Good morning! It’s Indigenous Peoples Day, the federal holiday that most of us have to work through, when Democrats briefly remember that Indigenous people exist, and conservatives get really angry about respecting Italian heritage. Cheers to all who celebrate.

Let’s do the news. 

SeaTac Doesn’t Shill for Trump: Picture it. You’re half asleep, dragging your carry-on through the TSA line, checking your phone every 45 seconds to make sure you’re not about to miss your flight, when, jump scare: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s face, with a pair of hoop earrings that looks like a model of the solar system, pops onto every screen around you. “It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe,” she says in the video. “However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.” The Trump administration wants this playing at every airport in the country. SeaTac airport said “mm, no thanks,” but they will “continue to urge bipartisan efforts to end the government shutdown and are working to find ways to support federal employees working without pay at SEA during the shutdown.”

Speaking of Shutdown: We’re on day 14 and the government is, in fact, still shut down. 

Voting Rights Throwdown: SCOTUS will hear arguments this week in a case from the Trump administration and the State of Louisiana that literally takes aim at the Voting Rights Act. On Wednesday, they will make a case to get rid of the state’s second majority Black congressional district, and make it impossible to consider race in redistricting in the future. You know you’re on the right side of history when your agenda is easiest to push through when the fewest, least diverse swath of people vote. Right? 

Feds Are Escalating in Chicago: The Trump administration hasn’t managed to send the National Guard to Chicago yet, but they’re doing a lot of harm without them. They’ve sent a deluge of federal law enforcement into the city, and they’re doing exactly what we’ve come to expect. “One unauthorized immigrant was fatally shot. American citizens have been detained along with undocumented immigrants. Border Patrol agents have walked in groups through downtown Chicago. Residents have given chase to federal agents’ vehicles. And chemical agents have been used on protesters, journalists and clergy members,” the New York Times wrote. 

Ceasefire Update: On Monday, in the first stages of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Hamas released 20 Israeli hostages and Israel released almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. According to the agreement, Hamas still has to release the 26 bodies of hostages that died in captivity, and Israel still has to open Gaza up to allow desperately-needed aid into the region. 

Rest in Peace, Annie: Just as we all recovered from the social-media-induced panic of Dolly Parton’s mystery health concerns, Diane Keaton passed away this weekend at age 79. 

Weather: Clear and in the high 50s. We have a few dry days ahead of us, so get outside and soak in the daylight while we’ve got it. 

Holy Shit the M’s Had a Weekend: On Friday night, the Mariners played for five hours and 15 innings to finally beat the Detroit Tigers and claim the AL West Championship title. The game was neverending. There were two salmon runs. And when they won it, fans created a tiny but detectable earthquake. Then on Sunday, after playing that marathon of a game, getting on a delayed flight, and arriving at their hotel at midnight before their first game against Toronto, they still managed to take home the win. It’s a good weekend to be a Mariners fan (or to become one, like half the city did).

Master Debaters: Seattle’s biggest trolls got back from Trump’s “Antifa Roundtable” just in time for Seattle’s conservative political event of the season this weekend: the We Heart Seattle-backed “Great Debate” at the Washington Athletic Club. The event was supposed to host the candidates from all of the city-wide positions that are up for election this year, and the county executive race. But like most conservative events in Seattle, the “great debate” was a media setup. If the more progressive candidates did show up, conservative “journalists” like Jonathan Choe and Brandi Kruse would use the event as a rage-bait clip farm. If they didn’t, they’d use it as a way to “prove” that the progressive left is afraid of a fight. Most of them chose the latter, so Council President Sara Nelson, Council candidate Rachael Savage, and Mayor Bruce Harrell all got on stage alone and debated themselves. 

Harrell Finally Found a Vision for Seattle’s Future and We Wish He Hadn’t: Mayoral Candidate Katie Wilson cancelled her appearance at the debate last minute, so the organizers gave Mayor Harrell a full hour onstage to hype the crowd in his own personal WAC rally. Publicola’s Erica Barnett live-tweeted the whole event, and she caught a rare moment of vision from Harrell. Unfortunately, it’s not a vision anyone wants to see: a downtown that’s rejuvenated by a 10-foot wall where people can talk to AI versions of historical figures, like Martin Luther King Jr. 

