Good morning! Today will be cloudy, with a high of 64 degrees. The low is that the Seattle City Council will likely pass some carceral policies this afternoon.
The council is scheduled to vote on the Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) zones, the Stay Out of Area Prostitution (SOAP) zone, and the prostitution loitering law later today. These new laws basically allow judges to banish people from certain parts of the city if they’ve committed certain crimes. They also allow cops to arrest you for prostitution and promoting prostitution if you’re kind of giving off those vibes, no real evidence required. A long list of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU), oppose this legislation, but that hasn’t slowed down the city council.
In fact, even after the ACLU argued that the laws could violate constitutional rights, the council expanded the zones, including the addition of a SODA zone along Broadway on Capitol Hill. You can thank the Capitol Hill Business Association (CHBA) for that. They said the downtown SODA zone could push drug activity up to the Hill, so they demanded their own zone. Of course, their zone will just push drug activity to other parts of Capitol Hill.
It’s a little disappointing to see zero pushback from the rest of the Capitol Hill business community, but the council pushed these policies through as quickly as possible. CHBA spokesperson and policy council Gabriel Neuman acknowledged that much when he said the council shouldn’t have introduced all these bills at the same time because it limits discussion. I’ll have more on this in the next couple hours, but people (and businesses) still have time to tell the council what they think of these “ineffective” and “counterproductive” laws, as the ACLU calls them. The meeting starts at 2 pm today for anyone interested in giving public comment.
Meanwhile, while the council has moved at warp speed to pass these exclusion zones and to reinstate the prostitution loitering law, they’ve taken their sweet time when it comes to the Social Housing Initiative, I-137. Yesterday, the council finally announced a plan to propose an alternative to the initiative, which would raid the JumpStart payroll tax on big businesses for funding instead of creating a new business tax. If the council passes the bill, then voters will have to decide between two different options when I-137 finally heads to the ballot in a February special election. Council Member and alleged bad boss Martiza Rivera proposed the alternative alongside Council Members Bob Kettle, Tanya Woo, and Cathy Moore.
City Council, if you raid JumpStart for Social Housing, what are you going to raid in fall to pay for your precious police department??? You are eventually going to have to levy new taxes or cut other services, departments
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) September 16, 2024
Real quick, let’s throw it to Hannah to let her wrap up the council updates today:
Justice for Ayşenur: Support for an independent investigation into Israel’s killing of Seattle-based activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi is growing. As of Monday afternoon, 90 Washington state lawmakers have signed a letter echoing Eygi’s family’s demand for the investigation. Every Seattle representative in the State House, State Senate, and King County Council has signed on, but there’s some stragglers on the Seattle City Council. Only Council Members Tammy Morales and Cathy Moore have signed the letter. Luckily for the other members, they are still welcome to sign on to stand up for their constituent.
Thanks, Hannah! Alright, back to me.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy demands workers return to office: Starting January 2, Amazon workers must appear in the office in person five days a week, according to CNBC. Jassy basically argued that before the pandemic, workers couldn’t work remotely two days a week. Yeah, Jassy, and before Amazon, people couldn’t same-day receive sex toys to their doors. Technology changes shit.
New Monopoly game based in … Bellevue? That’s right, the game company Top Trumps, which is licensed to make city editions of Monopoly, plans to launch a new version of the game based in Bellevue, according to KUOW. The company decided not to locate the game in Seattle because “there are just too many different, diverse neighborhoods,” a spokesperson said.
Sean “Diddy” Combs arrested: The FBI arrested singer Combs Monday night on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Prosecutors believe Combs abused women for more than a decade and “presided over an empire of sexual crimes,” according to the Associated Press. Earlier this year, security footage from a hotel showed Combs attacking singer Cassie, who had previously sued Combs for allegedly beating and raping her for years. Combs is expected to appear in court Tuesday on federal charges.
Trump’s claims about Springfield, Ohio cause chaos: After former President Donald Trump made false claims that Haitian immigrants in Ohio had started stealing pets and eating them, bomb threats have plagued the city and Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine ordered Ohio State Highway Patrol to station themselves outside city schools, according to ABC News.
