NO: Robert Redford, the actor, director, and activist who gave us inimitable performances (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, The Sting), films (Ordinary People, Quiz Show) and Sundance Film Festival, died at his home in Provo early this morning. He was 89.
Homelessness in Washington Growing Slower—For Now: According to a “snapshot report” from the state, the number of people sleeping outside or in emergency shelters in Washington only rose 2.2 percent between January 2024 and January 2025. King County saw a larger 6.13 percent increase, according to data from the Department of Commerce. These numbers show progress, state officials say. In 2023, when one in 50 Washington renters faced eviction, homelessness jumped 9.5 percent statewide. In the last two year budget, Washington invested $1.8 billion toward housing and homelessness. Federal cuts might lead to more spikes. Read more at The Seattle Times.
Yoink: Seattle’s Cascadia Elementary won a Blue Ribbon Award this August, but they might never get it after the Trump administration killed the nation’s most prestigious education award in an effort to “return education to the states.” Third-grader Austin Allwine told KING 5 he didn’t “think it’s exactly fair that the government could just yank away the award right before we win it.”
Comcast Sues State: The cable company sued to block a state sales tax on advertising. Comcast says the statute violates federal law, which prevents “discriminatory” state taxes on e-commerce, arguing that the state is taxing almost all internet ads, and almost no ads that are off the internet. Striking the tax would cut revenue by $475 million over the next four years, KUOW reports.
Weather: A little smoke this morning, followed by sun and a high of 85. Later this week, we’ll drop into the 70s before rain and temperatures in the mid-60s this weekend.
Nelson, or Whatever: In a recording of a recent virtual meeting obtained by The Stranger, Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson laid out a plan to keep her seat, part of which was to “bump up my sort of anti-Trump rhetoric, or acknowledge that we’re under attack, or whatever.” Inspiring. As I reported yesterday, before Nelson said this, her political consultant explained that to win, Nelson had to get centrists to show up at the polls, convince the restless, Trump-averse liberal homeowners to vote for her, and emphasize that Nelson would “put up systems that are resilient to whatever is happening nationally.” Sort of like voting to expand police surveillance over more than 100 voices telling you not to, or whatever.
Threats to Democracy, or Whatever: The Trump administration wants to use the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a man they held up as a free speech warrior, as pretext to limit speech. The wrong speech, of course, that liberal speech and a supposed left-wing network that sponsors political violence even though the right-wing is responsible for the vast majority of political violence in this country. It’s unclear what the administration specifically plans to do.
Wisdom Is Knowing What You Don’t Know: While Utah Governor Spencer Cox claims shooter Tyler Robinson was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” there’s no hard evidence to support his claim. What little we do have suggests the messages inscribed on Robinson’s ammunition referenced far-right Groyper memes made by Nick Fuentes’ little fanboys. But even that isn’t enough evidence for any coherent ideology. As Joan Donovan, a Boston University Professor and founder of the The Critical Internet Studies Institute, told Time, ambiguity is the point.
So Shut Up! Robinson isn’t cooperating with law enforcement, so this country could do some good and stop speculating. While we wait for the facts to trickle in, we can all focus on government officials talking about stifling political dissent.
Israel Launches Land Invasion of Gaza City: Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 78 people since dawn, and rescuers are digging people out of the concrete rubble with their hands, Al Jazeera reports. At least three other Palestinians have starved to death.
Genocide: A new report from the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has found Israel’s genocide is genocide. “The Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” read the report, which held Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and President Isaac Herzog responsible. Last week, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Israel had a legal duty to provide food it’s withholding from thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
US Kills Three in Boat Strike: The US military destroyed another boat off the coast of Venezuela, in an attempt to target alleged members of drug cartels. This comes two weeks after the US blew up a speedboat, killing 11 people. Trump claims he has the power to summarily kill these people under the laws of war. Legal specialists and retired military lawyers do not think Trump has the authority to treat suspected smugglers like they’re launching an armed invasion on the US. The Trump administration has not said how the boats were destroyed, or publicly verified who was on them and what they were allegedly carrying. Trump says he has proof and that cocaine and fentanyl were “splattered all over the ocean.”
