Good morning! Cloudy and hot today, not my favorite combo. We’ll see a high of 74 degrees and a very slight chance of rain later tonight. Also, today is the last 7 pm sunset. RIP vitamin D.
School closure plan halts: After a bunch of parents rallied against Seattle Public Schools’ (SPS) plan to close between 17 to 21 elementary and K-8 schools, Superintendent Brent Jones has backed off, according to the Seattle Times. The plan would have addressed about a third of the district’s budget deficit. Jones said he plans to retool his proposal and return with a plan that incorporates some of the angry feedback he’s gotten over the past couple weeks.
Macklemore said something cool: At a pro-Palestine festival in Seattle over the weekend, Macklemore said, “Fuck America,” according to KOMO. After a right-winger got mad about it on Twitter, the Seattle Kraken and the Seattle Sounders FC released a statement saying they’re “evaluating our collective options” about how to respond, as those comments did not “align with the values of our ownership groups.” Right-wingers also want the Mariners to stop playing Macklemore songs during the 7th inning stretch. Fucking dumb.
Macklemore’s comments came as Israel began killing women and children in Lebanon over the weekend while claiming they sought only to destroy Hezbollah weapons caches that Israel said the group had hidden in residential neighborhoods, according to CBS news. Meanwhile, the US continues to send weapons to Israel for them to use in their “genocidal wars” as US Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, said online Monday, according to the Intercept. But, yeah, KOMO, the problem you should focus on is how Macklemore said, “Fuck America,” not that we genuinely should tell the US government to cut this shit out.
US sends more troops to Middle East: As the fighting in the region escalates, the US plans to send in more troops, though it won’t say how many, according to the Associated Press. The State Department also started warning Americans to evacuate Lebanon.
Biden’s last UN General Assembly as President: President Joe Biden spoke to the US General Assembly Tuesday in what CNBC framed as one of Biden’s final opportunities to frame his presidency as one that resulted in positive foreign policy. Tough to do given *gestures at Ukraine, Middle East, Sudan* everything. New Yorkers probably loudly honked and yelled at the resulting gridlock caused by this massive influx of diplomats and politicians to their city.
City council advances plan to increase cop hiring bonuses: At a hearing by Council President Sara Nelson Monday, her Governance, Accountability & Economic Development Committee voted through a proposal to make permanent the City’s recruitment bonuses for cops program while increasing bonuses from $35,000 to $50,000 for already trained police officers. Nelson acknowledged the program had previously done nothing to increase the number of officers the Seattle Police Department (SPD) hired, but it did increase the number of applicants. Totally worth the $1.5 million the City plans to allocate to the program.
Let’s check in on that bonus program: The City also gave out bonuses to lateral officers in 2019, which benefitted SPD Officer Kevin Dave, who hit and killed Jaahnavi Kandula with his patrol car in 2023. SPD hired Dave despite a sketchy driving history, according to Publicola. Dave received a traffic ticket for hitting Kandula with his car, which he has continued to contest, and appears in court this morning on that infraction. Update: The judge continued the hearing.
Also, the Seattle Police Officers’s Guild endorsed former Republican US Representative Dave Reichert. Reichert should be real proud that the organization is best known right now for its vice-president, Officer Daniel Auderer, laughing after an SPD officer hit and killed Kandula.
I love a list of lunches: Eater put together a list of the best lunches in Seattle, and I love them for it. I want to try a bunch of these places. I also really want to go to Ken’s Market in Greenwood for their Tuesday and Thursday smash burger thing. But if you’re looking for the best restaurants in Seattle, then look no farther than The Stranger’s list of the top 15 right here, fresh from our new A+P quarterly.
Kroger-Albertsons still trying to make it work: CEOs for the grocery conglomerates Kroger and Albertsons testified in a Seattle court Monday trying to justify the need for a merger of the two corporations, according to the Seattle Times. Kroger owns QFC and Fred Meyer, and Albertsons owns Safeway and Haggen. The two companies said that Walmart, Costco, and Amazon undercut them and they need the merger to prevent store closures. The state argues the companies remain plenty profitable and the merger would reduce competition and drive up prices. Mostly I just love when this story is in the news because I can drop this hard-hitting piece of journalism:
Speaking of fuck, marry, kill: I’m trying to figure out what the next fuck, marry, kill prompt should be for a video. I guess dating apps? Hinge, Bumble, Tinder? IDK… pitch your ideas.
