Do you hear that sound? It’s nothing. The sweet, sweet absence of fighter jets rattling our windows and our nerves. But now we can all hear ourselves think again, which might not be a net positive.
Let’s do the news.
It’s Election Day Tomorrow: Your ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, and we’ve made it simple for you. If you love to read, you can flip through our voter guide. If you don’t, just use the cheat sheet. If you’re someone who prefers the excitement of voting on election day, that’s great! I’m one of you. Just please, please don’t leave it on your kitchen table tomorrow. If you’re someone who loves to plan ahead and get things in early, you can track your ballot here. And don’t forget to sign the envelope. So far, about one in 10 voters need to “cure” their ballots because of signature issues.
What to Expect on Tuesday: The first ballot drop usually comes a little after 8 p.m. on Election Day. That first drop tends to be more conservative, because voters who are 65-plus are more likely to get their ballots in the mail early. We’ll have updates and analysis throughout the night!
This week is taking a little break from the summer weather. We’ll have clouds all week, temps in the low 70s. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Destroying Evidence: The car that SPD believes was involved in the shooting outside of the Pursuit Seattle church last Thursday was found on fire in the wee hours of Friday morning. The church has identified the victim as a newly “saved” parishioner named LeBron Givaun.
Speaking of Gun Violence: We’ve had too much in the last five days. SPD Chief Shon Barnes released a statement acknowledging that we’ve had three separate instances of shooting deaths since last Thursday: the one at Pursuit, one in SODO, and one in South Seattle. And that’s in a state with better-than-average gun laws.
A Little Bit of Justice: The City of Tacoma has agreed to a $6 million settlement for Manuel Ellis’s death. Ellis was killed by police on March 3, 2020, after repeatedly telling officers he couldn’t breathe. All three cops involved in his death were acquitted in 2023.
Bruce and Ann Are Scrambling: Last week, Ann Davison and Bruce Harrell sued the Trump administration for Executive Orders relating to DEI and trans rights, which Trump signed seven months ago. When the Seattle Times’s city hall reporter David Kroman pointed out that they’d made this move four days before a primary election that was starting to look a little dicey for both Davison and Harrell, Harrell replied: “The fight for social justice is not a political move, if that’s the insinuation.” Then, most of Seattle got this in our email.
Mayor Harrell rejected my “insinuation” on Thursday that suing over 7-month-old executive orders four days before a primary might be political. Today:
— David Kroman (@kromandavid.bsky.social) August 3, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Have you heard the one about the osprey, the flying fish, and the power line? A little before noon last Wednesday, a fire team was dispatched to a small landscape fire in British Columbia. Once the fire was out and cooled, they tracked down the fire’s cause: A fish. Dropped by an osprey. Onto a powerline. The sparks from the falling fish caught the grass beneath it, eventually cooking up a perfectly good meal for the osprey. The kicker? The fire was probably still caused by climate change. The fire rescue team said that chances are, the osprey dropped the fish because of how hot it was that day.
We Lost a Real One: Loni Anderson, who played the receptionist on WKRP in Cincinnati, died yesterday. She was just days away from her 80th birthday. Anderson was nominated for three Golden Globes and two Emmys for the role.
One Way to Deal With a Bad Jobs Report: Call the numbers rigged and fire the person who produced it. That’s exactly what Trump did to Senate-confirmed Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, which the New York Times says is unprecedented in the US. “This is the kind of thing you would only expect to see in a banana republic,” said Janet Yellen, the former Treasury secretary and chair of the Federal Reserve.
Texas Democrats Are Getting Creative: Dems in the Texas House of Representatives decided to fully leave the state on Sunday to keep the House from reaching the quorum that they would need to hold a vote this week. The move was an attempt to stop Republicans from adopting a redesigned congressional map along lines that Trump had requested, which would have likely flipped five Democratic congressional districts toward Republicans. Texas Governor and Trump Boot Licker Greg Abbott didn’t love this, and has threatened to remove every Democrat from their seat if they don’t show up for the vote. That’s very likely illegal, but so are a lot of things these days.
ICE-ing Down Those Student Loans: While Trump rolls back student loan forgiveness for people who go into public service, he’s offering a new loan forgiveness program for his favorite gestapo soldiers: ICE agents. This is on top of the $50,000 bonuses they’ll be getting. Now we know what it’s worth to sell your soul.