Fed plans interest rate cut: If your credit interest rate has started to really panic you, then the Federal Reserve may soon grant you some relief. The Fed is expected to cut interest rates for the first time since 2020, which reflects the easing rate of inflation, according to CNBC. The Fed has to strike a balance between reducing inflation without sending the economy into recession.
Ok that’s all! This new track from Hinds helped lower my blood pressure this morning as I thought about the council meeting later today. Hope it helps you all as well.
Israel is innovating new ways to kill and maim children and innocent bystanders in the name of anti-terrorism.
@51 Why would children have pagers and walkie talkies?
@51: Hezbollah wants to re-establish the Caliphate, and so Israel assists their effort — by returning them to 7th Century technology. 😉
“… kill and maim children and innocent bystanders…”
Yeah, whereas Hezbollah targets children and other civilians directly. So, for each Hezbollah operative killed, or otherwise taken out of action, how many children or other civilians will be saved? Five, ten, twenty? Even if it’s just 1:1, that’s a lot of civilian lives saved.
52, They’re in proximity of people carrying explosives. Do you not understand how bombs work? Two kids are dead and a bunch more were injured, in addition to a bunch of innocent adults. But think of all the hypothetical children who could have been killed but weren’t or something.
@54: So, any attack upon any terrorist group must have exactly zero collateral damage? Obviously, terrorist groups now need to use even more civilians as human shields, because then, according to your logic, no one could ever attack them at all. So thanks for telling them that; if they take your advice, the civilian death toll will be larger next time.
Living in such a sheltered bubble must be nice. Too bad the rest of the world lacks your privilege.
I just think detonating hundreds of explosives while people are out living their day to day lives is a blatant act of terrorism. The video footage I saw looks no different than someone detonating a suicide vest.
@56: Just so you can hear how your own words sound to other people, you are saying that an attack in which electronic devices belonging to terrorists AND NO OTHER DEVICES are detonated in the hands of those terrorists is “no different than someone detonating a suicide vest?” You don’t perceive any moral difference between those two actions?
I don’t particularly care whether a terrorist dies when they are killing innocent people going about their daily lives, no. For me, immortality enters the equation when people are at the grocery store or whatever and get killed for no reason.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Wednesday called for an independent investigation into the events surrounding exploding pagers that killed at least 12 people in Syria and Lebanon – before Hezbollah walkie talkies reportedly started to explode.
The simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, without knowing who held the devices or their location violated international human rights law and possibly international humanitarian law, Turk said in a statement.
“There must be an independent, thorough and transparent investigation as to the circumstances of these mass explosions, and those who ordered and carried out such an attack must be held to account,” he said.
https://www.news24.com/news24/world/news/dont-weaponise-civilian-objects-says-uns-guterres-un-rights-chief-calls-for-pager-investigation-20240918
@56: A suicide vest is intended to kill multiple innocent persons for each attacker. The ratio here was inverted, with far fewer than one innocent person killed or injured for each Hezbollah terrorist killed or injured. So your straw poll survey was more than a little bit off.
Again, what you’re saying is only zero collateral casualties are allowed. Please let us know when you deign to enter our real world.
It’s quite clear who has been using terror tactics today but the usual deceased minds continue to make up excuses for Israel blatant escalation toward a regional war
By that reasoning, the bombs Israel uses to blow up hospitals, refugee camps, and international aid convoys are even more immoral because they are bigger and more sophisticated and have killed orders of magnitude more people.
I understand that collateral casualties are going to happen, I just think Israel should take greater pains to minimize them if they want anyone besides hardliners to perceive them as a more moral force than the people they’re fighting.
@58: Understood. Might be time to check the warranty on your moral compass. It seems to have gotten jammed.
@62: Any word on when Hamas will stop using “hospitals, refugee camps, international aid” organizations, mosques, schools, etc. to shield their terrorists? Because Hamas constantly using such civilian infrastructure to protect their terrorist operatives has caused a really huge and needless civilian death toll. (Yes, yes, I do understand — the leader of Hamas has made it abundantly clear Hamas wants a high civilian death toll, but I just don’t see any need to concern ourselves with the well-being or values of terrorists.)
@45 Smears is all you have. It is not a good look but it’s probably a little late for you to worry about that.
