Weather Weather on My Phone, Will I Be Trapped in My Home? It’s likely to rain (and maybe thunder) for most of today, but the sun should come out again tomorrow.
ICE Detained Filipino Green Card Holder at Sea-Tac: Olympia resident Maximo Londonio, 42, is a lawful permanent resident who came to the US from the Philippines as a boy. Last Thursday, he had just returned home from a trip to the Philippines with his wife and daughter, where he was visiting family and celebrating his 20th wedding anniversary, when US Customs and Border Protection officers pulled him aside at Sea-Tac airport. He was detained and later sent to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma where he awaits a hearing. Organizers with Tanggol Migrante Network WA believe he’s being detained for stealing a car more than 20 years ago when he was 19. Londonio’s story is similar to that of Lewelyn Dixon. Officers detained Dixon, A green card holder and University of Washington lab technician from the Philippines, at Sea-Tac over a 25-year-old conviction for embezzlement. Dixon is still at the Northwest Detention Center.
Labor Backs Bruce Harrell: MLK Labor, our county’s union of unions, announced that it was proud to offer its sole mayoral endorsement to Harrell over his “proven track record of delivering real results for working people … Now more than ever, blue cities like Seattle need experienced, strong elected leaders to uphold our values.” Seems odd for a body that also endorsed Alexis Mercedes Rinck, but labor appears to think they’ve found a friend Bruce after 2023, when he took over the city’s labor negotiations and increased the city’s offer by almost $200k.
Crashing the Computer (Party): Dozens of pro-Palestine No Azure for Apartheid protesters tried pushing their way into Microsoft’s annual software conference at the Seattle Convention Center Monday afternoon. Security pepper-sprayed several and Seattle Police arrested one person, reported The Seattle Times. The company is under pressure to stop selling its Azure cloud services and AI products to Israel. Microsoft claims there’s no evidence that their technology has been used to harm Gazans. As The Guardian reported in March, Israel uses Microsoft products to manage a registry of Palestinians and a database of airstrike targets. According to Al Jazeera, Israel has killed 87 people in Gaza since midnight local time.
Breaking News—Older White Men Hold Disproportionate Power in Washington: Shocking, I know. A recent report from the Washington Community Alliance found that our state is more diverse than its deep bench of white male elected officials over age 45. Roughly 35 percent of Washingtonians are people of color. But between 2016 and 2024, only 10 percent of candidates were people of color. And only 10 percent of them won their elections. The report found the biggest gaps in county-level elections (statewide, 66 percent were men, 97 percent were white), particularly for fast-growing Latino communities in Central Washington. Many of the 33 “highly representative” municipalities in the state were in the Puget Sound area, including Seattle, Tacoma, Redmond, Shoreline and Burien.
Something Good: Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill that extends unemployment benefits to striking workers in Washington. Republicans and businesses said the bill would make workers more likely to strike, but striking is not a decision any union makes lightly. It’s a last resort to push stalled negotiations out of the mud. With this bill, at least workers and their families don’t have to suffer in pursuit of fair working conditions. Though it’s only a temporary reprieve. Unemployment benefits typically last up to 26 weeks. Strikers will only get six, according to the Washington State Standard.
Crying in H Mart, in Ballard: H Mart is opening a new grocery store on June 5th. The 25,000-square-foot space at 951 NW Ballard Way used to be a New Seasons grocery store, and was supposed to become one of those panopticon-y Amazon Go stores, but that didn’t happen and H Mart took the lease instead. Better a deli and imported noodles than a cashless Bodeg-zos.
A Little Update: Last week, Nathalie and I reported on the neighbors and business owners up in arms about a possible crisis center in Capitol Hill. A few of them, including ice creamist Molly Moon, signed a petition-esque letter to Joy Hollingsworth about it, but apparently not Steven Severin, co-owner of Life on Mars, Neumos, Barboza and Runaway Bar. He says the letter writer, Russell Normann added his name by mistake and agreed to remove his name from the list of signatories. Normann, managing partner of 4N Properties, told The Stranger via email that there was a “misunderstanding,” but didn’t say how that misunderstanding happened.