Good riding-the-bus music: Dolores Forever’s song, “Split Lip Acoustic,” inspires mild head bopping.
@28 ‘And that’s what folks are missing – instead of being “edgy”, Mac could have used his platform to denounce weapon sales to Israel.’
Exactly! Because Macklemore teleported into the venue, said exactly two “edgy” words, and immediately teleported back out, there is no additional context or content to consider.
50, so we’ve gone from no ethnic cleansing is happening to a little ethnic cleansing is ok actually
@52: Yikes, “a little ethnic cleansing is OK?!” Can you hear yourself?
The settlements, specifically, in the West Bank are unlawful. They are not genocide, ethnic cleansing, or apartheid, but they are unlawful.
Israel’s creation is lawful. Israel’s existence is lawful. Israel’s wars to destroy Hamas and Hizbollah are lawful.
Hamas and Hizbollah hiding behind civilians is unlawful. Israel killing the civilians to get at the fighters hiding behind them is lawful.
Hopefully this clears a few things up around here. So many otherwise conscientious lefties lose their freaking minds when it’s anything to do with Israel.
53, It doesn’t, sorry. The settlements in the West Bank are illegal, full stop, and I personally don’t think any war effort needs to violate international law for me to personally find it excessive and counter productive, or something I do not want to fund with my tax dollars.
I’m sharing my opinion about an expensive and destructive war and trying my best to speak and argue in good faith. If that’s an issue for you we don’t have to continue this conversation further.
The settlements are *ethnic cleansing, in addition to being illegal
@54: Hamas and Hizbollah started a war of choice against one of our most important allies. I’m happy to pay for as many JDAMs and 155s as it takes for our friends to put them down. Same goes for the Russians.
@55: No, there’s that special Israel-related hysteria again. I think you need to sit down with the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July. It rewards close reading, both for what the Court says and what it doesn’t say.
I also support arming an ally but those arms should come with clearly defined conditions that align with our stated values as a nation and concerted efforts to broker a peaceful resolution, not a blank check with no realistic end point in mind.
@56
and your
Progeny will
Pay when bibibi
Finishes starting up
his little Armageddonry.
are You goin’ to Heaven, too?
how Nice to be One of the Lucky few.
moving on
“And that’s what folks are missing – instead of being “edgy”, Mac could have used his platform to denounce weapon sales to Israel. He could have used his connections with teams like the Kraken and Mariners to amplify the needs of Palestinians.”
–@Buddhamat
@28 Agreed. whatta a
Colossal waste of a platform
make it a Springboard, Macky
and bring the Suits along with
& see if they
have any
Balls
& get Wormtongue
to spin it for ‘im
he’s Magical
@38 🤍
Thanks for
the shout-out!
I know, wormmy’s
Always tellin’ me that . . .
also thanks, ab
[well-Done
Ashley]:
and the Ors
sprang Forth
from Mordor.
@46 soooooo. As I grow older I will find optimism? I have plenty of optimism. I feel Macklimore has plenty of optimism also. His music is fun, uplifting and he has epic moxy. I’m sure his experience has benefited society and he gives freely to other people’s benefit from what his experience. I doubt he hates America. Our country is a diverse and complicated experiment, with plenty of reason to hate and love it. Everyone has a right to vent, he is a public personality and he will vent publicly, that doesn’t mean he hates something because he told it to fuck off. I have told my dinosaur of a father to fuck off many times and he has returned the favor to his idealistic peace loving son, but I always come back to love him and be loved. Honesty is what makes a healthy relationship work IMHO. And Macklemore was just taking a moment to get honest with his country.
I’m going by textbook definitions of words. There is an ethnic group in their internationally agreed upon territories who are being forced from their homes by others in an ongoing effort to purge said ethnic group from the land they currently occupy. It sounds an awful lot like ethnic cleansing to me but hey at least you acknowledge it’s illegal so that’s a point of agreement.
For what it’s worth there are Israeli citizens who actively oppose the settlements and while it’s certainly possible t accuse them of “Israel-related hysteria” just as Americans opposed to Iraq, Vietnam et al have been accused of hating their own country, I expect better of anyone who isn’t a right wing hardliner. War is inherently divisive and it would be cool if we could express disagreement without accusing each other of some kind of irrational, deep-seated hatred.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-02/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/meet-the-israelis-physically-blocking-the-ethnic-cleansing-unfolding-in-the-west-bank/0000018d-6609-d37c-a9df-ef8b77200000
“History
is for persons
who can stand nuance.”