A lot is happening this week! So here’s a jam by Cate Le Bon to ease you into it.
“Put another way, for every 100 Seattle households making $50,000 to $99,999, there were about 279 making at least $100,000.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattles-middle-class-is-becoming-scarce/
Oh no, we have too many Seattle households getting ahead and causing income inequality, and too few poor households left for The Stranger to write their narrative for.
We do not have “better than average” gun laws. We have draconian curtaillments on our right to self defense. Mexico has much “better” gun laws than us in your sense, a near total ban, and the result has been a narcostate with a murder rate 4x ours, where criminals as always can have any gun they want while civilians are defenseless.
What, no mention of the fatal stabbing in SODO, guess we need better knife control laws…
Real classy mocking the victim of a church shooting as “saved”.
Hopefully Texas arrests and jails the Democrats, in addition to their $500 daily fines (per legislator). If they can strip them of their elected positions based on some fine print in the law, that should be done too. Elected officials cannot be allowed to shut down the Legislature simply because they don’t like the obvious outcome of an upcoming vote. Democrats would be similarly furious if Republicans fled the state to avoid a quorum.
Of course ICE officers should be entitled to public service loan forgiveness. They are providing a tremendous public service. You didn’t think that was just for blue haired social workers with masters degrees did you?
@1 Since you like to google shit…
“In Seattle, a significant portion of tax filers earn less than $50,000 annually. Approximately 51% of Seattle tax filers report an income below $50,000, with a local public-policy think tank reporting that more than half of those earn less than $25,000, according to The Seattle Times. This indicates a considerable number of Seattle residents live with lower incomes despite the city’s overall high cost of living. “
You’re completely ignoring that half the people in the city make LESS than 50k a year and half of those make less than 25k. Is that what you consider getting ahead, dumb dumb?
Good job.
@3 – Britain is voting on a measure to ban machetes. And in a few years, steak knives and a few years after that, butter knives.
They’d be safer if they banned immigration but that would be ray-ray-racist!
@4 A former gang member who has been shot six times before? I guarantee if the shooting victims skin was a darker color you would have been trying to get that dude sent to some gulag in a random foreign country as soon as possible instead of trying to make him some weird christian martyr now.
Texas democrats have used this tactic at least a couple of times before. Last time they scurried out to Oklahoma.
I’d say gravity is more of culprit in that fire of the falling fish than climate change.
@7 – I know it’s hard for some to believe, but Christians appreciate and support those of any skin color who want to turn their lives around and receive God’s love and wisdom. We certainly don’t mock them for it. We’ve got the Stranger for that, I guess.
So should Harrell and Davison have not submitted litigation against Trump just to appear not political?
@5, Individual tax filers are not a good measure. Household income is what matters. How much income is in the house to pay the bills?
That is what Balk’s article looks at. The ratio of six figure income households to $50k to $99K households. The percentage of latter households is shrinking, not because their are fewer of them, but because there are increasingly more six figure households.
Seattle is leading all but two cities in growth of numbers of six figure households.
Glad the Blue Angels are gone.
Now we can get back to the peace and quiet of loud mufflers and car stereos that rattle your windows.
@9: Can’t some of us mock evangelical Christian congregations for bolstering their shrinking membership rosters with “saved” individuals who are still leading lives of crime?
@2: Apples & oranges, I’m afraid. Mexico – quite unlike the US – is an impoverished nation which cannot come out from under the domination of its northern neighbor. Like all other developing countries, it exports all of its local brainpower to wealthier nations. Socioeconomic “developments” tend to not arise indigenously, but in response to the economic siege conditions. So Mexico is not sociologically comparable to the US in any way. Unfortunately for your argument, the nations which are comparable all have much lower rates of gun violence.
It sounds like a good thing that your so-called “rights” are being curtailed. You seem like a bit of a hothead, not someone who should go around carrying loaded firearms.
@10 If they were going to file suit for apolitical reasons, within a couple of weeks of the executive orders would have been the time. The fact that they waited 7 months and then filed indicates that they don’t care about the merits of the cases, only their continuing political careers. The fact that Harrell is fundraising off of the lawsuits immediately after saying they’re non-political is kind of a tell too.
@15: Doesn’t make a difference because they were still filed. In the long run, the actions matter – not the optics.