A Big, Beautiful Push for One Big, Beautiful Bill: President Donald Trump is milling around Capitol Hill so he can convince Republicans to vote for his multi-trillion dollar, 1,116 page bill of tax breaks, spending cuts, and billions for Trump’s border wall. Nonpartisan analysts said the bill could add $3 to $5 trillion dollars to our big, beautiful national debt.
Now You Cease It, Now You Don’t: Trump backed off his demand that Russia call a ceasefire in Ukraine. Now he’s saying Russia and Ukraine should handle negotiations because Russia and Ukraine “know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.” But didn’t he say he’d personally end the war in 24 hours?
$$$: The Trump administration wants to spend $250 million earmarked for foreign aid to send migrants back to active combat zones, including Ukrainians, Haitians, Palestinians, Afghans, Libyans, Sudanese, Syrians and Yemenis who fled extreme violence, according to draft documents obtained by The Washington Post. The proposal was in development before the administration announced its plan to give $1,000 to immigrants who voluntarily self-deport.
And Today in Vaccines: Top officials with the Food and Drug Administration announced new requirements for yearly tweaks to the COVID-19 vaccine. While new vaccines will be available to high-risk adults, children and folks over 65, the FDA won’t approve them for most of the adult population until companies conduct large, lengthy studies. It’s likely to make vaccines less insurable and available, one vaccine expert told the AP.
Trump’s Trade War Is Screwing Over Our Farmers: Eastern Washington wheat farmers typically sell 90 percent of what they grow to countries like Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, where it is made into noodles and cakes (and bought back happily by Americans). Wheat prices were already low and the tariffs aren’t going to help, a big deal when a new tractor and combine runs about $1.75 million. Overseas markets the US spent decades building are in limbo. Farmers from the rural West to Midwest worry they’ll be bankrupted, NPR reported.
Get My Son’s Hands Off My Son! A mother in Kansas is suing Chaturbate, Jerkmate, Techpump Solutions (Superporn.com), and Titan Websites (Hentai City) in four separate federal suits because her 14-year-old son found an old laptop in her closet and went to town. The woman (Jane Doe) alleges that her son (the masturbator) had “unfettered access” to these sites only because they didn’t adequately verify his age (last year, Kansas passed into law one of the US’s most extreme age verification laws). According to the suit, the woman had been vigilant in monitoring her son’s exposure to “harmful material” (gee, you think?). The National Center for Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is acting as co-counsel. The conservative anti-porn lobbying group has gone after Reddit and Twitter over sexual content and supported a PornHub ban. This case is hilarious, but gosh, poor kid. What are family dinners like after your Mom itemizes your spank bank into a court case?
More in NEWS
Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
Minorities in Washington State politics ebbs and flows it seems, I remember Ruby and Cheryl Chow, Norm Rice. It’s just that it takes a thick skin to partake in politics, come on in – the hot water’s fine.
No doubt that kid will have no weird hangups whatsoever after his mom finishes making a very public affair of his private endeavors. Yikes.
Do be a Do Bee
Don’t be a Bezzzos
“One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
It’s all just so goddamn embarrassingly and obnoxiously childish. Every single freaking day is a new low, it doesn’t seem sustainable, I’ve gotta figure that at some point, hopefully soon, we’ll actually hit peak stupidity and at the very least level out and just maintain whatever it is that maximum childish stupidity looks like for a while.
Those anti-Israel protestors should be careful what they wish for. If Israel were to abandon Azure in favor of AWS, it would only make the Israeli security forces more efficient! 😛
https://youtu.be/RQj087ini1w
If I were a porn producer, I would be ready with the contract to get that kid starring in jack-off flics as soon as he turns 18. Of course, no contact or prior knowledge could be had for the kid until they turn 18, wouldn’t want a lawsuit for grooming. But wow that would put his mommy dearest in a kansass state booby hatch quicker than sin. My fingers are twisted for the next few years on this one.