–@wormmy
and for those gifted with
Silver Tongues ‘skilled’ at
Weaponizing the Lingo able
to bend twist & turn it Inside
out & wrassle it Into Submission
making any “Meaning” meaningless
for some very rude & Very mean people.
“Now we know
why you threw such a fit
at the deaths and cripplings of terrorists.”
oh my Gawd the
Condescension
it just gets
better.
@61: “ongoing effort to purge said ethnic group from the land they currently occupy”
And if that were indeed going on, the ICJ undoubtedly would have said so in its advisory opinion of 19 July. It, of course, said no such thing.
Not everything illegal is ethnic cleansing. Not every tragedy is a war crime. Not every dead body is a genocide. Not every defeat for the Islamic resistance is apartheid. I read Hizbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah the other day called the exploding Hizbollah pagers a genocide. Ha ha ha! Sour grapes, Sayyid!
I heard Mackelmore eats his pizza with a fork and knife!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/24/netanyahu-bombs-lebanon-gaza-israel
Bibi is a crazed warmongering madman menace to the entire world. What we ignore today will manifest in an unleashed Pandora’s box upon us all. Now is the time to take hold of fate and intervene before it takes hold of us.
63, it is going on! That’s not my opinion, it’s a literal description of events you have already acknowledged are unlawful so i honestly don’t get why you care what it’s called.
I’ve said many times my opinions are based on my own feelings and I don’t need events to be literal war crimes or genocide to be personally appalled by them. I don’t care what you call it when people are forced out of their homes based on their ethnicity. I think it’s wrong and indefensible and further inflames hatred in the region.
Anyway enjoy your eternal war, I’m all set here.
@66: Right, the pager-genocide of 2024 will surely go down in history as the most heinous of crimes. Right alongside the ethnic cleansing of Ismail Haniyah and the apartheid against the Houthi ballistic missiles.
Now, you may have other names for each of these incidents, but “I honestly don’t get why you care what it’s called.”
@54, So good to know the war will stop being uncomfortable for you as long as Israel buys its weapons without your tax dollars.
It’s probably why you aren’t complaining about the human tragedy in Sudan.
@66, “Bibi is a crazed warmongering madman menace to the entire world.”
You seem to be under the illusion that Israel would be behaving differently post 10/7, if Israel had a different government. The public opinion polls in Israel suggest otherwise.
Sorry. Should have been @65.
@59
bibi took his Eye
off the ball prior to
10/7 enabling Hamas
Virtuallly Free access to
Israel & then his ‘response’
took HOURS AND HOURS and
then Allowed the terrorist attack to
base bibi’s keep-outta-prison gambit upon.
and bibi’s been
riding it Hard
ever Since.
he’s Culpable
af for That
as well
the cries grow
for Gaza the
genociding
continues
the World
may settle it
still bibi keeps
tF Outta prison
a trumpfian
miracle
@69
rather.
Yesterday’s Slog AM commented on Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Today’s Slog has a paragraph about Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both entries decry the deaths of civilians there. Neither entry admits the Israelis were successful in striking Hezbollah, and so neither entry mentions this specific attack:
“Hezbollah on Saturday raised the death toll among its fighters from Friday’s airstrike to 16, including top military commander Ibrahim Aqil and many of the senior commanders of the elite Radwan force.”
[…]
“Friday’s strike—which damaged a building where the fighters were meeting underground and leveled an adjacent apartment tower in the residential district—also killed more than a dozen civilians, according to Lebanese authorities.”
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/death-toll-from-israeli-strike-on-hezbollah-military-leaders-rises-ea807af9)
When it’s that blatantly obvious the civilians died because the terrorists used those civilians as human shields, there will come no outrage from the Stranger, nor from their supportive commenters here. Such civilian deaths merit not even a mention at the Stranger.
@73: That’s because, ironically, Israel does a far better job of distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants than the Palestinian sympathizers in this country do.
