Good Morning! The weather gods are giving us a mellow Monday: partly cloudy, highs around 78. It’s weather to ease into the week with.
Let’s do the news.
Check Your Mail: It’s officially primary season, and chances are, if your ballot isn’t already in the stack of mail on your counter, it’s eagerly waiting for you in your mailbox. I know it feels like we just did this, but this is an important one. Just in Seattle alone, we’re voting for three city council seats, the city attorney, and the mayor. So let’s go get ourselves a whole new city government. If you’re not registered yet, don’t worry. You’ve got a week (July 28) to get on those voter rolls. Stranger Managing Editor Megan Seling answered every question you might have about getting that ballot where it needs to go, and if you want to know who to vote for, you can read The Stranger’s Election Control Board voter guide here.
Look Mom, We’re on TV! Our local elections got some national attention this week. The Nation featured Katie Wilson’s campaign, calling her Seattle’s answer to Mamdani. “She embodies the policies and hopes and dreams of most of us in Seattle who can’t figure out how to pay for childcare and rent increases and healthcare, or those of us who recognize and want to provide the solutions for these issues,” they said. CNN turned their spotlight on city attorney candidate Erika Evans as part of a movement of former federal workers who left their jobs after Trump was elected and are now running for office specifically to fight his policies.
I Hope You’re Not Flying on Alaska or Horizon Air Today: At SeaTac, at the time this was written, 56 Alaska and Horizon flights had been canceled and 62 had been delayed, after the airline grounded their entire fleet for three hours last night because of an IT outage. If you are flying today, check your flight status before you head to the airport, and I sure hope this is obvious, but don’t yell at anyone. Everyone in that airport is having a bad day today.
Did You Survive the I-5 Closures This Weekend? WSDOT would like to congratulate you with some otters.
Free Gui: Guilherme “Gui” Silva, a Brazilian immigrant, lawyer, and muralist, was detained by ICE earlier this month on San Juan Island. Silva was a lawyer in Brazil, and moved to the US about eight years ago to pursue his art. He has a four-year-old daughter with his now-ex-wife, and is expecting a child in just a few months with his wife, Rachel Leidig. Two Fridays ago, masked ICE agents followed Silva from his home in unmarked vehicles, pulled him from his car, confiscated his cellphone, and detained him. When he asked to see an arrest warrant, they refused. Silva is married to an American citizen and is currently in legal proceedings to apply for a green card. The only blemish on his record that the Seattle Times was able to find was a $100 speeding ticket. The Department of Homeland Security said they detained him because he overstayed his tourist visa, which, let’s say it again together: is a civil violation.
Update from Gaza: Yesterday, while starving Palestinians were rushing toward a convoy of aid trucks from the World Food Program, Israeli tanks and snipers shot into the crowd of civilians, killing and wounding dozens. “The episode was the latest in a string of episodes in which Gazans lost their lives as they gathered to get food,” the New York Times wrote. Hold on, let me fix that for them: The episode was the latest in a string of episodes in which the Israeli military slaughtered starving Gazans while they tried to access humanitarian aid, after explicitly committing to stay away from aid missions.
Trump Is Making Europe a Union Again: Nothing makes you consider getting back with your ex quite like getting on Hinge and seeing Trump doing the YMCA. After years of crumbling public trust, the European Union took one look at Trump and decided it might be worth making it work. They’re making new trade deals with countries that don’t set tariff rates in the morning from their golden toilet. They’re resetting their relationship with Britain post-Brexit. Denmark, which has historically been pretty skeptical of the EU, just found that almost three-fourths of Danes trust the Union. Must be nice.
Only Racists Get New Stadiums: Trump has demanded that the NFL’s Washington Commanders—who, until 2020, had a racist team name referring to Native Americans—revert to their old, racist name if they want to build a new stadium in DC. “The Washington ‘Whatever’s’ should IMMEDIATELY change their name back,” he wrote on Truth Social. Dibs on the Washington Whatevers for our regional softball league.
“Should ICE Agents Be Allowed to Wear Masks?” No.
Some Good News, for Once: Over the weekend, the number of missing people in Kerr County, Texas, where the July 4 floods hit the hardest, dropped from 97 to 3. And the number dropped overwhelmingly because people were confirmed safe.
This Snake Knows How to Get Rid of a Body: Florida scientists have finally figured out how bones go into the invasive Burmese Python, but don’t come out. Turns out, when the 18-foot carnivores decide to gobble up a whole alligator or deer, they secrete a “bone-digesting cell” that was specially designed by Mother Nature after she watched too many mob movies. By the time it comes out the other end, there isn’t a bone fragment in sight. The Everglades are home to tens of thousands of these giant carnivorous snakes, after one too many Florida Men released their pets into the wild.