And dweebee all races skin is the same thickness, it’s the racist skulls of the voting body that is thick. dweeebeee be like, “there’s no racism in our state….” sheeeeeit have you been to Maple Valley lately? That’s where they are all finding each other.
Car theft and embezzlement are unacceptable activities for immigrants seeking to live in the United States. ICE is doing wonderful work detaining and deporting these folks.
It is guaranteed that labor strikes will increase dramatically now that union workers will be paid to strike. We will be paying our “public servants” not to serve the public, while holding us hostage for greater pay and benefits. Reminder, public employees are in no way underpaid and enjoy much greater health and welfare benefits than private sector employees.
This taxpayer is disappointed with Trump’s big beautiful bill. This country cannot afford to continue deficit spending. We need dramatic cuts. And the SALT deduction should be eliminated entirely, not expanded. We do desperately need a border wall and that should be funded entirely from existing defense spending.
We can always afford to deport Ukranians, Haitians, et al. Deporting non-citizens frees up employment and housing opportunities for citizens. Bernie Sanders gets it, unchecked immigration is bad for American workers.
Additional testing for vaccines? That sounds smart given the large number of side effects and very limited effectiveness of the Covid vaccine. Remember, the Covid vaccine did not prevent new infections – not something normally associated with (safe and effective) vaccines.
Eventually we will come to our senses and demand government ID age verification in all states for all pornography sites. Hardcore porn is highly damaging to young men and doesn’t do anything to improve the lives of woman either. Degenerate adults can continue wasting their lives away provided they verify their age.
Didn’t think it was possible for americans to get any weirder about sex but it’s starting to feel like we’re just getting warmed up. Crazy to have a president who raped women and sexualized his own teenaged daughter, and his biggest supporters are the most uptight puritans our country has seen since the mayflower landed.
The covid vaccine had almost no side effects and remains highly effective at mitigating transmission and limiting the severity and duration of infection, all hallmarks of a safe and effective vaccine. Requiring longer trials for seasonal updates to strain coverage will only increase the cost and delay roll out, and restricting coverage to seniors will result in more fatalities and negative impacts on our health care system. We should be encouraging preventative care, not withholding it, but this is what happens when the head of hhs is a conspiracy crank with a brain parasite. People are going to suffer and die for no reason, but of course thinning the herd is the whole point.
“Car theft and embezzlement are unacceptable activities for immigrants seeking to live in the United States.”
They’re actually unacceptable activities for anyone. But people make mistakes, especially when they are young and dumb. If he was convicted, presumably he was punished at the time and has paid his debt to society. That’s how it’s supposed to work (although, as anyone who knows anything about the American penal system and recidivism, generally going to prison makes one a better criminal). So the fact that an immigrant has a clean record after one mistake is actually a a pretty good reflection on that person learning from that mistake and not making it again.
Now, since Americans commit crimes on a higher per capita basis than immigrants, what are we going to do with all of them? Deport them to El Salvador?
Every time I’m like “Trump supporters can’t seriously be this stupid!?” WereBackBaby proves me wrong.
@12 I know right? The ignorance knows no bounds. Tops among the list: expansion of the SALT deductions is needed to get blue state Republican Congresscritters on board, and there are all kinds of jobs (agricultural labor among them) that Americans are unwilling to do for the prices that the market will bear. Saying that Americans will do those jobs is accepting 30%+ food price inflation. No doubt WereBack was all up in arms about Bidenflation, but is perfectly OK with Trumpflation. They’re just intellectually consistent like that.
Anybody who thinks gangbang and simulated (hopefully) rape porn shouldn’t be available to 12 year old boys is a weird, uptight puritan. That argument will definitely sway parents.
We should always focus on preventative health care, both from cost and quality of life perspectives. The number one preventative measure to reduce Covid fatalities has been to lose weight and improve metabolic health.
Yes, young people make dumb mistakes but even dumb mistakes have consequences, like losing your lawful immigration status. So (not) Sorry!
and won’t Ivanta
make a GREAT
Empress?
