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.
If you think using the F work on America is cool, I feel sorry for you.
@1 I feel sorry for you being dead inside when confronted with your government enabling psychos like Netanyahu
Oh no, the “Let’s Go Brandon” crowd is mad that Macklemore said something mean about the country. Fuck ’em.
“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.”
So Ashley’s (The Stranger’s?) position is that if weapons are stored amongst women and children, the weapons are immune from attack and destruction under international law. It’s her (The Stranger’s) position that a combatant is free from attack by their opponent under international law, provided they fight from amongst women and children.
I’ve got new for Ashley, The Stranger, CDKathes, Greenwoodbob, Kristo, Averagebob, et. al. That this is not what international law says. It expressly states that hospitals, schools, and other areas where woman and children are present, lose protections under international law when they are used by the enemy to benefit their combat capability.
“Weapons caches … hidden in residential neighborhoods,” are lawful targets wherever they are located. Combatants are lawful targets wherever they are located. They may not be shielded with otherwise protected facilities, or people, without those facilities and people losing protection that would otherwise be afforded to them under international law.
Anyone wonder why Hamas, Hezbollah, U.N. Human Rights staff keep trying their case in the press instead of a court? Maybe its because they are venue shopping for a venue where they have some small chance of winning, rather than a venue where they have no chance of winning.
@2 I feel sorry for you because you’re just average. @1 is right, The Stranger is to be pitied. Not cool.
Israel’s Dahiya doctrine intentionally violates International Humanitarian Law
The immense numbers of civilian deaths and injuries have prompted human rights experts to condemn Israel for its defense strategy that disproportionately harms civilians. The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials. Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians and impediments to the passage of humanitarian aid are direct violations of the ‘rules of war’, or International Humanitarian Law.
https://depts.washington.edu/globalhealthjustice/israels-dahiya-doctrine-intentionally-violates-international-humanitarian-law/
Why is it that the people who say they want a government small enough to drown in a bathtub call for blood whenever someone else talks shit about it. If there is anything to love about this country it’s your right to criticize it however you like.
If mac feels that way about america maybe he should move to one of the islamic states that he admires so much?
@6, Deflection when you wrote, “Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians.”
If they are attacks on weapons, as Ashley described it, or fighters, stored or present in civilian areas they aren’t “deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” they are discriminate attacks on lawful military targets with civilian deaths. That is expressly permitted by international law.
As always happens when celebrities say something like that or burn a flag, they simply make the story all about themselves and turn people off from the cause they were ostensibly trying to promote, people never learn.
Just a reminder this is not Macklemore’s first brush with antisemitism. There was this gem from 2014: https://time.com/105848/macklemore-apology-anti-semitism/. At the time it seemed a one off but given his actions the last few months seems more core to who he is. The local sports teams would be right to disassociate with his brand. Let’s be honest the Mariners have enough problems with Jerry 54% Dipoto and really don’t need to deal with this nonsense.
Also noted that Chris Reykdal has a solution for school funding…an income tax
https://www.krem.com/article/news/education/washington-schools-superintendent-proposes-3-billion-budget-injection-two-years-chris-reykdal/293-f0be525e-2055-4291-a72d-ef5aec4b91d1
Funny thing about Macklemore and most of the other pro-Hamas folks out there is that they’ve stayed here in the U.S. instead of going to Gaza to help distribute food and medical supplies.
All talk.
No action.
Typical
BRAVA Ashely
the Wormtongue
Cuntingent’s gonna
have you working for
the Little Nickel in Bumfuk,
Iowa where the fascists’ll beat
you like a red-headed stepchild.
“pro-Hamas”?
“Anti-semite”?
the Unschooled
Appear to be Out
in Force today just
like Any Day here @tS.
Go, Macky!
GO! tell it
like it IS.
@8, Yes let’s punish him for exercising his constitutional rights. Like clockwork.
You should consider joining him so you can live in a country where people aren’t allowed to hurt your feelings with their big mean opinions about the government you also hate.
@15 He has the constitutional right to say anything he wants. And others have the constitutional right to tell him to piss off, and pressure folks who give him money to do the same. You have the right to defend him, and pressure folks to keep giving him money.
What angers you is that more people disagree with you than agree, so you lose the battle. But that’s not infringing on your or his rights any more that if you get drunk at a party, act like an ass, and get shown the door.
@15
Because the left didn’t do the same thing after Harrison Butker’s commencement address.
Stop pretending your better or different than the right wingers you hate.
hey mister myopia
I hear Rudy Ghouliani’s
looking for a few, “good”
Lawyers for donold eltrumpfster’s
Ministry of Truth, Just US! & Punishment.
go to Him
he & eltrumpfster
Need you & oh so
much More Than the un-
deserving & yet esteemed
Readers of Seattle’s ONLIEST
News source: at the Stranger.
pack light;
travel fast
Godspeed.
