Gird for Gridlock: Freeways are so dumb. Unfortunately, we are stuck in a world where we rely on them. And, in this world, they are old and broken and need a whole lot of fixing. This weekend will kick off 30 days of the northbound lanes on I-5 to repave the Ship Canal Bridge. That’s only the first stage of the project, though. This 30-day closure only fixes a 900-foot-long section. To tackle more construction necessities, the bridge will be closed occasionally for construction until 2027. According to the Seattle Times, the freeway will be closed starting at “the I-90 junction to Northeast 45th Street, from 11:59 p.m. Friday, July 18, until 5 a.m. Monday, July 21.” Maybe think twice about those out of town trips this weekend. Or, take a bus or train.
Colbert Canceled: Stephen Colbert announced at The Late Show Thursday that CBS will end his show in May. He will not be replaced, the Late Show will simply end. The decision came suspiciously soon after Colbert criticized Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, for coughing up $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump who alleged election interference over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, Paramount Global is also in the middle of seeking “Federal Communications Commission approval to merge with Skydance Media, a $8.4 billion agreement,” NPR reports. It is not a sign of a democracy’s health when the late night comedy shows start being muzzled.
Speaking of NPR, Media Muzzling, and Healthy Democracies: The spineless ghouls known as the House Republicans officially approved Trump’s $9 billion funding cut proposal. The cuts mean an end to $8 billion in foreign aid funding and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. This will be especially devastating for rural NPR stations that rely heavily on federal funds.
The Weather: We are leaving the scorchers behind for now. Today and this weekend temperatures will only flirt with the low and mid-70s.
Did we all see this? A Coldplay concert seemingly outed an affair between the CEO of a company called Astronomy and the head of HR. The two got caught on the Jumbotron and, instead of playing it cool, they reacted in the most guilty way. The internet has had its fun with this story. When rich philanderers get their comeuppance, it feels like punching up. But there is something to be said about this moment and the internet doxing of regular people. Ruining people’s lives has become a game made easier with facial recognition tools and AI. Adding a layer of grossness to this dystopia, cryptocurrency gambling site Polymarket has bets up about whether the CEO will lose his job. 404 Media has more.
a software ceo got caught in 4k on the jumbotron with the company’s chief people officer at a coldplay concert
— Brian Floyd (@brianmfloyd.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 5:14 AM
The Pinnacle of Good Health: A doctor diagnosed Trump, who is 79 years old, with chronic venous insufficiency, a typical illness in elder folk. As one of the elderly, Trump has been experiencing swelling in his legs thanks to the valves in his blood not working properly to fight against gravity. Could the weird bruises on the back of his hands covered up with the wrong shade of concealer be part of the same problem? No, you idiot, obviously those are workplace injuries born of “frequent handshaking,” as press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The Epstein of It All: I can’t even keep up with this Jeffrey Epstein business. Piecing together recent updates, it seems the Wall Street Journal published a letter from Trump to Epstein for the latter’s birthday album. The letter bears Trump’s name and includes the outline of a hand drawn naked woman around the text. It ends with “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” The Journal described the contents of the letter, but didn’t publish it. Trump promised legal action, saying “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.” Meanwhile, caving a bit to outcry from his own base, Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury statement in the Epstein prosecution. That’s a small bone to throw for people obsessed with secret pedophiles who want to sift through all the investigation materials.
I believe Don Jr. that his dad has never sent him a handwritten birthday card.
— Molly Knight (@mollyknight.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Big Dumps Only for Cal Raleigh: Cal Raleigh, the major league baseball home run leader known to fans as Big Dumper for his sizable backside, just signed an advertising deal with HoneyBucket. The port-a-potty company. Way to lean in, Cal.
Trash Talk: If your garbage is rotting on the curb, waiting for somebody to pick it up, blame Republic Services. The company is fighting its union on contract improvements, and over 2,000 Republic Services workers nationwide are striking. In Western Washington, Republic services a mess of towns across the region. You may need to take the trash out—like, to a dump—yourself unless the company gets its priorities straight.