If your first thought when someone mentions porn is gang rape you’re just telling on yourself. The kid was visiting chaturbate, not whatever retched filth site you need to get off.
The overwhelming majority of teenagers access porn at some point before it’s legal for them to do so, and it’s always the parents’ responsibility to oversee their own kids’ behavior, not someone managing a web server. Conservatives used to be the party of personal responsibility but we can just add that to the hypocrisy list, alongside supporting a philandering sex pest while holding sexual purity as a virtue worthy of legal enforcement.
If diet and exercise were as easy and effective as people make it out to be everyone would be the portrait of health. But this is a free society and people are allowed to treat their bodies however they like, even healthy people can suffer health consequences from covid infections, and one preventative measure does not preclude another: we can encourage healthier living and vaccinate people at the same time.
Vaccines are a highly effective intervention that save lives and always give a return on the investment, but by now it should be readily apparent that keeping people alive is not a priority for the trump administration.
Why should taxpayers in Nebraska subsidize high state and local tax rates in California or New York? These states raise taxes knowing the Feds will end up paying a substantial chunk due to the SALT deduction. You couldn’t make a better argument for taxation without representation.
Americans will take agricultural jobs as soon as these jobs are economically viable. That will occur when agricultural CEOs start getting arrested for employing illegal labor. They will quickly get the message that paying sustainable wages and benefits is better than prison. Agricultural prices likely will go up, but at the same time taxpayers will pay less for welfare, healthcare and education for illegal immigrants. And far fewer American dollars will leave the country in the form of financial remittances to Mexico, etc.
The 7-11 clerk was once responsible for checking ID before handing over the latest edition of Playboy. They are still responsible for checking ID before selling alcohol or tobacco. Along those lines, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to require web publishers to check ID before serving up obscene content.
It’s not entirely unreasonable to consider depraved group sex videos, when as we speak, a depraved woman is being celebrated in the news for having sexual relations with over 100 men. Truly disgusting behavior.
Some vaccines are highly effective medical interventions. The effectiveness of the Covid vaccine was simply not proven. Many vaccinated individuals died from Covid and millions of unvaccinated Americans survived Covid infections with minimal symptoms.
You don’t understand vaccines at all let alone the covid shot. The mRNA vaccines are a technological breakthrough, some of the safest and most effective vaccines ever developed, and the drop off in fatalities amongst the vaccinated was apparent within months of its roll out. Having immunity to a deadly virus without any of the consequences of infection within a year of the virus’s spillover to humans is one of the single greatest achievements in history.
Do you think an ID check has ever stopped a teenager from accessing porn? Lol. Requiring an ID check online is even harder to enforce, and parents already have tools to restrict web access on their own computers. This is just creating an expensive hurdle for others to clear, with potential legal ramifications for people who aren’t responsible for regulatingvyour kids’ masturbation habits. Time for conservatives to stop micromanaging other people’s lives because they don’t know how to take care of themselves. Your horny teens are not anyone else’s problem.
@10 I once heard from a Brit that wisest choice England ever made was letting the Mayflower set sail.
@18 You know, you think you’ve plumbed the depths of your ignorance, and then you open your yap again. It’s really remarkable.
First of all, get your facts straight. New Yorkers pay ~$4500 more per capita in federal taxes than they receive in federal spending. Nebraskans pay ~$4000 more per capita than they receive. So New York is already doing more than Nebraska. If you want to complain about states dependent on the federal teat, look at freeloaders like Alabama and Alaska. And second, whether states should have SALT deductions in an ideal tax system is irrelevant. Those deductions are needed to get the votes of New York, New Jersey, and California Republicans. Without those votes, the bill doesn’t pass. Increased SALT deductions are the price that Mike Johnson has to pay to (maybe) get the rest of the bill passed.
It’s remarkable how you’re willing to handwave away massive food inflation.
I do need to check myself though. We actually agree on something–that illegal immigration won’t change until corporate management starts going to jail. Too bad the Trump administration has no interest in actually doing that.
