios to write about rap
— Bradford Pearson (@bradfordpearson.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Nazis Love the Trump era: White extremism is becoming normalized under Trump. “He’s the best thing that’s happened to us,” the co-leader of Aryan Freedom Network told Reuters. Read more here.
ICYMI: We’ve updated our primary election takeaways with the newest numbers for King County Elections. Progressive leads still hold strong, but there was the tiniest conservative bump in Thursday’s ballot drop.
Please Stop Throwing Green Dildos at WNBA Players: Since late July, three neon green dildos have been chucked onto the court at WNBA games across the country. The first time, it was kind of funny. Players even joked about it online. After the third time—and with many teams reporting dildo confiscation, disrupting plans for further dildo tossing—it just feels bad, a mockery of the league, and of women’s sports as a whole. The culprits make the whole thing worse. The green dildo tossers are tied to a new cryptocurrency, a memecoin called Green Dildo Coin. The attention from these disruptions increased the trading volume by more than $1.5 million. We live in the stupidest of times.
A Song for your Friday: The new women’s sports bar on Capitol Hill that’s named after this song is having its grand opening Friday.
More in NEWS
Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
continued from above:
“That Israel would feel the need to draw attention to its depravity with this targeted strike at this time shows it has some very ugly intentions for Gaza City that it doesn’t want the world to see.
One of the many plot holes in Israel’s claim that it can’t let foreign journalists into Gaza because it’s not safe is that there are now huge areas which have been completely captured and controlled by the IDF.
That’s where the GHF [Gaza Humanitarian* Foundation] sites are,
which is where journalists are most sorely needed right now.
It’s not like it’s 2023/2024 and journalists would need to follow Israeli forces into Gaza City to document gun battles with Hamas or take their crews through areas where the IDF could be carrying out air strikes.
They could safely just set up their cameras at aid
distribution sites and document what’s happening.
The only reason this hasn’t occurred is because Israel
doesn’t want the world to see what it’s doing
at those aid distribution sites.
There is absolutely no other explanation.”
haven’t yet read
the Wormtongue/AIPAC’s
horrific inhuman response & likely never will
I’ll keep its poison rhetorics Outta my brain, thanks.
I’ve witnessed more than enuff Already thanks
but I’m certain its tortured justifications’ll be
here plenty soon Enough spewed like a
Gazan baby’s intestines
all over Palestine.
speaking of Obscenities.
*”Humanitarian.”
as in Human
Fucking
Beings
speaking of those who would
Remake the World in their
Own Horrific Image
and Terrorists:
a wee bit more from Caitlin’s Newsletter
“British police arrested 522
people for holding signs saying
“I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”
in response to their government banning the activist group
as a terrorist organization. Nearly half of those arrested were over sixty years old.
When I was young
and naive I thought
terrorism looks like some-
one detonating a car bomb
or crashing planes into skyscrapers.
Now that I’m mature and [re-] educated
I know that terrorism actually looks like
an elderly woman holding a sign say-
ing people should be allowed
to oppose genocide.
This is a society
that has gone
stark raving
insane.”
thanks, wormmy!
oh and you Too
mister magoo
and all Genocidal
apologists everywhere
oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-assassinates-more-journalists
one more:
“U2 frontman Bono has finally issued a statement
calling for peace in Gaza two years into a genocide,
and however bad you expected it to be I guarantee it’s worse.
He works his way through pretty much
every pro-genocide Israeli talking point
while pretending to care about Palestinians.
He spends paragraphs on October 7,
mentions the word “Hamas” 14 times,
falsely claims “Hamas are using starvation as
a weapon in the war,” says “Hamas had deliberately
positioned themselves under civilian targets, having
tunneled their way from school to mosque to hospital,”
[hmmm. just like our Wormtongue]
babbles about the 1988 Hamas charter while ignoring
its 2017 revisions, blames the whole thing on
Netanyahu, and of course mentions
“Israel’s right to exist.”
I seriously think he hit every major hasbara talking point.
I don’t think he missed a single one. It’s genocide
propaganda disguised as humanitarianism.
Bono is a piece of shit.”
defending
Israel’s Genocide
tends to Do that to
a person, over time.
see our AIPAC denialist/s, above,
oh and for the past nearly
two fucking years.
and in less horrific maddening and sadly depressing News:
from The Needling, Seattle’s Only Real Fake News:
Mayor Harrell Threatens to Move
Back to Bellevue If Katie Wilson
Wins This Fall
After coming up short
on primary night despite his
expected invincibility as the local
political establishment’s PAC-funded pick,
today Mayor Bruce Harrell threatened to move
back to Bellevue with his rich friends if progressive
Katie Wilson wins the race for Seattle mayor again this fall.