It may not make a difference (see below) in the lawsuits, but it absolutely makes a difference in how we might view those two actors politically. Do they only take the right action when forced to by low poll numbers? If so, what can we expect of them when they’re not in the runup to an election?
It may make a difference to the lawsuits themselves, if the late filing for political purposes indicates a general lack of support for the lawsuits themselves. If Harrell and Davison aren’t committed to the lawsuits and are re-elected, the lawsuits may not get resources that would help the suits be successful.
Lots of gang members are practicing christians but we only know this one was “saved” bc he was murdered in front of a church.
@11 You think a good measure of “Seattle households getting ahead” is 4 roommates who make 25k a year living in one house for a total household income of $100k? You’re SO SO SO painfully stupid.
@18 John Wayne Gacy, Son of Sam and Jeffrey Dahmer were all Christians too. That instantly made hem great people who were aren’t allowed to make fun of or judge in anyway, in case you were unaware.
Since it’s only a day until the primary election, The Stranger should be even more super duper progressive than it already is, and change the SECB Cheat Sheet graphic from the one that now depicts Dionne Foster kicking Sara Nelson in the face, to one that depicts Dionne Foster stabbing Sara Nelson in the gut with a huge knife. Make sure there is lots of blood in the graphic, that’s so progressive
There was a salmon that got dropped on a City Light power line back in 2016 that caused an outage.
Oh, and Religion is a fraud WereBackBaby dear. I say that not as an atheist (because I’m not an atheist) but as someone who knows a scam when he sees one. I’m not surprised that you haven’t caught on.
As for trump lawsuits, I see where the Mayor of Portland caved to trump on DEI a few weeks back. It’s getting closer to home. I wonder how our Mayor (whoever that may be) will react when he comes for us.
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/31/portland-oregon-politics-keith-wilson-diversity-equity-inclusion-donald-trump/
If Dionne Foster wins, then The Stranger should be super-ultra-progressive and make a graphic of Sara Nelson, blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back, standing against a wall, while Dionne Foster executes her with a rifle. Bonus progressive points for extra blood spray depicted
Vawoli wins the daily Literary Pathos award – reading their post, one can literally feel the conservative angst at the heart-rending thought of a white, corporate-cucking politician losing an election to a brown-skinned “socialist” (i.e., “kicking SN in the face”; “stabbing SN in the gut”). Congratulations!
@24 – The Stranger’s election logo literally depicts Foster kicking Nelson in the face. I’m just progressively extrapolating it to its obvious meaning.
@25: oh calm down
@25: Whatever. It’s your bootlicking sympathy for the powerful & well-placed that elicits derision, and marks you as a conservative.
@23 these are the kind of online comments you see on true crime documentaries when someone gets caught dumping bodies in a state park and the producers want to know why no one picked up on the signs
The Stranger’s theme running through their election guide was that of a video game (Street Fighter, I’m pretty sure) and the depiction in the cheat sheet is nothing more than a graphic of one player/politician kicking another in the manner done in that video game (yes, in the face.) I guess I could actually see it as arguably being inappropriate, but holy hamburgers, you’d have to be pretty goddamn snowflakey to think it warranted anymore than a passing mention.
@14 Every country certainly is different – Switzerland, for example, with a household gun ownership rate only 10% less than the US and less restrictive gun laws than most US states, has a near zero homicide rate. We might also look at restrictive France, where a single truck attack had a higher kill count than any American mass shooting in history. Seems it’s hard to legislate away murder!
And if I was a hothead – do you think it’s good that you’ve legislated away most of your right to defend yourself with modern firearms, while I could have any number of grandfathered powerful rifles?
@21 Have you seen Sara Nelson lately? She has no gut.
@30 Swiss gun ownership is also substantially tied to military service, completely unlike the US. Oh, and they require safe storage and special permits for semi-automatic firearms. And they ban laser sights and silencers. All of those really hurt the fee-fees of American conservatives and contribute to a lower homicide rate. France’s homicide rate (despite the truck incidents you mention) is approximately a quarter of the US’. So that’s not exactly a flex.
Nice try, 5/10. Points for bringing up presumably relevant international comparisons. Points off for those being irrelevant on closer inspection.
@29 video games are for children and stupid people
If, say, The Seattle Times, or FOX News, had ran a similar graphic where Nelson was kicking Foster in the face, the hypocrites at The Stranger would have been literally crying about it for weeks.