City Councils Chooses Moore Replacement Finalists: Council member Cathy Moore resigned. Her seat opened up. The City Council will appoint one of six finalists they selected for the job. It will probably be former City Council president Debora Juarez, whose ideology aligns with the majority of the current council. Even though Juarez is basically a sure thing, the other finalists include: James Bourey, who led the Office for Planning in the 1980s, Katy Haim, employee at the Office of Planning and Community Development, Nilu Jenks, the political director for rankchoice voting advocacy group FairVote Washington, Julie Kang, Seattle University’s director of professional education and faculty, and Robert Wilson, a Navy veteran and senior manager at Amazon.
ICYMI: Thousands of Bruce Harrell employees do not want their boss to win re-election. PROTEC17, the union representing more than 3,000 city workers, endorsed Katie Wilson. Hannah Murphy Winter has more here.
In Their Own Backyard: The Denver Museum of Nature and Science found a partial fossil underneath its own parking lot.
Please help look for Blewett: Capitol Hill, keep your eyes peeled for this beloved cat!
ATTN CAPITOL HILL! Blewett, famous porch sitter of 14th (you’ll often see him with his brother Snoqualmie), is missing. Check your basements and laundry rooms, where he has been known to frequent!
— Sydney Brownstone (@sydbrownstone.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Now, a moment of grief and legacy from Charles Mudede after the passing of Stranger family member Bradley Sweek.
Bradley Sweek’s last day in time is now known: July 17, 2025. He was born in 1961. He was raised in Portland. His political condensation was accelerated, as I understand, in Olympia. He was an artist with a first-rate visual mind, an impeccable human being, and the husband of Gillian Anderson, the former copyeditor of The Stranger. In fact, for reasons that are obvious, I know his wife better than him. But some time in 2011, he approached me out of the blue and talked me into not only visiting Oriental Mart in Pike Place Market, but also writing about it. The Philippines, I learned as we ate at the mart, was in Sweek’s blood. He knew not only what to order but the history of each dish.There is, for sure, nothing we can do about death. But we can recognize and celebrate, while we are in time, while we are not among the shades, those who were once here and spent their time here becoming a real human being. Such was Sweek.
A song for your Friday: Light, ethereal. May it ease you through whatever is to come.
Trump maybe could have shot a person on 5th Ave and got away with it, but denying his people their elitist pedo investigation materials was a bridge too far
“I don’t lie.” …literally lies every chance he gets
“I don’t doodle.” …literally sells his doodles for a shit ton of money.
“I don’t have sex with children.” …you can guess this part.
“Ruining people’s lives has become a game made easier with facial recognition tools and AI.”
So cheating isn’t the issue, its getting caught more efficiently through technology. Got it.
Freeways aren’t dumb, they’re the way normal people get around who don’t want to smoke second hand fentanal smoke on a bus or be subjected to harrasment by a bunch of vagrants on the train.
If you’re having an affair, going to a concert is a huge gamble even without this kiss cam business. Nonetheless, pointing a camera at people and demanding they kiss is something we should have stopped doing a long time ago.
@3 tell me you’ve never encountered the inside of a bus or train outside of the fearmongering fanfics you’re reciting without saying so, lol. I’ve been polluted and harassed (usually by bloated pickups driven by impatient little men in both cases) driving on I-5 far more often than I’ve encountered what you’re talking about in my 10 years as a frequent transit user (zero times)
@4, There is a long line of SCOTUS and state court precedent that you have no expectation of privacy in public places. It’s carried over from the Government vs. citizen context, to the civil realm where its private party v. private party (i.e. the viral video is admissible in divorce court, sexual harassment litigation, etc.)
Cameras are everywhere. In people’s hands, on homes, on businesses, on cars (protection from legal claims in an accident) and on traffic equipment. If you are out in public, you have no legal right to refuse to be photographed, unless the photo is for a commercial use, and even then you are refusing the commercial use, not the capturing of the image.
You may be suggesting a social norm. That’s fine.
The legal precedent is, “smile, you are Candid Camera,” so to speak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_expectation_of_privacy_(United_States)
last time i took the bus a vagrant and a fentanyl were on the bus making babies and i saw one of the babies and it looked at me
That birthday card Trump did for Epstein isn’t that earthshaking and will blow over.
6 kindly show me where i said anything about what’s legal, idiot
@5: That’s like saying you lived in Kansas but never saw a tornado and confidently surmise that tornados never occur in Kansas.