“I never wanted it to come to this, but I’m afraid
that if you don’t give me a second term as
mayor, Seattle, I’m going to leave you
for Bellevue with all my rich friends,”
said Harrell with his dear friend,
former Seattle mayor and alleg-
ed foster-child molester Ed
Murray at his side. “And
you don’t want that to
happen because,
believe me, do
you have any
idea how
bored
you’re gonna be
with a mayor who actually
does their job of serving every
Seattle resident instead of immediately
bending over for rich homophobic Denny
Blaine residents who can’t understand the
concept of a public park or state law? Instead
of threatening to defund the city’s labor rights
department when it investigates wage theft at my
gentleman’s club? What if she actually does something
other than wear denim on Denim Day for domestic violence victims?
Will there even be enough officers to terrorize
the homeless and the queers? KUOW’s had
enough taken from them this year – don’t
take away my endless font of scandals
to investigate from them too.”
more oodles, humorously:
https://theneedling.com/2025/07/05/mayor-harrell-threatens-to-move-back-to-bellevue-if-katie-wilson-wins-this-fall/
@50 — from The Guardian:
Anas al-Sharif, prominent Al Jazeera correspondent,
among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza
Israel admits
deliberate attack
on the journalist, known
for frontline coverage, in a
strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital
The Israel Defense Force admitted the strike,
claiming the reporter had “served as the
head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas
terrorist organisation and was re-
sponsible for advancing rocket
attacks against Israeli civilians
and IDF forces”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/10/prominent-al-jazeera-journalist-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-gaza
pretty Certain
wormmy can
Confirm, if
only anec-
dotally,
which
is
“plenty good Enough!”
for both him, AIPAC,
and for You, too.
@55
[pardon my Ubiquity
but it seemed a rather Quiet
Night currently here at the Stranger]
[[pls feel Free to post Your thoughts too!]]
more from The Guardian’s report, above, on Gazan reporter Anas al-Sharif:
After the attack, the CPJ [Community to Protect Journalists*]
said it was “appalled” to learn of the journalists’ deaths.
“Israel’s pattern
of labelling journalists
as militants without providing
credible evidence raises serious
questions about its intent and respect
for press freedom,” said CPJ regional director Sara Qudah.
“Journalists are civilians
and must never be targeted.
[betchya that got a laugh from the pro-genociders]
Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable.”
[betchya That did too].
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned
what it described as a “bloody crime” of assassination.
The 28-year-old leaves behind a wife and two small children.
His father was killed by an Israeli strike on the family home in
Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City in December 2023. At the time
al-Sharif said he would continue to report and refused to leave northern Gaza.
Another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, said:
“This is perhaps the hardest thing I’m reporting about the past 22 months.
I’m not far from al-Shifa hospital, just one block away,
and I could hear the massive explosion that
took place in the past half an hour
or so, near al-Shifa hospital.
“I could see it when it lit up the sky and, within moments,
the news circulated that it was the journalist camp
at the main gate of the al-Shifa hospital.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/10/prominent-al-jazeera-journalist-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-gaza
Jesus H. Christ
what a surprise
ok, last one, I promise
speaking of what, on or about Oct. 8th, 2023
[OMFG has it Been That Fucking L O N G]
wormmy called “the Fog of War!”
this remarkable statistic, from the Guardian article, above:
“Israel, which does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza and which has targeted local reporters, has killed 237 journalists since the war started on 7 October 2023, according to Gaza’s government media office. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict. Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists.”
well.
at Least
it ain’t Genocide.
[okay, here’s a link for @52 so it’s
not Officially another comment.
see: ‘wormmy’s justifications’
for complete details]
“At 81, Deborah Hinton, a former British magistrate who was honoured by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the community, seems an unlikely terrorist suspect. In the quiet town in south-west England where she lives, much of her retirement is spent walking along the cliffs, raising funds for the nearby cathedral choir, and supporting local charities.
But last month she was detained in a police cell for seven hours, fingerprinted and had a DNA swab taken from her mouth. It was the first time she had ever been arrested, and the experience left her “in a state of trauma” and “shaking uncontrollably”. She could face a jail sentence of six months under UK terrorism legislation.
Hinton is among more than 200 Britons who have been arrested in recent months for peacefully protesting about the war in Gaza and the designation by the British government of an activist group, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organisation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/09/defiance-grows-uk-ban-palestine-protest-group-action
“Day is night
and night
is day
and you mustn’t
See it any other
way.”