To the Palestinian sympathizers in our country, the Palestinians are just hapless colonized POCs suffering oppression for no reason. The sympathizers genuinely cannot perceive a moral difference between a defenseless Palestinian child and a rocket-toting Palestinian fighter. The death of either strikes them as equally unjust. That’s why they howl so loudly when a thousand Hizbollah foot soldiers get put in the hospital by their pagers. It’s just another instance of thoughtless oppression! It’s genocide!
@barth: Your statement @42 isn’t even wrong. There are literally history books full of facts you simply ignore, so you can use the ahistorical term “ethnic cleansing.” You’re either totally ignorant, or you’re simply lying. if you’re ignorant, then you don’t have the knowledge required for “…trying my best to speak and argue in good faith.” If you’re lying, then you’re obviously not “… trying my best to speak and argue in good faith.” If you were actually “… trying my best to speak and argue in good faith,” then you wouldn’t carelessly or intentionally use the wrong words for the things you criticize.
“I don’t care what you call it when people are forced out of their homes based on their ethnicity. I think it’s wrong and indefensible and further inflames hatred in the region.”
Then you should learn something about the actual founding of the modern state of Israel. (Hint: pay careful attention to the phrase, “push the Jews into the Sea.”)
UN expert shocked by death of another Palestinian doctor in Israeli detention
24 September 2024
GENEVA – A UN expert today condemned the death of a third physician from Gaza while in Israeli custody and renewed calls for the protection of healthcare workers in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“On the cusp of the one-year anniversary of the genocide, I continue to be shocked at Israel’s blatant disregard for the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territory,” said Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health. “Dr. Ziad Eldalou is the third doctor confirmed to have died while being detained by Israel since 7 October 2023.”
Eldalou was an internal medicine physician at Al Shifa Hospital, located in Gaza City. He was detained along with other healthcare workers, while on duty at Al Shifa Hospital on 18 March 2024, during a raid by Israeli Forces. He reportedly died on 21 March 2024 while in detention.
He is one of more than 885 healthcare workers reportedly killed in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October 2023. This includes nurses, paramedics, doctors, and other medical personnel. Many more have been injured. The World Health Organization reported 1,043 health attacks in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem since 7 October 2023.
“Israel must stop destroying and hindering the already limited functioning of the health system in Palestine, by protecting healthcare workers,” Mofokeng said.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/09/un-expert-shocked-death-another-palestinian-doctor-israeli-detention
UN expert warns of new instance of mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, calls for immediate ceasefire
14 October 2023
“There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale. The international community must do everything to stop this from happening again,” the UN expert said. She noted that Israeli public officials have openly advocated for another Nakba, the term for the events of 1947-1949 when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands during the hostilities that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. The Naksa, which led to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, displaced 350,000 Palestinians.
“Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war,” the expert said. “Again, in the name of self-defence, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing.
“Any continued military operations by Israel have gone well beyond the limits of international law. The international community must stop these egregious violations of international law now, before tragic history is repeated. Time is of the essence. Palestinians and Israelis both deserve to live in peace, equality of rights, dignity and freedom,” Albanese said.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-expert-warns-new-instance-mass-ethnic-cleansing-palestinians-calls
@77: You sure do put a lot of the eggs in the UN expert basket. The UN experts are political appointees, they sing the tune they were appointed to sing. They want Israel wiped off the map, and they get pissy when Israel refuses to die.
“They [“political appointies”] want
Israel wiped off the map, and
they get pissy when Israel
refuses to die.”
huh.
seems
like even
Israeli supporters’d
have the common sense
to realize Israel’s commiting
not just Genocide but also Suicide
and maybe
just Maybe taking
down not only US but
quite possibly Everyone
not getting floated off to
‘Heaven’ – ‘raptured’ as they
call it. fools they are as are We
for sending to them OUR Treasure
and weapons of War hastening
Israel’s Easily predictable
slide into the Abyss.
and here
You are thumper
encouraging aiding and abetting
Jesus
Jesus’s
gonna be
Pissed off.
omg!
what if He ‘cancels’
YOUR Rapture
thumper?
@79: Do update us on WWIII — you know, the one which started when Iran attacked Israel with missiles. How’s that conflict going?
Look, we all understand. Very little in the current IDF-Hamas and now IDF-Hezbollah wars have gone the way you wanted. So wishing for everyone to Just Die Already is merely your fantasy version of Take My Ball And Go Home. But that’s also very unlikely to happen. If you keep plodding down the path you’re on, you’ll end up bitterly resentful of everyone around you for stubbornly remaining alive. And that’s just not a healthy place for you.
