Please do not be distracted by this lame matter about Katie Wilson being rich or not. The same sort of rubbish is happening with Zohran Mamdani: The “hijab-wearing ‘aunt” who feared for safety post-9/11” was actually his father’s cousin. So what? Brown and black immigrants almost never call a parent’s cousin a cousin. The children, Munya and Jesa, of my first cousin, Farayi, call me uncle; I’m not their bloody cousin. So, all of this is just a big waste of time. Like Mamdani, it’s Wilson’s politics that matter. This is what the race is all about. We are voting for her because she promises to do things Mayor Bruce Harrell clearly failed to do. The rest is beside the point.
The weather? It will rain a little this morning, but the afternoon will see some sun, which will be low in the sky and gone just before 6 pm. Expect a high in the mid 50s. Also expect Thursday to be pretty dry, and Friday to be very wet. Yesterday, Columbia City experienced around 5:30 pm a wonderful burst of loud rain that hit the windows of my house in a manner that recalled this passage from Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way: “A little tap at the window, as though some missile had struck it, followed by a plentiful, falling sound, as light, though, as if a shower of sand were being sprinkled from a window overhead; then the fall spread, took on an order, a rhythm, became liquid, loud, drumming, musical, innumerable, universal. It was the rain”
Amazon will cut jobs in Washington State: 2,300, according to GeekWire. Those getting the boot will be “software engineers, program managers, product managers, and designers, as well as a significant number of recruiters and human resources staff.” Apparently AI can now do all of those things now. No need for humans, who, unlike AI, always complain about this and that and have needs, and feelings, and even dreams.
What turned out to be better than The Stranger buying the famously wacky right-wing Uncle Sam Billboard in Chehalis? It being purchased by The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. The Native American organization has sent all of that cranky nonsense packing and replaced it with just the truth. Seattle, now we have a town to visit on our way down to Portland. Show Chehalis the love it now deserves.
A controversial billboard on I-5 between Seattle and Portland has a new owner, the Chehalis Tribe, and a simple message: “Native land.”
— KUOW Public Radio (@kuow.org) October 27, 2025 at 3:56 PM
This week: Maybe a ceasefire today; maybe no ceasefire tomorrow. This will likely become the pattern of the war on Gaza. NBC: “Israel says ceasefire back on after strikes kill more than 100 in Gaza.”
The Federal Reserve is apparently “in a fog” about the present state of the economy because Trump’s administration either provides bullshit data or none at all. The job market? Likely in a slump. Inflation? Probably skyhigh. Growth? Unlikely. A recession? Likely. What should the Fed do in this fog? Maybe lower interest rates “to the 3.75%-4.00% range.” Why? God only knows.
After doing a number on Jamaica, the island that gave the world soul of dub music, Hurricane Melissa is crossing the island that gave the world the sorrows and thrills of Afro-Cuban jazz: Cuba. Hurricane Melissa, whose winds reached, at one point, an astonishing 185 mph, has so far claimed 7 Caribbean lives.
Trump keeps pressing South Korea to, in the words of Politico, “pony up $350 billion in an “upfront” if it hopes to reach a deal with him. That figure is one-fifth of that country’s total GDP. Meaning, if it made such a commitment, it would destabilize its economy and weaken its currency. But what are these outrageous demands and erratic tariffs really all about?
You will remain in the dark about Trump’s trip to Asia (to make “deals”) if you simply do not put his own wallet at its center. And what that wallet wants is all international business transactions to go through the White House (or what remains of it), the current home of his wallet. This is what dictators—a capitalist form of the trans-historical tyrant—never fail to do: make their country’s business their own business. But Trump overestimated the economic power of the US, and underestimated that of China, which recently signed a free trade agreement with “the ASEAN bloc of Southeast Asian nations.” And so the deals he hoped to quickly pocket are now dragging on and on (even Canada refuses to play ball); and, as a consequence, he is dragging the whole economy into what will turn out to be a very long recession.
Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, who is having something of a moment—at a time when such moments are in great demand—had this to say “to Chicago’s Latino community”: “There’s not a Chicagoan that’s by themselves right now. We will use every tool available to us to defend the humanity and dignity of every Chicagoan.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon
Johnson accused the Trump administration of horrific acts, saying
“Black babies are being thrown in the back of vans” and “zip-tied in the middle of the night.”— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) October 29, 2025 at 7:49 AM
The city as we know and feel it is very new. Its cultural essence cannot be found in ancient Rome or Tikal or Kyoto. We are less in a city than in capital, which is expressed by our culturally specific modes of working, moving, and consuming. Nevertheless, the major owners of capital constantly live in fear of the key engine (or attribute, in the Spinozist sense) in the accumulation of privatized wealth: Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York. Why? And why is Trump hell-bent on spiritually crushing the major nodes of America’s GDP?
Maybe there is something about the city that keeps swerving, not outward, but inward. I’m now thinking of a line I caught while watching Kahlil Joseph’s BLACKNWS at the Orcas Film Festival: “The only way out was in.” This “in” is certainly the obscure urban, which can be pictured, though not precisely, as the force, gravity, that pulls the materials of a star inward as pressure forces the photosphere outward. The urban pull inward is found in our human-specific sociality, in Brandon Johnson’s determination that no one in his city is “by themselves.” This kind of feeling is confirmed by the ease with which we gravitate to others, who are often strangers. ICE brings out the best in cities. And so, the effort to impose fear only intensifies what those in power most fear: a growing sense of community in urban areas.
We have entered the season that makes Seattle the queen of cities: Fall. The leaves (both red and gold), the sudden showers, the low and moody clouds, the blanket-warm dreams that bring back the dead we will never stop loving. This is the time to listen to this underappreciated piece of Japanese jazz by the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, “Autumn In Seattle.”
More in NEWS
Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
@48 — it’s gotta be
Challenging — and sometimes
seemingly Just Not Worth It? keeping
them all straight, at least on Paper, eh?
perhaps it’d be Easier
to just Bundle ’em?
& get it Over with:
‘thumpfnsorna’?
”Cresstensorna”?
‘Cressthumpfnsona’?
‘cressthumpfnsorna’?
not
Pretty
but far
less Con-
Fusing one
might think.
@29: In my experience, not Amazon, if you get cut off from resources and access to drives, etc. you’re getting the axe.
Imagine dealing with a HR dept nearly totally run by AI.
So recruiters will be AI bots? Ever been interviewed by one? It’s really weird. I politely declined after two questions – I just couldn’t take it.
@50: lol standard progressive racism. 😛 Zionism was the most significant vindication of indigenous sovereignty in the twentieth century, youre only mad about it because progressive ideology has a special blind spot when it comes to Jews 🤣
@50
“A well-informed person . . . “
ah, therein lies the rub
it’s been my contention
since about Day One when
Thumpf YOU! first appeared
on these pages, that what we
Have here is a sock-bott, a learn-
whilst-you-earn figment of the com-
menter currently calling itself tentsores
or Whatever; starting out rude AF, barely
outta Jr High, & mostly quite Ignorant, even
by derr Schlogg’s admittedly-low “standards”
it’s gained Oodles of Knowledge but you’re
Correct, there hasn’t been any Wisdom
imparted, and quite possibly
never Will be
tho it’s lack of said Wisdom
hasn’t yet slowed down its
assertions of Brilliance
and, thankfully the sick
emojis’re Slightly Less
ubiquitous – for now.
@24: Sorry, you failed to mention exactly when the Ukrainian leaders signed a cease-fire which obligated them to disarm, and form no part of a future government there. Could you please post when and where that happened, along with a quote and URL? Once you do that, we can begin to consider the merits of your assumed analogy. Thanks!
@25: “lol i’m sorry youre so sad about hamas….”
Let’s cut our friends here a small break, shall we? They loved their prettily prancing public posing purity postures so much, they made the incredible sacrifice of pretending to care about someone else somewhere. That must’ve taken enormous sustained effort, forcing themselves to glance away from their blindingly reflective mirrors for a few moments here and there— an effort which they sustained for two entire years! And what has come of all their efforts? A peace which doggedly resists Hamas’ efforts to break it, a peace deal which utterly fails to punish hated Israel, and a string of Hamas atrocities they must now ignore — sans fog of war to cover their naked acceptance of slaughter. Will no one rid them of this turbulent peace?!?