@49: Weak.
@59 — that’s your “rebuttal”? *
weak
as fuck.
you’re gonna Need
another two
thousand
words
*why, it’s merely yet
another projection
and-as-per-usual.
see: @49.
50 – 58.
Wowie, a particularly strung batch of meth coming outta belltown this week!
@61
also
weak
as fuck
there Is
no rebuttal
to Israel’s Genocide
on OUR Tax Dollars. oh
well — at least They have
Socialized fucking Medicine
more from Caitlin’s Newsletter:
Debating
Israel Supporters
Is Pointless, Because They
Don’t Care About Facts Or Morality
If you follow me [Caitlin Johnstone] on Twitter you’ve probably seen me engaging with Israel supporters to address their arguments, but please don’t take this as a suggestion that engaging with Israel supporters is a good idea generally. It isn’t.
I engage Zionists online in order to make sure their hasbara damages Israel more than it helps it by using their comments to show everyone that these people always lie about everything, and to familiarize myself with the hasbara talking points of the day so that I can attack them.
I do this because I’m a visible figure who writes about this stuff every day for a living, and I’ve found a very energy-efficient strategy for doing so which doesn’t consume too much of my time and focus. For most people there’s no good reason to ever engage these freaks at all.
Israel supporters are never, ever engaging in good faith — at least not the ones you’re likely to encounter in online spaces. Their goal is never to communicate or to have a conversation, it’s to advance the information interests of a genocidal apartheid state.
They will say whatever they need to say, and pretend to believe whatever they need to pretend to believe, in order to accomplish this.
If you engage them you’re not having a normal conversation with a normal person, you’re having a conversation with a psychological operation aimed at manipulating public perception.
You’re dumping your mental and emotional energy into a black hole, and they are happy to have you waste your energy in that way.
You will never change a Zionist’s mind with facts and logic or convince them to reconsider their position using robust argumentation.
This is a rare thing to accomplish on any topic because human minds in general tend to bias toward maintaining their preconceived notions, but it’s absolutely unheard of when it comes to Israel’s supporters. They’re not even really listening to you, they’re just machine gunning you with whatever words they think will help improve Israel’s public image and undermine public trust in its critics.
It is very fruitful to engage and educate people who aren’t sure about the genocide in Gaza.
It can be fruitful to engage the mainstream liberals who previously defended Biden on Gaza or the Trump voters who are now shaky on the president’s Israel First policies.
Any normal person with an open mind can be shown the facts and find their way to a truthful and moral understanding of this issue. But you will never move an Israel supporter no matter what you say, because Israel supporters are not interested in facts or morality like normal people are.
–by Caitlin Johnstone, August 9, 2025
oh, so Much more:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/debating-israel-supporters-is-pointless
allowing the Wormtongue to use this Platform
for his and AIPAC’s misinformation seems
to require a counter to their Horrific
and evil Narrative. Glad I can be
Here (for now, at least) to Help.
Bless [half-ways, anyway!] you, @ts!
@59 https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/aug/09/a-deadly-scheme-palestinians-face-indiscriminate-gunfire-at-food-sites
Thoughts?
@46, Clear evidence? One indictment for blocking food aid into Gaza.
Allegations of others, with no indictments. That’s clear evidence?
Your commitment to civil liberties and presumptions of innocence are heartwarming. Allegation = evidence is anathema to civil liberties and rule of law.
@50, Even the Arab League says its Hamas:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/30/middleeast/arab-league-hamas-gaza-israel-intl
@52,
“This is a society
that has gone
stark raving
insane”
Has that not always been the state of humanity? Human nature? I.e. The depravity of man
@64, See @65. Who says it was indiscriminate? What threat did the IDF perceive that they were firing at? The link doesn’t tell us.
It tells us that shots were fired near non-combatants, which in and of itself is not a war crime (it could be if other elements are proven), and that the munitions were likely Israeli. It doesn’t tell us what threat the IDF was perceiving, prove that perception was objectively unreasonable with what the person firing could perceive at the time, or prove there were no combatants among or near the non-combatants (collateral damage is not a war crime).
You’re laying it on a little thick Neale
@69
Kneel’s
Far too
Intelligent
for us mental
Midgets here @tS
mister magloo
needs to go some-
where hell Anywhere where
he can engage other such Brilliants
equal to or (good luck!) even Smarter than he.
he’s wasting away
his Prime on an
unappreciative
and uncaring
audience &
for What?
nothing but abusive
clamorings for his
rapid Departure.
