Seattle’s minimum wage goes up: Effective Jan. 1, 2025, Seattle’s minimum wage will go up to $20.76 an hour for all businesses, large and small, the Office of Labor Standards announced. The annual increase is required by the Minimum Wage Ordinance passed in 2015. Oh, I bet our current city council hates this news.
Dockworkers suspend strike: After a three-day strike of around 45,000 east coast dockworkers, the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance agreed to boost wages by 62% over six years. Workers will return to the bargaining table come January, but, for now, the ports will function as normal and avert any economic disaster. The strike struck fear into politicians and industry groups who called on President Joe Biden to intervene. A union guy, Biden said he would let the collective bargaining process play out. Though, he did issue a statement calling on the U.S. Maritime Alliance to present the workers with a fair deal.
WA sex predator escaped to Portland: A 33-year-old Washington man convicted of a violent rape in 2017 slipped out of his restrictive housing complex in Tukwila and out of his GPS ankle monitor on Monday. After a three-day search, the Department of Corrections arrested him on Thursday outside of a Portland convenience store. The man served a prison sentence in 2017, then, deemed too dangerous to live outside of a secure facility, a court civilly committed him to live under the care of Department of Social and Health Services on McNeil Island. Recently, he’d been moved to a less-secure-yet-still-restrictive living arrangement in Tukwila. After this escape, he will likely face a class A felony.
A doggone miracle: A pup plummeted from an I-5 overpass near NE 85th Street onto the freeway below. Somehow, the dog survived the fall. Washington State Patrol Troopers don’t know whether or not someone threw the dog off the overpass.
Wet wet wet: Are you all ready to get soaked? Maybe you all are already getting soaked. A wet system could dump 1/2″ of rain on some parts of Seattle. With the rain comes a cold front. Prepare for bluster and chill. Sun should return after Friday. The chill may hang in the air from here on out.
“Here Comes The Rain Again!” 🎵🌧️
Bring your raincoats to work – it will be a soaking commute this morning out on the roadways. Slow down, use your low-beam headlights, and give extra space between yourself and the vehicle in front.#wawx pic.twitter.com/EDGSjMjTHW
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 4, 2024
Keep an eye out for northern lights: Another geomagnetic storm could stir up some Aurora Borealis for us this weekend. Look to the skies at night and download one of those Aurora tracker apps if you want a glimpse of the good stuff.
SWPC Forecasters have issues G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watches for 04-06 October due to a pair of coronal mass ejections that are anticipated to arrive over the course of the next three UTC days.
Stay tuned at https://t.co/4CNTc1IkKt for updates as we monitor this activity! pic.twitter.com/RbLzQKHSUX
— NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) October 3, 2024
Jobs: The labor market is staying relatively sturdy. Last month, employers added 254,000 jobs and unemployment dropped from 4.2% to 4.1%.
FEMA’s funding fears: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he doesn’t think FEMA’s funds will make it through the hurricane season. The agency is already stretched thin working to get “meals, water, generators, and other critical supplies” to the victims of Hurricane Helene. With other hurricanes on the horizon, Mayorkas expressed fear that FEMA would not be able to help everyone impacted by future storms without more money. Congress recently added $20 billion to FEMA’s disaster relief fund in a short-term spending bill, but that still may not be enough. To make matters worse, Congress likely won’t meet in-person again until after the election, and Hurricane season peaks between September and October.
“Go back to where you came from:”At a bipartisan forum in Kendrick, Idaho, conservative incumbent Sen. Dan Foreman answered the question of whether there is discrimination in Idaho with a simple, “No.” Trish Carter-Goodheart, a member of the Nez Perce tribe who is running to be a house representative and not against Foreman, pushed back on Foreman’s answer and citing her own experience with discrimination and Idaho’s storied past of white supremacy. Foreman, furious, said to Carter-Goodheart, “I’m so sick and tired of this liberal bullshit! Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” He then stormed out. Carter-Goodheart is a member of the indigenous Nez Perce tribe which has resided in the Columbia River Basin for thousands of years.
Real-time true crime? A Tik Tok user joked she thought her house was haunted when she woke up to a broken laptop screen and items on her desk misplaced. Then, while digging holes to install a fence in her backyard, she and her husband found a buried rug. Suspicious and compelled by an internet audience, they called the police. A K-9 unit signaled that it smelled something in the yard. Blood? A body? Nothing? Who knows! Seems like we’ll need to stay tuned.
Earlier this week a lady posted that she found a rug buried in her yard. People convinced her to call the cops. She did.