Very Smart Diplomacy: This military operation risks war with Venezuela, which has called up its reservists to prepare for a US invasion. The Trump administration considers President Nicolás Maduro to be an illegitimate leader and says he is one of the largest drug traffickers in the world, a claim that does not hold water. Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the award for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.
Boat II: China’s Coast Guard is accusing a Philippine ship of intentionally ramming one of its vessels near Scarborough Shoal/Bajo de Masinloc, a territory in the South China Sea both countries claim as their own. The Philippines said China blasted its ship with water cannons, damaging the vessel and injuring a crewmember. The (boat battle? accident?) happened six days after China announced it would designate part of the area as a nature preserve. The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest, the AP reports.
@41 No different than quoting a study the own author admits is limited and making a generalized statement. Perhaps I’m biased because here in our little corner of the world any time there is any type of political theater its generally your friends in black bloc LARPing around the city pretending they are fighting against the man while they loot some person’s store who is just trying to make a living or create a toxic waste mess by burning up a Tesla.
I mentioned it because it was a recent example that didn’t receive anywhere near the level of coverage as the examples that are at the top of mind (george floyd, j6) but it’s a single data point out of thousands, or at least it would be if it were included in the analysis.
You can read more about the data set here
https://www.start.umd.edu/data-tools/profiles-individual-radicalization-united-states-pirus
Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years
As Trump rails against ‘far-left’ fascism,
new database shows leftwing attacks have left far
fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists
Donald Trump has made warnings about the threat of antifa and “far-left fascism” a central part of his re-election campaign. But in reality leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists, new research indicates, and antifa activists have not been linked to a single murder in decades.
A new database of nearly 900 politically motivated attacks and plots in the United States since 1994 includes just one attack staged by an anti-fascist that led to fatalities. In that case, the single person killed was the perpetrator.
An armed protester wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a ‘boogaloo’ badge at a rally for second amendment gun rights near the state capitol in Richmond, Virginia, 4 July 2020.
Over the same time period, American white supremacists and other rightwing extremists have carried out attacks that left at least 329 victims dead, according to the database.
oodles:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/us-rightwing-extremists-attacks-deaths-database-leftwing-antifa
So his gun crazy Mormon Mama thought he was getting more liberal because of his relationship with a trans woman? That may be, but it didn’t make him enough of a tree hugger to keep him from assassinating a provocative public figure.
@50: “Fascism above all else is corporate rule of government over the rule of law,”
Who else believes that? You’re indulging in Marxist liberties by equating corporations with fascism. Fascism is about authoritarianism only.
@50 – “and the entire ICE and border patrol has gone full fascist. We honor our WW2 vets”
If you imagine that even 5% of WW2 vets would have favored Biden’s border “control” policies, and would have been willing to die for them, then you are even dumber and more naive than I previously thought.
If fact, World War 2 was a war that was fought by the allies in defense of strict border policies. Goddamn you are stupid
53 – “Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years”
WRONG AGAIN LOL
https://nypost.com/2025/04/09/us-news/judge-tosses-1m-lawsuit-filed-by-antifa-killer-michael-reinoehls-family/
@54: He is as much as a tree hugger as Luigi Mangione.
That poor mama and dad. I can’t imagine.
remember When
our ‘peace-loving’
neoCons and Fasciis
said “AIDS was NOT a
‘Disease’ — it was ‘A Cure'”?
they haven’t
Mellowed
any since
and Cadet Bonespurs
the Chickenhearted
w/ his Insurrections
surely hasn’t done
jack shit to Quell
the well-mad-
dened mobs
but that don’t Matter:
thedjt’s Still gonna
Outlaw Lefties
and gays and
trans and
ALL the
rest
When monsters raise monsters monsterous things happen, Coolidge dear.
@16: “If you look up the definition of fascism its literally a checklist of everything Trump and the GOP has done and is currently doing. Like a step by step guide almost. So… uh yeah.”