@16 YOU DON’T SAY
My point is that conservatives hate the US government to the point that they have based their entire political brand on it but they get really mad when anyone to their left criticizes it and their response always amounts to a complete rejection of the very rights they claim to value.
The author of this Slog post was arrested and charged with burglary and several other crimes when she worked at her previous job in Montana for breaking into an ex-boyfriend’s house. She was given a deferred disposition and the case was eventually dismissed. She moved on and is now writing here. That’s America.
Hamas is in charge of Gaza. They believe that a person who did what Ashley did should be either executed or lose a limb.
So when someone says “fuck America,” what does Ashley say in response? That this person said “something cool.” Never mind that if Ashley did what she did in Gaza rather than Montana she’d either be dead or missing one of the appendages she used to write this article.
America is far from perfect, but it remains bizarre that so many people pretend it’s worse than a place where they’d face severe consequences for being who they are or doing what they do. If you would be either dead, imprisoned for a long time, or have a limb cut off in one place, or get a none of these consequences in another, maybe the latter is a better place than the former.
17, If people said he should be exiled to a country where women have no rights then sure those people suck too but most of what I heard was people calling him a pussy for being afraid of independent women
@20, Saying fuck America for facilitating an ethnic cleansing isn’t saying the places we are bombing are better, they are just saying they don’t want to be party to an ethnic cleansing.
@22 well
that’s a LOT
to unpack. can
u shorten it up to
a few words a Jingle
and an eyeroll (or two)?
7: Just pity that they hate their own home country, despite its imperfections. That’s all. Nobody’s objecting to visceral opinions.
@18, Trump should have been removed from office by the Senate, after being impeached by the House.
Liz Cheney is correct. Harris for President.
Again, more deflection, rather than address the issue.
Under international law weapons and combatants aren’t immune from attack when shielded by civilians.
@1 & 5:
As the MAGATs like to say: “Fuck your feelings.”
@8:
If you hate our freedoms so much, why don’t you move to Russia or North Korea or one of those other authoritarian countries your Fearful Cheeto loves so much?
so anti-Genocide
= Pro-Hamas
as anti-Massacre of
Palestinians = anti-
Semitism?
& ANY criticisms of
America equals
HATING on
America?
omg
do these
People fucking VOTE?
okay, donold
looks like we’re
Ready for you Now.
“”Fuck America,” not that we genuinely should tell the US government to cut this shit out”
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.
Instead, he wants to sit with the cool kids all the while selling $45 tee shirts at U Village (boy is the irony deep with this one). Dude is no longer of the people – he’s just another celebrity chasing fame and fortune.
Comte @26: you seem to be confusing “freedom to not be arrested” with “freedom to never have anyone call you a jackass ever, and entitlement to have everyone give you money.”
Macklemore has the former, and literally no one is arguing otherwise. However, he does not have the latter.
Remember when Elon told all his advertisers “go fuck yourself” and then sued, crying about how unfair it was that they went “ok, bye?” Same applies here. Mack can say what he likes, and people can call him a jackass if they like, and buy or not buy his tickets/music if they like. You can personally give him all the money you like – we ain’t stopping you.
Freedom all around, baby.
I read this: “At a pro-Palestine festival in Seattle over the weekend, Macklemore said, ‘Fuck America,’ according to KOMO.” And my first thought was, “Good to see the Trump campaign finally getting a few celebrity endorsers, however B-list they may be.”
This reminds me of the roll call of states at the Democratic National Convention last month.
Each state or territory got to choose its theme music. Puerto Rico chose “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi. And I thought, “If there was ever a musical argument for Puerto Rican statehood, that’s it.”
And then they got to Washington, and the theme music was Macklemore. And I thought, “If ever there was a musical argument for revoking Washington’s statehood, that’s it.”
OK, I’ll admit, upon further consideration, that’s a very unfair thought.
I don’t see how a person could not understand when another person feels the need to say “fuck America”. I mean, I’m sure the residents of Mai Lai 6 at least thought it a few times. Descendents of slaves in America and those who were actually enslaved or victims of Jim Crow have thought “fuck America”. The fact that if Kamala Harris loses the election, it is solely because she is a woman in a heinously misogynistic country. I bet because of this shortcoming to our “more perfect union” plenty of women have said or thought “fuck America”. It’s just expression, honest-wholesome expression, “fuck America”… sometimes there’s no better way to express what one feels when experiencing life in the land of the free and home of the brave. “Fuck America”, It doesn’t promote hate, like those racist right-wing influencers that make up stories about legal immigrants. It doesn’t promote baseless conspiracy theories that militarize the right-wing base, like fox news and other right-wing media outlets. Macklemore simply disagreed with an obvious problem our country has with its use of its military industrial complex. Phoebe, if you pulled your nose away from the flag that you use as a kleenex to dry your crocodile tears you would see it is a soiled and fetid piece of cloth, for sale and abused by the world over–whomever is the highest bidder. So yeah Fuck America.