Today they went with the cadaver dogs. The dogs believe there’s something buried there. pic.twitter.com/Y065PRg5NC
— Jelly Santos (@MrsJellySantos) October 4, 2024
Strikes in Beirut: Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut overnight, leaving the densely populated area ruined. Strikes also cut off the main highway connecting Lebanon with Syria. Tens of thousands of people used this highway to flee Lebanon in the wake of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah. Iran’s foreign minister warned Israel that if it attacked Iran then Iran would “retaliate harshly.”
Burial bunkmates: England and Wales are running out of room for their dead. New proposals to update 170-year-old burial laws could see existing graves reused as new graves. Only graves with occupants put in the ground 75 or more years ago would be eligible for reuse. It’s tough that there’s a housing crisis even for our bones. This is what happens when we zone for single-family graves.
Something to dwell on: 23andme could go under—but then what happens to all the DNA they accumulated?
A song for your Friday: Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhh!
Correction: A previous version of this Slog AM said that National Public Lands Day was this weekend, but in fact, it was last weekend. We apologize to anyone who got their hopes up! But go outside anyway.
we was Wondering
when you’d Pop in &
defend your sockpuppy
I find your lack of Punctuality
disturbing, though not Nearly as
Disturbing as your insidous complicity
cum Distractions.
now
What
Was it
you was
saying, @49?
@50
it
sounds
Like You.
nyt:
In Talking About ‘Freedom,’
Harris Hopes She Has a
Winning Message
on Guns
The vice president
is talking about firearms
in a new way for a Democrat —
by co-opting the language of Republicans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/politics/harris-guns-campaign.html
And!
Walz goes on Fox News
for his first Sunday show ap-
pearance since joining the ticket.
Mr. Walz, who has kept a relatively low profile since becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, appeared on Fox News Sunday.
Mr. Walz is expected to make other prominent media appearances in the coming days. The Harris campaign said he would appear Monday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/politics/tim-walz-fox-news-sunday.html?searchResultPosition=1
now
There’s
some Must
See fucking TeeVee!
20,000,000 million’ll
watch Walz & Jimmy K’ll
bring out The BEST in Walz
sans an
October
Surprise
perhaps
we’ve got us
a Tipping Point
and who Better
to bring it Home than
Jimmy K. and Guillermo
they’d be Fun af to Party
with on November the Fifth
shots with fucking Guillermo!
one for the AGES
who
Ever
WINs!
“20,000,000 million” ?
that includes Alpha
Centauri evidently
they LOVE them
Out There!
locally,
20fM
+/-.
84% of Palestinians support the 10/7 attacks of Hamas.
86% of Israelis support Israel’s current actions in Gaza.
Source: PBS Newshour Weekend 10/6
@55
pen ’em up
for Seventy years
and you’re Surprised!?
like to see
How you’d
fare ~ maybe
give it a Shot?
“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?
Naturally the common people don’t want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany.
That is understood.
But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy.
All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.
It works the same in any country.”
and it’s working just Fine
in the middle east right Now
–Hermann Göring, Luftwaffe Reichsminister
and whose Hubris had a Great Deal to Do
with the Nazis running outta ‘Gasoline’
@56: Another interesting observation about Herman Goring, actually taken from that very same post-war conversation in Nuremberg that you’re so fond of quoting Kristofarian, is that he claimed not to be an anti-semite himself and to harbor no personal animus toward Jews.
The nazi commander doesn’t hate the Jews! Ha ha ha! And he is saying this in all sincerity, he is offended that anyone would think that about him! He is genuinely convinced that he, personally, is not an anti-semite!
A similar phenomenon of denial is widespread among the “anti-Zionist” left today. Anti-semitic politics for miles, but when you so to their face, they become enraged and deny harboring any personal feelings of ill-will toward Jews. They are as sincere in their denial as Herman Goring was in his. They are not trying to fool anyone. They have already fooled themselves.
@57
your insight
is as phenomenal
as your ha ha has thumpfy
your
credibility
on a par with Hermann’s
@55: It is the morning of October 7 in the Middle East right now, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that started the war. It is instructive to compare Al Jazeera’s English-language commentary with its Arabic-language commentary.
Al Jazeera’s English-language website is full of tales of Palestinian suffering on this anniversary. Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language website is full of Palestinian feats of arms on this anniversary. One provocative article asks, “Al-Aqsa Flood.. Was It an Achievement or a Disaster?”
https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2024/10/6/طوفان-الأقصى-هل-كان-إنجازا-أم-نكبة
The author concludes that it was an achievement. “Despite the bleakness and pain of the scene [in Gaza], according to many observers what the Resistance has achieved during this past year has exceeded the expectations of both supporters and enemies.”