62, Ouch, a moral scolding from someone defending flagrant acts of terror. Much to consider.
64, Israel has a choice whether to bomb refugee camps and international aid workers even if they are sheltering terrorists, though there have been many instances where they were not.
I know that you will hand-wave away anything Israel does that results in mass casualties but what I am telling you is that any arguments that start from the position that your side is inherently superior will not win over hearts and minds as long as they are killing innocent people by the tens of thousands.
Are we supposed to laugh or cry when apologists for a litany of war crimes invoke morality?
@59: Glad to see the UN has upped their game! Last year, they emitted not one peep of protest for the gang-rapes of Israeli women. Sure, after a few months of Congressional criticism, women’s groups protesting outside UNHQ in New York, etc., the UN finally came around to the idea that using gang-rape as a weapon might not be the very best way to manage conflict.
By contrast, their very clear demands —when the victims were almost entirely members of a known, long-standing terrorist organization — was incredibly swift and condemnatory.
It’s good to know which side the UN is on.
@65: I’m guessing you’re mad because your backup walkie-talkie is now gone, too?
“Hamas told us to murder more innocent civilians so we were glad to do it. There is nothing like murdering 10,000s women and children to reach peace and freedom”
“Opponents of war = terrorists; United Nations = terrorists; No, we are not extremists, just moral human beings”
@66: I’m glad you are at least open to the possibility that combatants might be sheltering among refugees and international aid workers. That’s a thought worth sitting with for a while.
71, I don’t find it particularly compelling even if it’s sometimes true because it means scores of innocent people, critical infrastructure, food, and medical supplies are lost, leading to even more innocent death and suffering.
Israel has access to the most sophisticated military in the world yet they choose to rely on the most crude and destructive means at their disposal. You will never convince me that any of it is justified, no matter how many terrorists they take out by killing dozens of doctors, children, humanitarian workers in the process.
@66: “Israel has a choice whether to bomb refugee camps and international aid workers even if they are sheltering terrorists, though there have been many instances where they were not.”
Glad to know you’re so sure.
You know how Israel could have avoided any civilian deaths in Gaza? If Hamas had stood and fought, where they had raped and killed. Then, any civilian casualties would have been Israelis.
You know how to reduce attacks on civilian infrastructure? Don’t have terrorists use civilians and civilian infrastructure as cover for terrorist activities.
Guess what happens when you remain silent about all of that for almost a year, then express moral great outrage at the possibility of a few civilians dying when the terrorists get targeted? Go ahead, tell us. Give it a try; you’ve been very active today already.
Interesting episode of the daily today covering the far-right extremist Netanyahu regime, which they describe as an existential threat to Israel. Even the most hardline mainstream media outlets are recognizing the danger that these people pose to their own objectives.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736?i=1000669918294
73, You seem to think you’re making rational arguments here when you just sound like a bloodthirsty maniac to the average reader. Or at least that’s my most generous assumption. Maybe you’re trying to convince yourself, idk.
I’ve been avoiding wading into this fight because I have no skin in the game beyond my wish to see all the death and destruction come to an end. As long as people like you will find justification for all of it nothing is going to change so congratulations I guess. You and Hamas can ride your endless bloodshed into the sunset together.
@75: Everyone wants the death and destruction to come to an end. They just disagree as to what the peace should look like.
Hamas could always cease fire, release the hostages, and march meekly into Israeli prison. But somehow I don’t think they’d go for that deal.
Israel could always disband its army, invite 9 million Arabs to move in, and abandon the idea of a home of Jews on the lands of their ancestors. But somehow I don’t think they’d go for that deal.
The modern state of Israel is only 76 years old. The jury is still out on whether the Arabs and Muslims (and certain Western progressives 😉) can learn to live with it. The majority have, which gives me hope for the future. As for the rest, well, there’s always pagers and walkie-talkies.
Netanyahu doesn’t want the bloodshed to end because he knows also it means the end of his regime, too. This is why he has set an impossible objective as the endpoint for the fighting. There is no world where a gang of bloodthirsty terrorists with nothing to lose decide to surrender everything when they could fight to the death with the same outcome for them.