So… uh no. Actual fascist groups always have paramilitary units, which, even under the fascist party’s rule, stand apart from their country’s police and military forces. Alfred Rosenberg functioned as the Nazi Party’s chief ideologist; Giovanni Gentile performed the same function for the Italian Fascisti, as did Sir Oswald Mosley for the British Union of Fascists (which he also led). We can safely describe Trump and his crew as less well intellectually-endowed than any of the great fascist movements (!).
There are many versions of right-wing authoritarianism. Not all of them qualify as fascism, and some even oppose it. Ernst Juenger refused to join the Nazi Party when invited, and even satirized them, publishing “On the Marble Cliffs,” in Germany — in 1939 (!!). He was an unrelenting critic of liberal democracy, such a true believer in armed force that he became a literal storm trooper (wounded multiple times on the Western Front, he later published his war diaries under the title, “Storm of Steel,”), and an ardent German nationalist.
Calling Trump and co. “fascist,” displays a lazily unserious attitude toward the actual problems we face. Even persons who don’t know anything in the above two paragraphs will eventually notice Trump &c. aren’t wearing jackboots, and call you on it.
@Tensor…
I mostly agree with what you said, but fascism is authoritarian control over corporations. The ogilarches are fine being side by side with dictators, until they aren’t useful anymore. Then watch out for windows. Look at how it worked in Germany. The people that helped bring Hitler to power ended up dying by his hand.
@60: Nature vs Nurture, remember:
https://youtu.be/F1kOXfKJSM8
@61 “Actual fascist groups always have paramilitary units, which, even under the fascist party’s rule, stand apart from their country’s police and military forces”
Oh ya?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/27/trump-border-patrol-troops-portland-bortac
“The quasi-military nature of the unit goes beyond their training, percolating into their state of mind. “They don’t exist within the realm of civilian law enforcement,” Budd said. “They view people they encounter in the military sense as enemy combatants, meaning they have virtually no rights.”
…
“Trump has ratcheted up political ties to border patrol to another level,” Miller said. “He based his whole 2016 campaign around this, and it is now at the core of his 2020 re-election bid. These are his people.””
@64: OK, since you failed completely this time, let’s try it again: “Actual fascist groups always have paramilitary units, which, even under the fascist party’s rule, stand apart from their country’s police and military forces.”
The article you cited (which, at the very top, states in bold text over yellow highlighter, “is more than 5 years old”) talks about the US Border Patrol, which even your reading comprehension skills might manage to recognize as part of our “country’s police and military forces.” So, your supposed recent counterexample to my point not only suffers from advanced age, but actually functions as a counterexample to your own point. Trump hasn’t built an armed force independent of the government, as actual fascists really did. Even after more than five years (!) he had in which to do so.
Thanks for nicely validating my comment @61, and especially my final paragraph there.
Thanks for that little glimpse into the early life of Karoline Leavitt, Coolidge dear…..
speaking of memory holes
DOJ
Quietly
Deletes Study on
Politics of Domestic Terrorists
The Justice Department has taken down a study
that proves Republicans’ entire narrative
wrong about left-wing violence.
404 Media has reported that in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder, Trump’s Justice Department deleted a study from its website stating that right-wing violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. This comes as the Trump administration and Republicans generally blame political violence solely on the left.
The study was available online at least until Friday,
according to 404 Media, but can now only be
found via a Wayback Machine link.*
https://newrepublic.com/post/200537/justice-department-deletes-study-politics-domestic-terrorists-right-wing
*https://web.archive.org/web/20250911165140if_/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/306123.pdf
@65 “the US Border Patrol, which even your reading comprehension skills might manage to recognize as part of our “country’s police and military forces.”
Well they certainly aren’t military, and as the former border patrol agent I helpfully quoted for you explained they also “don’t exist within the realm of civilian law enforcement,” so which did you think they were a part of?
Far left wing hate killed Charlie Kirk. That’s a fact now. The trans community has a huge anger management problem, that should be apparent now – I hope.