Oh calm down, you hysterical clowns. There’s no ethnic cleansing or genocide in Gaza, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the Levant. These idiots shot up Israel and then hid behind their own women and children. This is just plain old war, and Israel is doing a remarkably efficient job of killing the idiots who started it. Every single dead Arab woman, child, and civilian in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon can be laid at the doorstep of the terrorists.
I’m pro-Palestine. I’m so strongly pro-Palestine that I want Palestinians to be rid of the parasitic terrorists who are using them as human shields. I want them to live alongside Israel in peace, as so many other tens of millions of Arabs have learned to do.
@31
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. . . . I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies.
The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism a sham, your humanity a base pretense, and your Christianity a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth.
It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes.
Oh! Be warned! Be warned! A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever! . . .
Frederick Douglass; 1852
oodles:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/frederick-douglass-what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july-1852
and if KkKonnell’s
(formerly-) Supreme Court
had The Power then Slavery’d
Be Right Back on the fucking Menu.
Great Comment
Hayduke!
hey! you hysterical clowns:
“Every single dead Arab woman, child, and civilian in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon can be laid at the doorstep of the terrorists.”
Bingo, thumper:
laid to Rest right
at bibi’s Doorstep.
the biggest Terrorist
of them All & No small
Thanks to OUR Tax Dollar$.
great comment.
@33 “Douglas can go back to Africa if he doesn’t like it here”
Great citation, Kristo!
31: It doesn’t promote hate per se, but “fuck America” promotes your hate, obviously. Feeling sad about those who feel that way doesn’t make me feel tearful. But it makes you angry that the sentiment isn’t widely shared, I imagine you’d admit.
@34: lol, this was a war of choice for the Arabs. Shooting rockets at Israel is a piss-poor foreign policy, and now they are finding out why.
@36 From what I gather Phoebe, you are typically so wrapped up in making your own point that you generally fail to understand the point that others are making. Your “love it or leave it” attitude only begets the mistakes that our country repeats time and time again. Benjamin Franklin said, “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” So I commend those that question our country’s direction and applaud them when they choose words to vent their frustration with the pain and harm it doles out at the will of the highest bidder.
SOlIDARITY @34 Kristofarian you are a blessing to human consciousness!
“These idiots shot up Israel “
The idea that Israel was just minding its own business when “idiots” started shooting at it is the most often repeated lie about the Palestine conflict.
I’ll bet that almost all of those who are mad at Macklemore aren’t so because of his slur but because they agree with enabling the murder of babies and their mothers. The rage at his outburst is theater to hide the ugliness of their ideas.
@38: They had a ceasefire on October 6. They threw it away on purpose.
32, The founding of Israel itself was an act of ethnic cleansing that continues to this day with the illegal settlements in the West Bank.
@42: Ethnic cleansing, my ass. There’s never been a nation called Palestine.
@43, There doesn’t have to be a nation called Palestine for the people living on the land to be forcibly displaced from their homes, many exiled to other countries entirely, which is the primary defining feature of ethnic cleansing.
If we are not to call the war in Gaza genocide because it fails to meet the criteria of intent, we should all be able to agree on ethnic cleansing since Israel’s treatment of the native population easily meets the definition without even considering the body count or Israel’s intentions.
@42, @44: History is for persons who can stand nuance. Now we know why you threw such a fit at the deaths and cripplings of terrorists.
Israel committed ethnic cleansing in 2005, when it forcibly removed all Jewish settlers from Gaza. Good luck getting Israel to do it again in the West Bank.
38: Questioning authority pairs equally well with loving our country, as well as hating it – if not more. Everyone vents frustration and then chooses proceed pessimistically or optimistically — which is personal choice. As you grow older, this will become more apparent to you.
@44: They were vassals of the Ottoman Empire. Their claim to the land was never anything more than contingent.
45, I said nothing at all about the “crippling of terrorists”.
If you can’t defend your position without resorting to reductive, Bush-era “with us or against us” ad hominems why are you even bothering to argue at all. It’s just so boring.
47, They physically occupied the land and were purged from their homes just as Israel continues to do to this day in the West Bank. Ethnic cleansing.
@49: They’d have a little more security in their homes if they would stop launching wars that they then immediately lose. Just ask the people in southern Lebanon right now!