@64: The hand-waving dismissal at evidence of Hamas’ violence represented a high point in that article. Especially after (unknown to the Guardian, apparently), Hamas has already threatened violence against anyone helping GHF to deliver aid. (No recriminations over that, though; Hamas has the unlimited right to kill as many Palestinians as it deems prudent, and no one here at the Stranger will ever write so much as one single word of criticism for it.)
As for the rest of it, that’s been in the Wall St. Journal for weeks, but you’ll simply call me unhinged if I quote from there, so I won’t.
@71 notably absent from your response: any “care about the premeditated murders of defenseless civilians in a war zone”
wormmy/AIPAC
ain’t got neither
the Time nor
Bandwith to
“worry” re
Palestinian
Lives 1312
They’ve got themselves
a Whole Wide World
to Conquer. do Try
and Keep Up. oh
and Remember:
Israel is the
REAL Victim.
@72: Hamas can end this any time it wants. Please take your concerns to them.
oh wormmy
even you know
if nutnyahoo Stops*
his Genocide on Palestine
he goes Directly to either an
Israeli Prison or a war crimes tribunal
the sole way of Ending this Genocide
is to Depose bibi and either take
him to court for Corruption
or Pardon his ass and his
Exiting Politics for
fucking EVER.
*the Hostages
have never been more than
an Afterthought to this extreme ‘right’ regime
Any normal person with an open mind can be shown the facts and find their way to a truthful and moral understanding of this issue. But you will never move an Israel supporter no matter what you say, because Israel supporters are not interested in facts or morality like normal people are.
–by Caitlin Johnstone, August 9, 2025
@76
substitute ‘Zionist’ for Israel
supporter for a more
Accurate synopsis
@72: It was there, you just missed it. So, I’ll spell it out for you. The Guardian literally found hard evidence to indicate Hamas had shot at hungry Palestinians, near IDF positions. The Guardian then simply hand-waved that hard evidence away. So the Guardian’s “care about the premeditated murders of defenseless civilians in a war zone,” is exactly the same as the Stranger’s: it’s absolutely a-OK if Hamas does it. In each case, the journalists (real or self-proclaimed) won’t so much as pretend to investigate even hard evidence.
On the topic of the sources you choose, a subtle pattern begins to suggest itself.
@78 etc
speaking
of ‘patterns’
“Subtle” or Otherwise:
Hamas
committed
War Crimes on
October 7th, 2023
murdering 1,200
kidnapping 251 more
whilst bibi
had relaxed
Israel’s border
with Gaza, EVEN
AFTER BEING WARNED
REPEATEDLY
of Increased Hamas Activity
on that same border.*
since then,
Israel’s Killed
WELL OVER 65,000
Mostly Women, Children
and The Elderly, & some Hamas
totally fucking DESTROYED
ALL of Gaza’s Infrastructure
Water Treatment Centers
Hospitals & Universities
and is currently
STARVING TO DEATH
Gazans all whilst Murdering
(along with Hamas, apparently)
Gazans Desperate for Food and Water
and
yet our
Resident
AIPAC rep
wants for you
to Believe “BOTH
SIDES ARE THE SAME!”
This is who
is Commenting
here @tS: bear this
in mind whenever You read
it’s AIPAC-fed fucking PROPAGANDA.
*why?
well, if
You wanted
to Keep the Fuck
Outta Prison, why not
allow your neighbor to attack
&
what better Distraction than
an nasty Assault on your
Homeland to keep
your imminent
& upcoming
Corruption
Trial at
Bay?
also @78:
“In each case,
the journalists
(real or self-proclaimed)
won’t so much as pretend
to investigate even hard evidence.
On the topic of the sources you choose,
a subtle pattern begins
to suggest itself.”
tensorna on August 12, 2025 at 6:29 PM
getting back to @57, above
that insanely disturbing part
which our dear Wormtongue
won’t even Pretend to Acknowledge
Because it’d DESTROY HIS PRO-AIPAC NARRATIVE:
let’s refresh our memories,
shall we, wormmy?
“Israel, which does not allow foreign journalists
into Gaza and which has targeted local reporters,
has killed 237 journalists since the war started on 7
October 2023, according to Gaza’s government media office.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists said
at least 186 journalists have been killed
in the Gaza conflict. Israel denies
deliberately targeting journalists.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/10/prominent-al-jazeera-journalist-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-gaza
speaking
of Denial
& pro-Israeli
Disinformation