@76 “Israel could always disband its army, invite 9 million Arabs to move in, and abandon the idea of a home of Jews on the lands of their ancestors. But somehow I don’t think they’d go for that deal.”
Somehow you forgot to mention all that Israel could do first, like stop illegally occupying and annexing Palestinian land, stop killing and maiming protesters of its illegal occupation whether they are violent or not, stop killing journalists, stop jailing 1000s of political opponents (and without due process), stop bulldozing Palestinian homes and agricultural land, stop stealing their water, etc.. in other words comply with international law and stop the colonial venture bent on ethnic cleansing.
@78: You know good and well that nothing Israel does will ever be good enough to win the world’s approval. So…can the world learn to tolerate a Jewish state in modern times? Can you?
@barth: Your statements reduce to the logic that any non-zero probability of civilian casualties means no state can strike at terrorists, even when the terrorists intentionally use civilians for shields. That last statement contradicts our current laws of war, and for good reason. It’s a formula for endless terrorism, always from behind helpless civilians.
You’ve had many chances to recognize the terrorists’ responsibility in getting large numbers of civilians killed, but each time, you carefully walked around it. Instead, you focused on a tiny number of civilian casualties from targeted strikes against a known terrorist organization. That was what you find unforgivable.
I’ve typed it many times, so here it is again: intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. Without exception, every potential war crime should be investigated, tried, and resolved with either acquittal or punishment. I do not care at all about the identity of the alleged perpetrators, or of their victims. It’s the same principle of justice as in civilian life.
I want the bloodshed to end too. I just don’t think giving terrorists carte blanche to hide behind civilians will get us there. In fact, I truly believe it will take us rapidly in the other direction.
I have never denied Hamas’ role in getting their own people killed. I also do not deny Netanyahu is putting his own people in harm’s way through his reckless conduct in this war. Israel is responsible for their own choices and there is no number of Hamas terrorists being killed that justifies bombing hospitals, ports, and refugee camps. I know you disagree with me and I don’t care.
@65 relax. I’m just having fun at your expense. I’d hardly call that a smear. Given some of your previous statements if I wanted to smear you I could do a lot better. You and I are never going to agree on how this needs to be resolved because we view the causes as completely different but I don’t hold any ill will against you. I just think you are incredibly naive.
@81: You disagree also with the Fourth Geneva Convention, which does not allow combat forces to use civilians to shield their military assets. You should be angry about hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in Gaza being used for shielding terrorists, but instead you just declared that no matter how many terrorists are shooting from inside a civilian building, you won’t ever agree it has become a legitimate target. That’s your opinion and you’re welcome to it, but it’s not in any way the statement of superior morality you seem to think it is.
As for the targeted attacks on Hezbollah, they should not have carried their terrorist equipment (radios) into civilian areas. Just because you refuse to blame them for the resultant civilian deaths does not actually absolve them of blame.
@82: In addition to awe at the sheer technical acumen needed to carry out these attacks, the karmic / poetic justice of terrorists getting blown up by their own military equipment, before they could use it to carry out attacks on civilians, makes for a real treat. Too bad our friends here are too upset over the deaths of terrorists to enjoy it.
@15, @24: Hezbollah are not some Candy Stripe Girls of Lebanon. They are the largest of Iran’s militias in the region:
‘ “It’s transformative for the region because Hezbollah is not just another proxy for Iran. It’s very much part of Iran’s own defensive doctrine and its main tool of deterrence against Israel,” said Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at the consulting firm Le Beck International. “This puts Iran in a very difficult position, because Hezbollah was built to defend Iran, but now Iran is faced with the dilemma of potentially having to defend Hezbollah.”’
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-misjudged-israels-weakness-and-irans-might-b169e552)
You’re welcome.
From the same source, Hezollah are also one of the major reasons Lebanon remains a failed state:
“But what Hezbollah has clearly lost inside Lebanon is the aura of invincibility that has allowed it essentially to control the Lebanese state. The country has had no president since October 2022 because of obstructionism by Hezbollah and its allies that prevented the country’s parliament from holding a vote.”
Now, Hezbollah is also a reason why Lebanese in the south of their country needlessly suffer from the effects of warfare. How long will Lebanese’ tolerance of Hezbollah continue?