Ok, on second thought, you’re right. Let’s not cut them a break. 😉
@55 Tensor…
I’m pretty sure @24 was straight up sarcasm.
@57: A very revealing sarcasm, actually! 😆 thirteen12 wishes he could cheer openly for the Islamic resistance movement but he resents that good people make him feel bad for it. Hence the petulance @24 😜
@55 no I’m saying they should do that to spare the Ukrainian civilians. They should learn from Hamas’s mistake and immediately surrender in full the the invading army and submit to occupation. After all, Russia has asserted some tenuous historical claims to the land so Zelensky and his ilk are just standing in the way of the second “most significant vindication of indigenous sovereignty in the twentieth century.”
@56
(you forgot the ‘anti-Semitisms’ wormmy)
there Is
no Bottom
to your Vile
Projections
“A peace which doggedly resists Hamas’ efforts to break it”
right. bibi’s a fawking Saint
in his keepthefuckouttaprison
“War” on Palestine — well, Other
Than the Hundreds Killed at the drop
of a transgression regardless of import*
*Justify.
and no Less
Than 2,000 words
Ha ha ha the timing of @58 could not have been better, caught him in the act of typing out @59 which perfectly illustrates my point! 🤣🤣🤣
😆😜😆😜😆
😆😜😆😜😆
😜junior😆fuck-
ing😆high😜.
😆😜😆😜😆
😆😜😆😜😆
@59: Except Hamas holds a far worse position in Gaza than does the government in Ukraine, both on-ground and internationally. As a percent of total area, the IDF owns more of Gaza than Russia does of Ukraine; while Ukraine still receives international aid, Hamas’ own backers threaten to cut off assistance unless Hamas disarms.
The best thing the government of Ukraine can do to help civilians is to keep fighting; the best Hamas can do to help civilians in Gaza is to stop killing them, then disarm.
the Best Israel could do
would be to Quit STARVING
GAZANS & maybe STOP MURDERING
infants toddlers children women the Elderly
but then
bibi goes to
Jail, so that’s out
So is amazon still passing out free bananas or no?
@64: “the Best Israel could do would be to Quit STARVING GAZANS & maybe STOP MURDERING”
lol if only! 😆 Every time they the Israelis let up, Hamas shoots at them again. Even the Qatari prime minister says it was “the Palestinian side” who broke the ceasefire his week, and that dude is Hamas’s biggest fan after Iran! 🤣 Not to worry, a little taste of the JDAM has corrected “the Palestinian side’s” misbehavior, at least for now! 😛
@34: Not really, Trump had his robust economy in his first term to point to.
@66: Looks like kristo’ — like many of our friends! — still intends a return to those far-away, long-lost, golden days of yesterye- uh, earlier this month, when every death in Gaza was always automatically the fault of the Israelis, and Hamas never did anything after 10/7 — except ask for a cease-fire to save civilians, of course.
Won’t someone please stop the aid trucks, at least, so kristo’ and friends can resume compulsively fapping to images of starving children? Please?!?
@66~et al ad vomitas
@thumpfnsorna
still Gleefully Cheering On 😆
nutnyahoo’s “War” cum Genocide 😆
on a Very Captive, MOSTLY Defenseless 😆
CIVILIAN POPULATION sprinkled with a few 😆
Hamas. “But HAMAS!” they shriek! “BUT HAMAS!” 😆
their War Crimes knowing no Boundaries 😆
our Cheerleaders Cheering them 😆
Ever ONWards! 😆
“Til the Very LAST HAMAS!” 😆
their gleeful cries 😆
Echo from 😆
Here to 😆
Hell & 😆
back 😆
again.
😆😆😆!
@68: Funny you should bring up. One interesting question I’ve been pondering recently is: how many of the deaths in Gaza are attributable directly to Hamas?
I don’t mean in the moral sense, where Hamas foolishly starts a war it cannot hope to win, or Hamas cynically uses residential, religious, and medical structures as cover for its troops and equipment. In the moral sense, all the deaths in Gaza are attributable to Hamas! 😁 I am asking about the direct, physical sense: how many Gazawiyn were killed by Hamas’s own weapons?
It must be some considerable number. Hamas has seeded Gaza with victim-activated improvised mines (to kill Israeli soldiers on the move) and booby-trapped buildings (to kill Israeli soldiers conducting searches). Any one of these devices has a high potential to kill civilians, and the total number of such devices is in the low tens of thousands.