@19 Kids don’t need to go on porn sites. They can just go on news sites and read about your fake president harassing teenage girls at beauty pageants, grabbing women by the pussy and paying porn stars to spank him with newspapers. A real role model for the children.
@20
“Having immunity to a deadly virus without any of the consequences…”
Immunity?
You must have been given a different COVID vaccine than myself.
My first case of COVID was a month after my third shot.
@22 – which States receive more or less Federal welfare is beyond the point. The point being that of two similar taxpayers (one in New York and one in Nebraska) the Nebraskan is going to pay a higher percentage of his / her income in Federal taxes than the New Yorker due to the SALT deduction.
Of course I understand horse trading and that Johnson needs Republican votes from New York and CA to pass the bill. Doesn’t make it good policy.
And I didn’t handwave away massive food inflation. I clearly stated that I thought it would be offset by lower levels of welfare, healthcare and education spending on illegal immigrants.
Breaking news, ID checks do not prevent underage purchases of controlled items. I guess now we can do away with those pesky age verification laws for firearms purchases. Following Barth’s logic, they are laughably ineffective (LOL) and place an undue burden on other purchasers.
@24, Do you know the difference between data and an anecdote? Do you know what efficacy means? How about percentages?
Your personal experience is an anecdote, a single point in a larger body of data. The vaccine trials reported >90% efficacy, meaning about 1 in 10 recipients still fell ill, and you’re in that group. The vaccine wasn’t sufficient to keep you from getting infected but it limited the severity and duration of your illness. In other words, it worked within the parameters the FDA provided you when they reported the results of the trial, however it’s up to you to understand what the words meant. Sorry it took you 4 years to find out but better late than never and you’re welcome.
Of course ID laws are ineffective at keeping guns out of kids’ hands. But guns are deadly and that’s an argument for making it harder for everyone to get them, not eliminating ID checks. Also — and I can’t believe this needs to be said — no one has ever died from consuming porn. You’re just supporting what i said earlier about the hypocritical puritanism of the trump movement. Sex needs to be regulated like lethal weapons, also the weird pervert whose name was all over the epstein flight logs is our savior. Pick a lane, weirdo.
@27 re: @23; and @28
Proof Positive: Ignorance
CAN Be CURED!
the Willful type?
mmm, not so Much
but Thanks* for Trying:
“Time for conservatives to stop
micromanaging other people’s lives be-
cause they don’t know how to take care of themselves.”
they Gotta
be Them.
*@22 — & Boatgeek, too!
I’ve never called for regulating sex between consenting partners. I’ve simply supported common sense age restrictions for the distribution of obscene materials. Already the law in most states. Again, not weird. And despite your hot take, I’ll continue supporting ID checks for firearms purchases as well.
@25 You’re wrong about food inflation being offset by reduced welfare etc. costs incurred on behalf of undocumented immigrants totals about $66.5B/year. And that’s from a conservative source that has a policy incentive to pump the numbers. Average grocery costs are a total of about $2T ($500/month/person x 340M people x 12 months). More than 3% food inflation means that we’re net losers. Oops.
You’re supporting a pointless and unenforceable id check when internet filters already exist and you’re doing so as a supporter of a man who broke campaign finance law to pay off a porn star he fucked. You’re just another hypocritical puritan projecting your own sexual deviancy and insecurity onto others instead of working through your own demons and keeping your side of the street clean.
Imagine having your mother (who should’ve password protected her laptop) expose her son’s obsession with hentai in such a spectacularly embarrassing fashion. I don’t know who should be more embarrassed – the son for mom outing him or the mom for really feigning any responsibility to prevent her son’s unfettered internet access, accidental or not.
She’s also apparently never heard of a VPN, which is the quickest and easiest way to get around these states’ absurd ID laws. But sure, blame PornHub.
@31 – The costs of educating illegal immigrants alone is approximately $70 billion annually. That is on top of the $66 billion for welfare. There is another $64 billion that leaves our economy in the form of remittances just to Mexico. And we’ll also reduce unemployment and welfare benefit payments to the Americans who are now working in agriculture. That will pay for a lot of food inflation. And even if we pay more in the end, it will be worth it to maintain our sovereignty and security.