“And you could say, Well, Dr. Martin Luther King, I’ve always wanted to meet you. What was your day like today? What did you have for breakfast? And he comes back and he talks to you. How cool would that be if we have a series of historical figures that we all could agree on, that we respect?”

— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM

Outside of that nightmarescape, Harrell mostly stuck to his usual talking points, just to a friendlier crowd. According to Publicola, he insisted he isn’t passing the buck on housing and homelessness, but then said that it’s the county’s fault. He pushed the lie that Wilson was a chief architect of the Defund SPD movement. And even in a friendly, more conservative crowd, he still managed to dodge answering many of the questions. 

13 Units: This morning, the Seattle Times’ Greg Kim fact-checked Harrell’s repeated claim that he’s added 3,000 units of housing during his term—a claim he’s repeated in debates and campaign ads all year. Turns out, 65 percent of the units of supporting housing that he takes credit for were already in the works when he took office, and counts tiny home relocations as new units. Ultimately, the city only has 13 more units of housing than we did when he took office. Thirteen.

Capitol Hill Shooting: Over the weekend, SPD announced that there was a third victim in Thursday night’s shooting on Pike and Broadway. The shooting was just a couple blocks away from where Robert Fleeks was shot and killed in his SUV last month, but the police haven’t officially linked the two incidents. In response, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported that City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, who represents Capitol Hill, released a five-point safety plan for the area, which is basically all initiatives that are already happening. 

The news was a lot today, so let’s wrap up with the best protest of the weekend: Portland’s naked bike ride.

Hannah is The Stranger's Editor-in-Chief. 

79 replies on “Slog AM: SeaTac Doesn’t Shill for Trump, Hamas and Israel Release Hostages, and Mariners Have Best Weekend Ever”

  2. Kudos to Sea-Tac for not caving to Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trumpf, the Seattle Mariners for an

    amazing regular and post season so far, and Katie Wilson for obviously being the better

    choice for Seattle’s next mayor and wisely sidestepping any further debate with Bruce

    Harrell.

    Rest in peace, Diane Keaton (January 5, 1946-October 11, 2025). A truly brilliant lady.

    She will be missed. I can still hear Keaton’s classic line from Annie Hall (1977):

    “Well, lah-di-dah, lah-di-dah, lah-di-dah.”

    I’m going to watch Annie Hall tonight. Woody Allen wrote Keaton’s title role part

    specifically for her. The film won four Oscars, including Best Director, Woody Allen

    Best Actress, Keaton, Best Picture, Producer Charles Joffe, and Best Screenplay,

    Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman.

    @30 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Hearty congratulations on your ten thousandth post!

    It’s always a joy to read your consistently spot on comments. Here’s to your next

    ten thousandth post! 😉

  4. @49: Yes, lady who doth protest too much, you do come across as hilariously impotent in your whining, and for the very reasons Barth gave. To most of Seattle, Mrs. Catalina’s signature observation comes across as a trivial line, aptly describing a gang of loser psychopathic politicians, but you just can’t stop complaining about how true it is.

    Speaking of loser psychopathic politicians, the Stranger’s abject lack of a fawning, breathless gusher about Comrade Sawant Bravely Defeating the Capitalist Warmongers of Genocide means her rally must’ve flopped so obviously and hard, it wound up as unsalvagable for propaganda. Any word on whether she demanded an immediate resumption of hostilities in Gaza, so she can lead a vandalizing mob to Rep. Smith’s home?

  5. Tensorna dear, it’s not just the politicians, it’s the people who vote for the politicians. One has to be horrible to vote for the likes of Semi Bird, Loren Culp, Joe Kent or – most of all – Granpa Stinky (trump)

    And how they love to play the victim: “One Party Rule!” they cry, and carry on about terrible our state supposedly is. But it never occurs to them that the reason that we have Democratic rule is in part because their candidates (pardon my vulgarity) suck. If that’s the best they can do, they’d better resign themselves to being the not-so-loyal opposition party for the foreseeable future.

    Republicans are the party of big, intrusive government, no fiscal accountability, and rampant corruption. They don’t want to govern – because they’re terrible at it – they want to rule, but they’re terrible at that as well. A modern day Dan Evans or John Spellman would be chased from the party with torches and pitchforks. It’s strictly back-benchers only.

  8. Coolidge dear, to paraphrase Mencken, “nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence (and racism) of the American people”

    And you’ll no doubt notice the states he won.