“Very little in the current IDF-Hamas and now IDF-Hezbollah wars have gone the way you wanted. “
On the way to 180k dead Palestinians in Gaza and many more to come in Lebanon. Millions on the edge of starvation and left without housing and support infrastructure. Everything is going the way only a bloodthirsty sociopath would want.
“Everything
is going the way
only a bloodthirsty
sociopath would want.”
& bibi what’s’s name
Appreciates
them.
our Myths & reptilican
brainstems’ll likely
be The End of us .
paging Emma Liz:
so How do we
STOP this
madness?
@81: So, it turns out that terror attacks on Israeli civilians, followed by the terrorists’ hiding behind Arab civilians just across the Israeli border, wasn’t such a brilliant idea after all? Nobody could have predicted…
“Everything is going the way only a bloodthirsty sociopath would want.”
Sadly, No!
“High civilian casualties would create worldwide pressure on Israel, Sinwar said.”
a couple readers’ comments on Thomas Friedman’s
Why Everything Is Suddenly Spiraling for Israel
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/opinion/israel-hezbollah-hamas.html
top comment:
What I would do is cut off all aid to Israel and stop providing diplomatic cover at the UN. A good hard dose of reality may lead to some much needed realism.
As it is, they’re playing with house money,
so why not risk everything, every time?
The term “Zionist” is never ever (and actually never has been) defined only by those who are Jewish, and unfortunately the most zealous of those who would attempt to impose their definition upon everyone else [well That rings a bell] are precisely the people who have most destroyed its relative earlier meanings and legitimacy.
And those who know their ancient history know that the very word “zealot” references an earlier episode where extremist ideologues catalyzed some massively bad consequences for the Jews.
–Keef re Cucamonga; LA
[History repeats
it’s Good at it]
and
… Iran would probably pick up the phone and call the White House, congratulate them for regaining their sanity, and start to establish strong diplomatic ties, provided that America stops trying to rule the world.
Iran wants peace, as hard as that is for some people to accept. Any denial of that ignores the facts and ignores history.
–Trump L’Oeil; New York
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/opinion/israel-hezbollah-hamas.html#commentsContainer
speaking of Big Mac
from the needling:
Mariners Ask Macklemore
After His ‘F- America’ Comment to
Be Less Divisive Like Team Sponsor Boeing
Under pressure to condemn local sports super-fan and world-famous rapper Macklemore after he said ‘F- America’ at the Palestine Will Live Forever concert Saturday, this week the Mariners released a statement asking him to be less divisive and better at bringing people together like its longtime team sponsor Boeing.
“We just don’t know why he’s divisively saying ‘F- America’ when he could be uniting everyone with something people across the political spectrum agree on these days like ‘F- Boeing,’ our generous team sponsor,” said Mariners spokesman Hank Goodall.
“In these politically charged times, we need to focus on what unites us, not divides us, like our shared terror every time we board a Boeing airplane, the way we all think Boeing definitely murders its whistleblowers, how we always knew those Starliner astronauts were screwed, and that Boeing’s irrationally greedy union-busting not only endangers our local economy but the entire nation’s airline and travel industries.”
Macklemore also released a statement today stating that—although he feels there’s more than enough justification to be angry at his country’s government these days—he could have been more thoughtful with his words.
“When I said ‘F- America,’ what I really meant was F- America rewarding a corrupt corporation like Boeing with billions of dollars we could be spending on living better lives here to instead enable the bombing of thousands of civilians including children in Palestine and Lebanon,” Macklemore posted in a note on Instagram. “That is truly something that I think unites us all as loving, conscientious Americans—especially, I’m sure, those of us who are ‘pro-life.’”
–by The Needling; Seattle’s Only Real Fake News
oodles
https://theneedling.com/2024/08/10/mariners-ask-macklemore-to-be-less-divisive-like-longtime-team-sponsor-boeing/
them Pro-Lifers:
they’re OBVIOUSLY
Anti-Genociders. right?
I mean, it’s IN their Name
@76: Dr. Ahmed Aljamal, respected community leader in the Nuseirat Camp in Gaza, was killed during the rescue of Israeli hostages he was illegally imprisoning in his home. Any word from the UN on his death?