Banks are required to collect ID and provide secure individualized access to online systems for their customers, so ID laws clearly are enforceable.
They are not pointless because parents and society as a whole have a legitimate interest in protecting minors from viewing obscene and often abusive material.
And who exactly is projecting? Defending minor access to porn would suggest you are the deviant according to current social norms.
@34 Negatory on your last. “The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that federal expenditures on illegal aliens in 2023 totaled nearly $66.5 billion. This includes more than $23 billion in federal medical expenditures and $11.6 billion in welfare benefits from Food Stamps, child nutrition, SSI, and other programs.”
https://epicforamerica.org/federal-budget/billions-of-government-benefits-for-illegal-aliens/
Or provide a source beside pulling a number out of your butt.
The person whipped up in a moral panic about kids watching gang bangs when no such thing was mentioned is the one who is projecting. That’s how this kind of thing manifests itself. Like I said the first time you brought up gang rape unprompted, you’re just telling on yourself, bro. Repeatedly.
If parents don’t want their kids to watch porn they can install filters on their computers. It’s a problem with an extremely cheap, simple, and obvious fix, but you want to apply the same id verification banks use? I can only assume it’s this serious to you because you think everyone is like you and needs to watch gang rape porn to get off. Seek help for yourself instead of making your sickness someone else’s responsibility to fix.
@36 – the $70 billion estimate for education comes from May 8th 2024 testimony before the House Budget Committee.
The $64 billion in remittances to Mexico comes from the November 18 2023 Baker Institute report “An Economic Lifeline, How Remittances from the US Impact Mexico’s Economy.”
Also, the $66.5 billion for welfare does not include state and local contributions. CA is expected to spend $9.5 billion alone on illegal immigrant healthcare in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
I’m curious how the mother suing the porn sites is defining the alleged harm done to her son.
“Dozens of pro-Palestine No Azure for Apartheid protesters tried pushing their way into Microsoft’s annual software conference at the Seattle Convention Center Monday afternoon.”
Thanks, Stranger! That “No Azure for Apartheid” site is a hoot!
“Join the growing No Tech for Apartheid movement and demand that Microsoft live up to its own purported ethical values—by ending its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.
“Join us, alongside students, teachers, activists, cultural workers, healthcare workers, and trade unions, alongside the International Court of Justice, alongside ordinary people in the streets and Palestinians worldwide, in building a new future where Palestine is free.”
The International Court of Justice has not ruled that Israel is guilty of apartheid in the West Bank:
‘As the ICJ judges discussed the request for the advisory opinion, a number of states brought forth the claim before the court that Israel’s prolonged West Bank occupation constituted “apartheid.” Though the UN General Assembly request did not explicitly ask the court to opine on the issue, several states prompted the judges to take a stance.
‘In paragraph 229 of the opinion, the judges found that Israel, through its West Bank policies, violates Article 3 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The particular article speaks about racial segregation and apartheid, two different crimes as the court itself notes in paragraph 225. Quite interestingly, although Article 3 speaks about “racial segregation and apartheid,” the court summarized the states’ position on the issue by stating that some states had argued that the West Bank occupation constituted “segregation or apartheid” according to Article 3. The court makes clear that it sees Article 3 as containing two distinct international law violations: racial segregation on one hand and apartheid on the other. Consequently, by stating generally in paragraph 229 that Israel’s policies breach Article 3, the court opens the possibility for both views to be upheld regarding the question of whether Israel should be deemed guilty for the crime of apartheid or for the crime of racial segregation. Thus, Judge Georg Nolte argues in his separate opinion that in this particular dictum the court held Israel culpable for racial segregation in the West Bank but not for the crime of apartheid. At the same time, the court’s non-usage of the word “apartheid” has equally left room for someone to argue for an opposite reading, namely that because the court has found Israel guilty of violating Article 3 of the CERD, this means the court held that Israel is guilty of apartheid.’