I think it would be hilarious if The Stranger ran a graphic of Nelson being beheaded by a guillotine, with Foster as the executioner in charge (no hood though) and a big mob of Seattle progressives (septum piercings, neon dyed hair, stupid tattoos, silly mustaches, you know what I mean, so unique, anti-comformist, and alternative) and like 2 dozen fat antifa gals and beanpole antifa “guys” in black bloc, surrounding the guillotine platform, screaming for blood and almost cumming in ecstasy, that would be so progressive and snarky!!!!!
@32 While it might be substantially contributed to by military service, it isn’t required to own a semi-auto firearm in Switzerland, which any adult can do (and they do at comparable rates to the US). “Silencers” (suppressors), which are used in a statistically almost nonexistent amount of murders in the US and as such do not meaningfully affect the homicide rate, are also not “prohibited” but simply require a permit. You’ll definitely want to make sure to spout less false gun misinformation in the future!
Regardless, I, criminals, and psychopathic neo-Nazis already have whatever gun we ever wanted in Washington. It’s you, the vulnerable LGBTQ+ community, and a woman walking home alone at night who aren’t allowed the same guns. Did that make you safer?
Or, get this… Sara Nelson is tied to a pole on the top of a hill, and Dionne Foster completely obliterates her with an anti-aircraft gun, Kim Jong-Il style! It would have to be a two panel comic in order for people to know that it was Nelson being blasted into meat and mist though. Maybe The Stranger could get that douche who does “Doom Loop” to do it, his shit’s already never funny anyway.
@15: First, this lawsuit differs from previous ones in that it’s more complex. Second, Davison already had Seattle join a lawsuit, back in June. I mentioned all of this already (https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/08/01/80174160/slog-am-seattle-arsonist-is-lighting-fires-ann-davison-sues-trump-no-pierogis-for-alan-dershowitz/comments/43), but the Stranger simply cannot let mere facts get in the way of an attempted smear.
“If they were going to file suit for apolitical reasons, within a couple of weeks of the executive orders would have been the time.”
Third, filing suit immediately is intensely political, a knee-jerk reaction instead of a thoughtful legal action. If you go to the url I pasted, above, you can read that Seattle had not suffered significant monetary damage from Trump’s previous actions, thus giving Seattle less legal justification to sue back then.
“The fact that Harrell is fundraising off of the lawsuits immediately after saying they’re non-political is kind of a tell too.”
Yeah, it’s almost like his campaign knew this was coming and prepared for it. How DARE he act like a politician in an election season?!?
@36 You’re the one who made the assumption that Seattle hadn’t lost money due to specific grant cancellations in the link provided. “I’m right, and you can tell because of this source, hey look the source is me!!” Awesome work, big guy.
“Yeah, it’s almost like his campaign knew this was coming and prepared for it. How DARE he act like a politician in an election season?!?”
Phoebe was butthurt about people saying that Harrell was acting like a politician.
@34 I never said military service was required, dipshit. I said that a number of factors (including military service) contribute to a lower murder rate, and among those factors are several that are completely unacceptable to American conservatives. Mandatory safe storage, permit to purchase, ban on high capacity magazines, mandatory safety training, etc. are all proven to reduce firearms deaths, and are all nonstarters for American conservatives.
As far as whether suppressors or silencers are prohibited, I relied on this site (https://goldblum.ch/knowledgebase/switzerland-gun-laws), which explicitly says they are banned for @32. On further review, this one (https://switzerlandfocusguide.com/blog/what-guns-and-accessories-are-prohibited-in-switzerland/) says that it requires a special permit. So maybe they’re legal, maybe they’re not. Maybe it changed since the first reference I used was posted. The remainder of my post stands.
@37: No, there is no such hurt in acting like a politician as that’s what politicians do.
@34: I’d feel safer if emotionally volatile people didn’t have access to guns. You can’t legislate emotional volatility. But thank you for asking.
@36: Shut up, Cressona.
@39 Huh. @10 indicates otherwise. But you do you.
@37: “You’re the one who made the assumption that Seattle hadn’t lost money due to specific grant cancellations in the link provided.”