@8 it’s gonna be so great when a video is unearthed of Trump and Epstein spitroasting a 16 year old and you still rush to claim it’s no big deal and will blow over. Why exactly are you so invested in this story dying anyway?
@11: I’m not “invested” it’s just how the media and MAGA are these days, given that Trump’s tawdry dispositions are already baked in so to speak.
“late night comedy shows”
Colbert isn’t funny, therefore his show is not a “comedy show”.
13: Nobody finds Colbert funny – he’s a contemptible obnoxious lib of the worse kind
@9, I indicated you were most likely suggesting a social norm. That said, what is legal and what isn’t, is often a reflection of social norms society feels so strongly about, we want to put the coercive enforcement power of government behind it.
Society seems to come down on the side of you are free to film or photograph anything and anyone you want as long as it can be captured from a public vantage point, even if the person captured from a public street in a private business (e.g. through business window from a sidewalk) or a private yard.
Feel free to continue not liking that and suggesting we need a different social norm. I support your right to so.
@11, At this point it would appear that Trump could have murdered somebody and the people who supported him with the popular vote wouldn’t care.
As former, very conservative, Republican Congressman, and 2020 contender for the Republican Nomination said, “The Republican Party has become a cult.”
@8 It might, if Trump had shrugged it off as ancient history. But he didn’t, and his over-the-top (“IT’S FAKE!”) reaction is just fueling the growing suspicion even among longtime supporters that he’s trying to keep the lid on something really ugly.
16, If i thought it should be illegal i would have said so, and if i did the legal precedent would be moot because it would be implicit in my comment that i already know it’s legal, and if i think it should be a social norm for venues to not coerce people into kissing on camera it doesn’t matter whether or not it’s legal, but if i wanted legal advice from someone with no expertise whatsoever i would ask literally anyone but you
What appears to be frustrating Dear Leader is that the scandal he was using to impugn the Clintons also implicates him, and for once his loyal followers aren’t dutifully obeying his commands to ignore the evidence of their own senses and move on.
Maybe he shouldn’t have hyped the Big Reveal of the Special Super-Secret List so hard, but perhaps he wanted to distract his Qanon base from the fact that he was raising their taxes and cutting their medical care to pay for big tax cuts for the very same global elite whose names fill that list.
@11 Please don’t forget that Bill Clinton and Bill Gates will probably be making appearances in those same ‘supposed’ videos.
I took light rail to work for several years (our company had stopped providing free parking) and saw no less than 100 people smoking fentanyl on the train across that time. So @3 is correct about the risks of encountering dangerous drugs on light rail and @7 is being ridiculous. Luckily, after the commercial office crash, our company reinstated free parking so I’m off the dreaded light rail, hopefully for ever.
Johnny Carson avoid taking politics with his guests and in his monologue so that everyone would enjoy the show. That’s why he was so successful. That’s the problem the Colbert, Kimmel, Stewart, etc is that anyone right of center feels left out.
Y’all can have a good laugh at this, but it’s true.
22, you must be a child because johnny carson joked about politics all the time. The difference today is that conservatives are giant pussies who are scared of everything from children’s books to seeing homeless people on the bus. Someone making jokes about their idol makes them cry.
@20 The difference is… we liberals don’t care if Bill Clinton and Bill Gates go to jail or not. If they did something sexual with kids you can hang em both on live tv and I’ll happily clap. We don’t worship our politicians and CEOs the way republicans do.
Who cares about the affair? CEO dude should be fired for going to a Coldplay concert.
Those Trump doodles are terrible. At least Hitler could paint a bit.
@22 “the problem … is that anyone right of center feels left out.”
Participation trophy generation SMH
23: No, not all the time. Barbs here and there, of course. But he liked to avoid it. Of course, you always extrapolate a wide umbrella to fit your arguments, here it is what is political. You can validate Johnny’s philosophy on this. Twit.
26: Better as “Those Trump doodles are terrible. At least George W Bush can paint a bit.”
@28 I like that you create sockpuppets to swear and call people names so you can maintain the illusion that you’re always respectful
30: Aww, did I hurt your feelings. Sorry. Let me wipe your tears.