(https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-limits-of-the-icj-advisory-opinion-on-israel-s-occupation-and-the-west-bank#:~:text=taken%20into%20account.-,Apartheid,and%20apartheid%20on%20the%20other.)
If the ICJ had wanted to find Israel explicitly guilty of “apartheid,” then it would have done so. The ICJ could not immediately rule out that Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza, and so that case continues. In neither “apartheid,” nor “genocide,” has the ICJ ruled in the way No Azure for Apartheid implies it has ruled.
@39 I imagine it’s his impending blindness.
@10, “The covid vaccine had almost no side effects and remains highly effective at mitigating transmission and limiting the severity and duration of infection.”
Correct about, “limiting the severity and duration of infection.”
According the CDC, you are incorrect about, “highly effective at mitigating transmission.” 3/4 of the people infected in the Provincetown, Massachusetts outbreak, were vaccinated. It caused the CDC to reverse course on lifting the mask mandate for people who had been vaccinated.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/01/us/provincetown-outbreak-residents-response
Here is the FDA and CDC stating, under oath, to a Congressional committee that the vaccines do not prevent getting or transmitting COVID.
https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-does-not-stop-infection-transmission/5106775
Personally, I am up to date on all the COVID vaccines, and intend to remain so, if RFK will let me.
I think RFK’s requiring additional, costly, testing of the updated vaccines to be scientifically unjustifiable.
Follow the science. The CDC and FDA, in good faith, told us the early claims that the vaccines would prevent getting and transmitting the virus to be false. They changed course to follow the science by continuing to recommend masks for the vaccinated.
I wish that RFK was like-mined in following the science with regard to access to the vaccines going forward, but it is not the case.
Lastly, there is this from PBS’s Newshour on the lock downs. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/authors-of-in-covids-wake-on-their-criticism-of-the-governments-pandemic-response
You can read the whole transcript by scrolling down at the link above to check me, but this is one quote from the transcript:
“There was a World Health Organization report from November 2019 that looked at what was known about all the proposed non-pharmaceutical interventions.”
“Business closures, school closures, looked at what was known about the effectiveness of each of those measures. And across the board, the report states that the evidence base for the effectiveness of each of them was poor.
“And so it’s so striking that you get six months later and those measures are being employed all around the world, with policymakers saying that they’re following the science. And, of course, it’s quite obvious that all of those measures have tremendous costs.
So, as policymakers are weighing their alternatives, there’s uncertain benefits, but certain costs.”
We didn’t follow the WHO guidance and science from late 2019 in the face of evocative images from Italy of hospitals being overwhelmed, and chose the costs, without verifying the benefits would be there. It turns out they weren’t based on the data.
The Princeton University Professors and authors interviewed by PBS explore the reasons why in a well researched after-action look at the response to COVID.
The scientists and politicians weren’t infallible. It’s important to look at what went right and what went wrong with the pandemic response in the aftermath. Acknowledge what worked and what didn’t, based on information that we have now, the information decision makers had at the time (e.g. 2019 WHO report), and information they didn’t have at the time, such as the non-existent differences in infection and death rates between states that stayed in lock down 2.5 times longer than states that didn’t.
Follow the facts and the science.
Fauci, Governors, etc. aren’t villains. There was no conspiracy theory. They acted in good faith based on imperfect information, or chose the wrong piece of the information picture to make their decision. Somebody had to make the decisions, nobody is perfect, and with the exception of Trump, they were acting in good faith and doing what they believed best.
That makes them good men and women, who like all humans were fallible.
We owe it to them and ourselves to look at that as objectively as we can, in some cases with 20/20 hindsight of data they didn’t have at the time, to see what went right, and what was a mistake.
Speaking of War Crimes
Apartheid Land Grabs
and is-it-Actual
Gen-O-Cide:
nyt:
Israel’s
Allies Condemn
Expansion of Gaza War
Britain, France and Canada
called the Israeli plans for escalation
“disproportionate” and “egregious” at a time
when the U.N. is warning the population is at risk of famine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/world/middleeast/israel-allies-denounce-gaza-offensive.html
some comments on the article:
“This is a war of civilization over barbarism,”
Mr. Netanyahu said on social media.