  13. @38

    …The sheer fact that your premise is to say that people are horrible based on their political ideology is intellectually bankrupt, super weird, and points to an underlying personality disorder that afflicts you. …

    Um, like Nazis, or something….

    Or do you want to be ‘fair and balanced’?

    I would add expansionist minded Zionists, just to trigger the usual suspects.

  14. “The sheer fact

    that your premise

    is to say that people

    are horrible based on

    their political ideology is …”

    spot

    fawking

    On, Catalina

    Bravissima!

  19. “Republicans are the party of big, intrusive government, no fiscal accountability, and rampant corruption. They don’t want to govern – because they’re terrible at it – they want to rule, but they’re terrible at that as well. A modern day Dan Evans or John Spellman would be chased from the party with torches and pitchforks. It’s strictly back-benchers only.”

    I think is a great discussion and I wish we could talk about it more especially here in WA. Everything Mrs Vel-DuRay says is true and has been for some time. It’s one of the reasons why I long ago left the republican party. What she doesn’t say however is that the D’s (especially here in WA) are going down a similar road as they are pulled further and further leftward by the progressive/urbanist flank of the party. Can anyone honestly say this state is run well? We have had massive tax increases with little to show for it, agencies that are terrible with no accountability, grift and fraud that goes unchecked and ideologues who are getting to the point where they won’t even speak / listen to oppositional voices. How is this any different than the “horrible republicans”? Would Gary Locke or Christine Gregoire even stand a chance in WA’s political climate today? They would be labeled conservatives. The issue in WA state isn’t about R’s vs D’s, its about actual D’s vs Progressive Socialists like Shaun Scott and Katie Wilson who are D’s only because they know they can’t get elected any other way. I feel adrift in the political sea as I watch both parties drift farther away in either direction. More often than not I vote for the candidate who is the least worse rather than who is the best and I don’t see that changing anytime soon unfortunately.

  20. @66: Being disillusioned is tough when you entertain democrat rhetoric only to realize you’ve been had. So that’s why I’m sicking with the GOP through good times and bad.

  21. Coolidge prefers his big, obtrusive government to come with masked goons assaulting people in the streets, criminalizing life-saving medical care for women, unqualified conspiracy theorists running critical government agencies, things of that nature

  22. we’re

    getting

    Dragged by

    corporate ‘Centrists’

    trying in Vain to ‘keep up’

    with a rapidly-Nazifying GOP

    progressive voices

    like Bernie’s appeal

    to the Majority of US

    if only More were able

    to hear his words. wholly-

    corporate-owned MSM hasn’t

    the bandwith nor temperment for

    the Sanders Wing of the formerly-Democratic* Party

    so the Middle has No Where to Go.

    *LLC, bitches!

    Unfucking

    Account-

    able!

  23. I stand by the party, but I vote for the candidate, like Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Biden, but no vote for Mrs. Emhoff as I acquiesced to let the electoral college tend to that unpleasant task on my behalf in this ultra-blue state.

  24. @69 Bernie, Mamdani and Wilson only appeal to people until they realize you can’t just “tax the rich” to pay for what they are proposing. The only way you achieve their vision is for everyone to pay a 40% or more effective tax rate and even then they quality of the services they receive will generally be less than what they are getting now.

  27. @53: Dear, I have no argument with anything you’ve written on the topic of Republican horribleness. And yes, they’ve created a one-party state in Washington, simply by their determined, unending horribleness. As @66 notes, this has happened (to a far lesser extent, I add) with the Democrats. If the long and bloody 20th Century taught us anything, it is that one-party states always fail in the end, and they hurt a lot of innocent persons along the way to their inevitable failure. We saw this failure in Seattle, where the elected Democrats went from sensible liberals to crazed extremists, listening only to fringe activists — with the Stranger constantly egging them on to ever crazier nonsense. When CM Nick Licata retired, nominating his protegee, Lisa Herbold, as his successor, I figured she’d continue on his path. Nope, just one loony bad idea after another after another, until she saw the writing on the wall after just one re-election. As a voter, I felt like the victim of fraud.

    I have no idea of what to do about any of this; where I vote now, I’m trying to get sensible Democrats elected over Trumpers. That seems so small, but hopefully it’s something.

  28. tensorna dear, what made the council “extreme” was the adoption of districts. (Something I supported at the time). That created seven little fiefdoms with neighborhood favorites all jockeying for a position, instead of a body that considers what is best for the city.

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