Wrong, on multiple counts. @36 I wrote, “Seattle had not suffered significant monetary damage…”, and I based that statement entirely upon the source the Stranger had itself used: “So far, despite frequent threats, the city has not lost significant money.” Did you not read my comment, or did you not understand it? (Please feel free to choose whichever answer, in your judgment, causes less injury to your vanity. Do understand you’re likely to be wrong about that, too.)
“Phoebe was butthurt about people saying that Harrell was acting like a politician.”
Phoebe gets butthurt about a lot of things. Sorry you have to care, but that’s your problem, not mine.
@32, How many homicides in the U.S. involve laser sight and silencer equipped weapons?
That line of argument is a red herring.
The point is the Swiss have a culture of following laws and social norms of their society. We can’t even agree on what the laws and social norms ought to be.
The difference isn’t in the laws, but the willingness of the culture to follow what laws there are. With the rates of firearms in private hands in Switzerland, if their culture was as indifferent to laws and social norms as ours is, they would have a homicide rate like ours.
I wonder what one of the most important differences between Switzerland and the USA, with regards to gun violence and its majority per-capita perpetrators is? It’s such a huge mystery, I can’t figure it out because I’m so progressive
@42: Oh, I thought I was being obviously sarcastic in @10.
Anyone who’s been bored by comment threads of late can take solace in knowing that Kristofarian’s back online. I bet Vawoli and him are destined to become close friends.
@47 – I thought Kristofarian was dead…
JUST LIKE SARA NELSON WILL BE WHEN DIONNE FOSTER VIOLENTLY ATTACKS HER, amirite??!!?!? Yuk yuk yuk
@48…
Ya know, you really kinda suck at trolling.
Just saying…
mike blob dear, I personally have been bored with the Slog comments since October 7th, 2023.
@43 Oh, I get it now! You’re expecting me not to look at the link that you provided, but to look somewhere else! How very helpful of you. Next time, maybe refer to the source that actually supports your point. Because that would make it easier to, you know, see if what you’re claiming is true.
@51: The link I provided goes to a comment, which referenced the Stranger’s link to the Seattle Times, and at that link (I believe Those Kids Today call all this “web surfing”), you find words like, “So far, despite frequent threats, the city has not lost significant money.” Yes, to an eye untrained in the ways of the web, it appears I was referencing only myself, whereas in reality, I was citing the Stranger’s own source to invalidate the Stranger’s point.
That word, “significant,” has great, well, significance. You see, a lawsuit needs to show the defendant did harm to the plaintiff. And without Seattle having lost “significant” money, the chances of a lawsuit succeeding are far smaller. So, instead of it being “apolitical” for Seattle to have sued immediately, and “political” to sue now, it’s really the other way around. (You’re welcome.)
@50: “I personally have been bored with the Slog comments since October 7th, 2023.”
Fashionistas of the hipster international hard left (e.g. Vanessa Redgrave) have long worn the Palestinian Cause as a prominent virtue accessory, and the kids here at the Stranger simply follow suit, without really ever understanding why. As Bax has noted, the Stranger will soon find some other cause to follow, and all of this will have counted for nothing. You just need to endure, dear; surely you know that?
speaking of Inhumane
and UGLY Projections
here’s our own Worm-
tongue with one For
The Fucking Ages:
“Fashionistas of the hipster international hard left
(e.g. Vanessa Redgrave) have long worn the
Palestinian Cause as a prominent virtue
accessory, and the kids here at the
Stranger simply follow suit, with-
out really ever under-
standing why.”
tensorna on August 6, 2025 at 4:57 AM
this is the guy
Justifying Israeli
Genocide ever since
10/7/23 and claiming
oh, it isn’t really “genocide”
it’s just “mowing the lawn” or
whatever Ugly euphemism’s most handy
and now Gaza is Leveled
Israel’s starving Gazans
to fucking DEATH but,
the Death Toll is Over
sixty fucking thousand
but, oh, no, it’s all
Hamas’s fault —
Israel’s ‘hands
are tied.’
but that’s NOT how
the World sees it and it’s
making the Planet LESS AND
LESS SAFE for Jews EVERYWHERE
but
as Long
as it Keeps
bibi tf Outta Jail . . .
“. . . and all of this will have counted for nothing.”
murder, via our tax dollars
just another day in a
Fucked Up Planet
‘thanks’ to all the
Wormtongues
of this little
world