The author cites the same high levels of Palestinian support for both continued resistance generally and for Al-Aqsa Flood specifically. According to the author’s analysis, Hamas has prevailed militarily against Israel in Gaza and is likely to enjoy further military successes ahead. Long-term trends favor a Hamas victory. “The war between the two sides will be resolved only once one side is unable to continue it and agrees to the other sides’ conditions.”
I think the Arab world generally and the Palestinians specifically are spoiling for a fight. “Ceasefire now” is a Western demand, not an Arab one.
@59: Hizbollah’s Arabic-language media, al Manar, is calling outright for all Arabs and Muslims around the world to take action on their own in every city, square and capital “against the interests of the [Israeli] occupations and its supporters, in revenge for Palestinian and Lebanese blood.”
https://www.almanar.com.lb/12571253
Globalize the intifada indeed! Hizbollah accepts foreign recruits. It will be interesting to see the extent to which Hizbollah can become a magnet for foreign fighters to come fight jihad, in the manner of al Qaida and the Islamic State. Hizbollah’s Shia theology and Iranian state sponsorship might limit the scope of its appeal to the broader Islamic world’s mujahideen, who tend to follow a salafist fiqh hostile to Shi’ism. Qital is only valid as jihad if it is in service of Allah. If you screw up the theological component, you certainly aren’t a martyr and might even be a sinner! So think twice before joining Hizbollah! 😄
@56: After 10/7, immediately followed by a year of Israelis getting driven by their homes by Hezbollah (in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 — passed ‘way back in 2006, averagebob must be just apoplectic about that by now!!), I somehow do not believe the Israelis need anyone to “… tell them they are being attacked…”
“One year after the brutal Hamas attack that ended Israel’s two-decade golden age of relative peace, expanding wealth and growing diplomatic ties, the country is now firmly on the counterattack and preparing to be at war for years.” (https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-sees-future-at-war-oct-7-770d67ee)
Looks like all of those pro-Palestinian protestors in Seattle, on campuses nationwide, and in cities worldwide, who chanted openly for war after 10/7, may now get their wish. Congratulations?
nyt: Nowhere to Go:
How Gaza Became
a Mass Death Trap
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been prevented from fleeing the narrow strip of land even as bombs have rained down, famine has loomed and disease has spread.
Of all the grim distinctions of the yearlong war in Gaza that followed the savage Hamas attack on Israel last Oct. 7, one may stand out for its deadly singularity: Palestinian civilians there have nowhere to go.
Barricaded by barbed-wire fences, tanks and soldiers, they have been effectively imprisoned for 12 months in a 141-square-mile strip of land between Egypt and Israel that has become a killing zone.
–by Mark Landler; Oct. 7, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/world/middleeast/gaza-civilians-deaths-israel-war.html
& we, the Peeps’ve
been $ponsoring this
Massacre for a fucking
YEAR Now — just to keep
one nutnyahoo tf Outta prison
Money well $pent?
You tell Me.
it seemed like this’d
bear repeating nyt:
an Opinion:
Nicholas Kristof
Biden Sought Peace but Facilitated War
Oct. 5, 2024
some readers’ comments on the article
including one by its Author,
Nicholas Kristof
[no relation]:
Where are the quotes from Hamas, Hezbollah, or even Fatah leaders who wish to have peace with Israel and live side by side? There aren’t any because Kristoff can’t find any. There are two sides to this conflict (more than two, actually), but reading this makes it seem like only one side has any agency.
–Mark F; Philadelphia
@Mark F
You’re wrong on this. And dangerous.
Kristof did quote Issa Amro and link to a previous a column in which Amro and other Palestinian leaders work towards non-violent change in the region.
When you say there are no such voices, you’re not only wrong, but you demean and degrade entire people, and give cover to those who think violence is the only answer, and that the only good Palestinian is a dead one.
–SHC; Virginia
@Mark F
Hamas has already said it would recognize Israel if Israel entered into a real peace agreement. So has Hezbollah and Iran.
Where are the quotes from Israel or its leaders, especially Netanyahu, about accepting a real Palestinian state? Netanyahu has publicly stated he will never do so.
–Gaius; Tampa
@Mark F
Look up the remarks made by Jordanian Foreign Minister Safadi at the UN recently. He said all Arab nations are unequivocally willing to guarantee the security of Israel if they would allow the emergence of an independent Palestinian state along 1967 lines.