@69
much like unfucking~bridled Kkkpitalism’s
gonna Devour itself reich~wing nutjob’s Hate cir-
cled around and killed its/your HERO chuckie the kirk
and, in Other News
This, from the Intercept;
JD Vance
announces sweeping
crackdown on progressive nonprofits
The Trump administration is moving aggressively
to exploit the murder of Charlie Kirk to justify
a sweeping crackdown on left-of-center
nonprofit organizations, potentially
including nonprofit news outlets
like The Intercept.
Guest hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast on Monday,
Vice President JD Vance pledged to “go after the NGO
network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” and
specifically attacked The Nation, the 160-year-old progressive magazine.
This is not a drill.
Donald Trump has made
silencing the free press one
of his top priorities from day one,
and we must assume it’s only a matter of time
before he comes after The Intercept [AND the Fucking Stranger*].
–from an Email to me, @kristo!
*which will Please
to No END our
far~reichwing
nutjobbery
‘chucky”
Chuckles?
which’ll get me
to Gitmo quickest?
@68
arguing
w/the Wormtongue
is a zero-sum game cuz
he’ll argue Both sides on any
given subjects & ofttimes forgets
which one he was misrepresenting.
@69
your desperate at-
tempts at Smearing the trans
community is yet another transparent
Projection of your far~reich wingnutjobbery*
why on Earth @tS
continues to Allow it’s
well beyond my Paygrade
*it has such a nice
Ring to it I was
Forced to re-
use it again
apologies!
72: No smearing. Check you attitude.
@kkkoolie ~ Check
your huge anger
management
problem
cum
Disinformation
Campaign. thank you!
@68: Wait — you’re saying one (more-than-five-year-old) quote from some guy who’d already quit might not contain the most accurate, complete, and up-to-date information about an entire federal agency? (Yeah, I can easily understand how that thought might not have occurred to you.)
Perhaps something a little more recent might help you out here?
“When you join U.S. Border Patrol, you volunteer to serve your nation by protecting Americans from dangerous narcotics like methamphetamine and fentanyl, weapons, and the individuals attempting to smuggle them across our borders.” (https://careers.cbp.gov/s/)
Wow, that certainly sounds like it exists within the realm of civilian law enforcement! Could you really mistake that for the description of a paramilitary force created by a political party? (Answer: Yes!)
Thanks again!
@75 setting this (pointless) debate aside for the moment, who were Franco’s non-military non-police paramilitary unit? Pinochet’s? Maybe we should confirm whether what you claim is a necessary hallmark of fascist rule is in fact a necessary hallmark of fascist rule before we get into the weeds about whether Trump’s qualifies.
@76: What’s your basis for claiming those particular right-wing dictators were fascists? Your phrasing of the questions seems to imply they were not, which would support my point @61.
(And, there was never any “debate” over whether the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol is a civilian law-enforcement agency; you just took a five-plus-year-old quote from someone who once worked there as gospel truth, and then resisted my attempts to enlighten you on the obvious.)
“Far left wing hate killed Charlie Kirk. That’s a fact now. The trans community has a huge anger management problem, that should be apparent now – I hope.”
Coolidge dear, how you do love your word salads. And I’ll give you points for not being afraid of looking stupid.
But, dear, that’s really, really, stupid. Sitting in the corner eating paste, stupid. Surely there’s a better, more ethical way, of earning your living?
@78
tossing the word
‘ethics’ at poor souls
[and AIs] like Koolie’s like
tossing H2oh! onto wicked
Witches or rock salt onto Slugs
but
like those poor spammers
who Used to haunt these
Once-vaunted Halls @tS
pushing ‘docktor’ whats-
‘isname’s Magical cures
and “Love” potions
he’s probably
in some shithole
5th world country
shackled to a keyboard
eating his paste
and Lovin’ it!
but, yeah, he
likely was merely
running low on paste
and it was Quota Time.
you’ll
Try and do
Better, won’t you?
we’re All
Pullin’ for
ya, Koolie!