In addition, some substantial fraction of Hamas’s homemade artillery rockets fail to reach Israel and fall instead inside Gaza, where they risk killing random people. A Palestinian short round at al-Ahli Hospital killed ca. 200-400 people, and that was just one rocket out of tens of thousands they fired! 😝 How many other Gazawiyn have been killed by poorly constructed, poorly aimed rocket fire?
And then there are the deliberate executions of collaborators and critics, plus the gun battles against anti-Hamas militias inside Gaza. The total kill count from deliberate shootings has to be somewhere in the high hundreds to low thousands.
Add it all up, and what do you get? It’s an interesting question, and I don’t have a firm number.
@68 “kristo’ and friends can resume compulsively fapping to images of starving children”
I don’t think thumpus is friends with kristo?
Coolidge dollar @67: “@34: Not really, Trump had his robust economy in his first term to point to.”
Coolidge dollar, I’m not here to defend Biden or attack Trump. I’m here to defend factual reality.
If Obama had owned Trump 45’s economy, we wouldn’t hear the end from you of how horrible it was.
If Trump had owned Biden’s economy, we wouldn’t hear the end from you of how wonderful it was.
Things are looking pretty ominous now for Trump 47’s economy, but there’s one thing we can be sure of: you’ll either spin it as the best economy ever, or it will be anyone but Trump’s fault.
Y’know, it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing to speak from the basis of the world as it exists and not to try to shoehorn it into GOP talking points. It’s not like you’re a spokesperson getting paid to deliver those talking points.
As for your specific pushback to my own point, Katie Wilson is running very similar campaign to the one Trump ran. The only difference is, Trump did everything he could to make us forget his actual track record.
Won’t
someone
please blow up
the “Peace Plan,”
so The Wormtongue and
his fellow Fiends can resume compulsively
Fapping to images of starving, mutilated children?😆
Someone?
ANYOne?
bibi?
Israel strikes Gaza 😆again after overnight
bombardment😆 that killed at least 104 😆
Attacks
shatter Palestinians’
short-lived relief 😆 since start of
ceasefire that now looks increasingly fragile 😆
Israel carried out another strike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, 😆
killing at least two people, after bombarding the territory 😆
overnight and killing at least 104 Palestinians, 😆
including children 😆, in the gravest chal-
lenge yet to the increasingly fragile
US-brokered ceasefire. 😆😆
After the Tuesday night bombardment,
Israel said that it was now adhering
to the ceasefire again 😆
and statements from US officials seemed to indicate
they did not consider the ceasefire
to have been broken. 😆
[when is a Peace Plan not a peace plan?] 😆
[when is a Ceasefire NOT a ceasefire?] 😆
[when We and Israel SAY IT IS.] 😆😆
But Wednesday’s strike
cast doubt on Israel’s willingness
to comply with the truce, which ob-
ligates both parties to stop their attacks. 😆
Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem, William Christou in Beirut
and Seham Tantesh in Gaza
Wed 29 Oct 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/29/israeli-strikes-in-gaza-overnight-as-ceasefire-looks-increasingly-fragile
what a Fun
little War!
😆😆😆
@74: for Those
😆 in. the. Back:
But Wednesday’s 😆 strike 😆
cast Doubt 😆 on Israel’s 😆 “Willingness” 😆
to comply 😆 with the truce, which OBLIGATES 😆
😆BOTH😆 PARTIES 😆 to STOP 😆 THEIR 😆ATTACKS😆!
😆 JESUS H. CHRIST 😆
😆 what a Fun! 😆
😆 little War! 😆
😆😆😆😆😆😆.
& Happy😆Halloween!
@70: “One interesting question I’ve been pondering recently is: how many of the deaths in Gaza are attributable directly to Hamas?”
That’s a great question, but I suggest you ask it at a site where either the headline posters or the sympathetic commenters actually care about Palestinian lives. Here it will get you little, other than verbal abuse.
whilst
your Victimhood
is Tragic, aF, wormmy,
it Pales in comparison to
the Horrors you’ve cheerleaded
on Palestinians. your Crocodile tears
are Duly noted.