@21 Sounds like you’re a snowflake. I’ve taken light rail and subways to work going on three decades, starting back east and coming to Seattle, and experienced only a handful of times at most where someone was smoking “dangerous drugs.” It’s not hard to just alert the transit security. But you’re probably too paralyzed with fear. 🤣
In other news, civil rights wins again.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-state-law-requiring-clergy-to-report-child-abuse-on-hold/
31 no it’s just very funny to me how strange you are
Nathalie’s claim that “highways are stupid,” not only is manifestly jejune, it ignores TS deep appreciation of highways in recent years, not as vital conduits for commerce, but as venues to stage collective temper tantrums on matters as wide ranging as policing to Middle East policy.
34: What a jolly life you must have by being so easily amused.
I share the writer’s concern about the ongoing destruction of individual privacy (and the expectation thereof) that the proliferation of “kiss-cams” and the like play a small but real part. I also find them in questionable taste in much the same vein as elaborate public marriage proposals and gender reveals. But in any individual case, the essential question to ask is this: Is the behavior that was uncovered by the privacy breach a bigger offense than the privacy breach itself?
If we were talking about John the (married) mail clerk getting caught dallying with Sue the (married) receptionist, I’d say probably not. But a CEO and his HR manager? Definitely yes. These two hold positions of power over hundreds (thousands?) of people’s lives and are privy to intimate details about them. If I were an employee of their company I would be feeling very uneasy right now about having trusted so much about myself to people with such unreliable personal ethics, as I would wonder what other shady things they might be up to. Just my take.
36 well yes that’s usually how it works
@24 Nailed it. I was entirely on-board with the idea that Bill Clinton probably did deserve to be impeached for ~something~. Just not the foolishness that Republicans chose as the reason. And Bill Gates? Ha, where do I even begin? Lock him up on general principles.
Very sorry (though not surprised) at the Stephen Colbert news. He was an essential calming and sanity-restoring presence through the first Trump term and the lockdown (when he did some of his best-ever shows) although now I think his shtick has grown a bit tiresome and don’t watch anywhere near as religiously as I used to. Still, the loss of one of the very few incisive Trump critics with a real public megaphone is deeply regrettable. (And now that Trump has gotten his pound of flesh and then some from CBS, watch him block the merger anyway. That’s just how he rolls.)
Please pass my condolences on to Gillian and the family.
@39: What general principle [violations] would you lock Bill Gates up for?
@41 You obviously have never used Windows.
@41. Violating antitrust laws. Profiting from human trafficking.
@42: If you want to ruminate about that, fine. Get a mac – it’s like finally having power steering.
@43: Yes, aren’t antitrust laws wonderful! And, oh really – because of Epstein?
But never mind that he’s giving away most of his wealth, pioneered global health solutions for disease containment and things like water free toilets. The Gates foundation will close in 2045 or so, so that cluster of buildings by the Seattle Center can be repurposed or torn down – if that was bothering you.
But you prefer perfect over good.
@44 “never mind that he’s giving away most of his wealth”
Anyone who can give away 50-90% of their wealth to whatever causes they consider worthy and still have more than they and their kids and grandkids could ever spend, but doesn’t, deserves only the guillotine. So good for Bill for not being a subhuman like Bezos or Musk I guess.
@45: They can’t win for losing, right?
@21 – So, someone was counting the fentanyl smokers? What a sissy!
@44.
Not Epstein, per se, but Microsoft profiting from the private prison industry and free inmate labor. They are caught up with Geo Group and CoreCivic. It may not be Bill Gates to blame individually, but his company has turned into a monster. I’m pretty sure Bill Gates had his share of visits to Epstein’s island, however.
“But you prefer perfect over good.”
I learned on the job to never settle for less.
@48: So what’s been perfect then?
@49. Nothing.
Everything.
@50: Cool for you. But prisons are needed.
@45 “deserves only the guillotine.”
Hey Robespierre, don’t forget the events of 10 Thermidor.
@51, Yes they are, but not as many as we currently have. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world and the highest recidivism rate in the world. Something more restorative, for those who would be willing to take advantage of it, would serve us better.
@11: Megan Kelly and Maureen Callahan discuss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74osge5az64
@40 Lissa: +1 My heartfelt condolences, too.
Here’s hoping that beloved Capitol Hill kitty, Blewett returns safely home, healthy and intact.
People over here complaining about poor business practices of Bill Gates’s company that he literally has nothing to do with anymore while Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are out there trying to carve their names into the moon with a fucking laser.