Rightwing rhetoric that there are no such voices is just that, lies to render Americans ignorant cheerleaders of unchecked Israeli counter-attacks against those who really just want a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu opposes. Yes, there are terrorist yahoos who say otherwise; but we ignore Safadi at our peril.
— Sherry; Arizona
@Mark F Thanks for your comment on my piece, and you’re certainly right that Hamas and Hezbollah were intransigent and presented a very difficult challenge for Biden.
But that’s always true, and of course we don’t arm Hamas and Hezbollah. In East Asia, Biden had to deal with an intransigent China and did a magnificent job. Reagan in 1982 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon had to deal with all kinds of intransigent parties, but he was tough on Prime Minister Begin and saved lives.
In contrast, dealing with an admittedly extremely difficult situation, Biden let Netanyahu walk all over him — so we have 10,000 dead children in Gaza, a war in Lebanon, crisis in the West Bank and risks that the conflagration will get bigger. This is not what Biden wanted, and I don’t see how it can be seen as anything but failure.
— Nicholas Kristof; nyt Opinion Columnist, Oct. 5
Why was Israel caught so unprepared for last October’s terrorist attack? Was it intentional by Netanyahu? Did he know there was an impending terrorist attack and did nothing to protect Israelis, just to give him cover to commit war crimes to destroy Palestine and Lebanon?
The way Netanyahu has so little regard for killing innocent Palestinians makes me believe he would be capable of such a treacherous crime, of sacrificing innocent Israelis in last October’s terrorist attack, just to justify his impending war crimes.
–Bob; Ontario
It’s not that Biden didn’t use influence effectively – that ship sailed months ago – it’s that we are partners in mass slaughter, starvation, war crimes and terror. We have not only become the enemy, but have exceeded their inhumanity.
Stop now. I don’t know whose “orders” we are “just following,” but it has become manifest evil.
–Diotema1; Southwest
oodles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/biden-israel-war.html#commentsContainer
@63: So, you’re saying the pro-Palestinian protestors now regret having openly chanted for war?
@64: Opinions are not facts, and no, I do not expect you ever to accept this.
Ahab is literally Jonathan Frakes telling you you’re right; a similar event took place.
https://youtu.be/MCT80HJWQ2A?feature=shared
@47 xina: You wouldn’t want typical RepubliKKKan neofascist Dan Foreman to have to crawl back up Donald Trump’s cavernous Grand Canyon sized buttcrack?
Personally, I’d like to see his punishment fit the crime. I’d even bring some popcorn, dark chocolate, and red wine.
@64 kristofarian: One caveat: I have to take anything said by Nicholas Krystof with a grain of salt, kris.
He’s the genius who, immediately following the disastrous election of 2016 was quoted as saying, ‘Let’s give [Donald Trump] a chance.’
Look where THAT got us.
@68
yeah
Kristof’s
to be taken
with salt, lime
& why not a shot
of Tequila? xina said
he was pretty Bad for ORE
but
why
that Was has
long escaped me,
auntie Gee. carpet-
bagging’s seldom looked
down upon so it musta been
something else. didja put your
Beetle in its Den for the Winter
or are you
Out and about
getting ready for
firestorms of leaves*
& halloween-type stuff?
*is it
Fall yet?
@69 kristofarian: I still have to get my trusty Love Beetle back into his den for hibernation this week, before the bad weather comes. If we get nothing but rain I’ll have to get my beloved VW towed back to his seasonal den for the next 6 + months, until the nice weather returns.
When it’s cold and wet he hates to go out, complaining with an automotive “Do I hafta?”
I’ll really miss my beloved Love Beetle’s sweet company, but welcome shelter from the storms keeps him in top shape. How this happy, sweet little car puts up with a nut like me, I’ll never know. I’m lucky to still have him.
Yeah, I read, too, in a Seattle Times Op.Ed. (Danny Westneat, I think, if I remember right) how Nicholas Krystof is bad for Oregon. He lives in New York but ran for…was it Governor…? of Oregon, claiming “residency”. Sorry, Nicholas the Ridiculous, ya gotta actually LIVE within the state where you’re running for public office. D’OH!
@auntie Gee:
your love bug’s
a BOY? are you Sure?
do you know* how to tell?
I thought ALL cars —
excluding Mad Max-type
machines — were Girls. this’s
a New One on me — & I’m Olde!
*now I’m not
Sure I do…
it’s Nice
when your car
Loves you back!