Mr. Netanyahu needs to look at
himself in the mirror. What
we are seeing is civilization
falling back into barbarism.
What civilized country uses
starvation as a tool of war?
–@Serban; Miller Place NY 11764
@Serban — What the Israelis fail to realize
is that as time marches on, your average
person is going to associate Israel less
as a safe haven for Jews and more as
a modern nation state that is violent,
steals land and is willing to starve a
city of 2 million people to death.
–@Doublas; Germany
[at wormmy: this is a point I’ve
brought up Numerous times
to be scoffed at by you and
your sicsokbotts & cohorts
here @ts – your Denials to
the contrary are certainly
Notwithstanding. This’ll
Not be good for Jews
Anywhere ~ on this
fucking Planet.]
@Serban — I read that particular statement as one
of clearest demonstrations yet that Israel has
in the end become a mirror of the horrors
that were inflicted on the Jewish people
in the first place.
“Civilization” vs “barbarism”
is exactly the kind of language that
people promoting western supremacy
have used in the past, all the way back to
the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 30s.
Even though in this case we know
that many Israelis are ethnically similar
to the Gazans they are persecuting, still the idea
that there is a certain kind of people who represent
the latter and another the former is inherently dehumanizing.
–@Miles Parker; Nelson, BC
Killing
a mosquito
with a 500-pound
[bomb] is beyond reason.
People who do not
see that are be-
yond reason.
-@Seriphussr; United States Of The Socialist Republic
Oodles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/world/middleeast/israel-allies-denounce-gaza-offensive.html#commentsContainer
our tax dollars
Hard af at
Work?
oh fuck
Yes.
nevertheless
let’s stick with
debting definitions
until Cadet Bonespurs’
odious golfing resorts’re
as fucking
ubiquitous
as a cancer
@40: In one of his demented “Israeli apartheid” rants, Average Bob once said something the lines of, he personally had concluded decades ago that Israeli was committing apartheid, so he didn’t care what any international court might think. 🤪
These “Azure for apartheid” protestors are undoubtedly doing the same thing Average Bob was in his rant. Whether Israel actually is committing apartheid is beside the point for these people. In their hearts, they feel it is apartheid, and they do not need any more evidence than that! 😝
(In a hilarious coda, however, it turned out Average Bob very much did care what international courts thought about apartheid, but he wasn’t very good at reading judicial opinions and ended up getting totally confused! 🤣)
That kid’s mom is a drag. I love porn. Hate uptight bitches.
@44
“(In a [sic] hilarious coda… “
When
war crimes
are “hilarious”
to this Jerkoff,*
you just Know
he’s one of the
Wormtongue’s
“finest.” wormmy,
who realizes He cannot
say the Unsayable and so
employs this ai siksokbott
to Do his Dirty Work. we See
you, wormmy. and it’s a Nasty
Dark, Disturbing sight
to Behold.
*if you ‘guys’
can Make Shit
UP, so can We.
plus,
it’s Most
Likely TRUE
@26 Yeah, because those ID checks are working real well in our country to prevent kids from getting access to guns. lol. Imagine using our terrible completely ineffective gun control laws to try to prove your point.
I had COVID before the vaccine and I had covid after the vaccine and let me tell ya… it was a world of difference. The first time literally almost killed me and fucked my lungs up for the rest of my life. Easily the sickest I’ve ever been and I’d never wish it on my worst enemy. The second time was basically an annoying cough that lasted for a week and the sniffles. I’ll very happily take my chances with the vaccines.
The genocide lies have consequences. https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/israeli-embassy-washington-dc-shooting-05-21-25
@49
the
Genocide
or Genocide Lite
or the Not-Quite-YET-Genocide
or the Mass Murder
of an Entrapped Population
the Ethnic Cleansing the fucking
LAND GRAB, these, on the Other hand
not so Much.
ok.
I don’t think
the Rest of the
Planet sees it quite
like certain Americans do