Capitol Hill Block Party Was This Weekend! If you missed it, don’t worry. We were there and we have so much to share. Here’s a little teaser from Stranger Social Media Editor Christian Parocco.
You can’t meet the quotas if you let tourist visa civil violations slide. America voted for no mercy, so let’s tear those families apart!
“is currently in legal proceedings to apply for a green card.”
Under the letter of U.S. Immigration Law, since he doesn’t have a green card yet, and overstayed his original visa, he is subject to detention and deportation. There isn’t an exception for “Green Card Pending” in the law that gives you a right to stay here.
Rule of law says this is a valid detention and/or deportation and applying rule of law that should be the outcome.
The Stranger RIGHTLY champions rule of law when Trump defies rule of law. When an unlawful immigrant defies rule of law, not so much. So which is it Barth, The Stranger, is rule of law a principle you believe in or not?
Barth,
You have rightly been decrying the erosion of Constitutional and Civil Rights in the current epoch.
Here is some good news for you. A U.S. Federal District Court Judge just upheld 1st Amendment Rights under attack by Washington State.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-state-law-requiring-clergy-to-report-child-abuse-on-hold/
With regard to the R*dsk*ns nonsense, Trump is really good at at least pretending to care about things a portion of his base cares about, even if the vast majority think it’s stupid. That’s what helps him sustain such intense loyalty. A certain other party, on the other hand, just tells their base they are stupid and wrong for caring about things then cries when those people don’t nonetheless vote for their candidate.
Cue multiple commenters telling me this opinion is stupid and wrong and everything’s my fault for not loving their candidate enough in 3… 2…
Gui you, Gui you, wouldn’t want to be you. Bye bye Gui, shoulda followed the law. How will you visit your future wife when you are barred from re-entry for 10 years following your deportation?
Didn’t a whole bunch of Native American folks come out in support of the Washington Redskins? In fact, the Native Americans Guardian Association collected over 150,000 signatures of folks in support of keeping the name. The Redskins logo represented Blackfoot chief Two Guns White Calf and was designed by Blackfoot elder Walter Wetzel after consultation with Native American communities.
Apparently The Stranger doesn’t give a shit about Gaza anymore, otherwise this would have made the SLOG.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/uk-france-and-23-other-countries-say-the-war-in-gaza-must-end-now/
My question to the U.K., France, and 23 others is how many ground troops will they put in Gaza to end the war? How many non-combatants will be caught in that crossfire? For how long?
Will Barth, Greenwood Bob, Thirteen12, et. al. cry war crime when its U.K. and French bullets killing non-combatants in the crossfire from a lawful military operation like they do when it’s IDF and Hamas crossfire?
@4, I think you are generally correct with that observation actually.
The only thing I might tweak a little is they don’t tell their base they are stupid, they tell working class voters and minorities that. Those groups never left the base, the base left them, so when Democrats cater to their base, those groups are excluded, and they shifted to Trump.
@5
Yes, they did. Thankfully we have the people here at The Stranger to tell the Native Americans they should be offended.
The accompanying photo is some even more twee PNW version of “Live, Laugh, Love”.
The Stranger, which supposedly leads on arts reporting, gets scooped by Seattle Times.
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/interview-with-local-director-for-one-night-in-tokyo/
I see great industrial and medical uses if science can extract that bone digesting cell/enzyme that Pythons have!
Why go to The Stranger for arts coverage at all?
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/tacomas-dune-peninsula-concert-venue-opens-with-an-orca-splash/
Will The Stranger now call for knife control measures? More social services for senior citizens?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/man-seriously-hurt-in-stabbing-at-rainier-valley-safeway/
@10 Good lord you’re boring.
@5 & @8: Maybe do some research on what the Native Americans Guardian Association is, dummies.
Slog is even worse than the lib Seattle subreddit when it comes to deliberately ignoring local violent crime news, especially if those crimes are committed by “PoC” (which is the vast majority of them)
By the way:
Suspect captured in Seattle after triple murder of women and little girl at apartment
https://komonews.com/news/local/suspect-captured-in-seattle-after-triple-murder-at-renton-apartment-complex-domestic-violence-killing-shooting-washington-renton-investigation-capture-manhunt#
Also:
Seattle murder victim’s family holds protest at WA state capitol to urge reform
https://komonews.com/news/local/murder-victims-family-holds-protest-at-wa-state-capitol-to-urge-reform-violent-offenders-drug-arrest-prosecution-early-release-retrial-domestiv-violence-victim-assualt-murder-knife-jury-blake-decision#
Trump sharing Obama arrest videos and screaming that Washington and Cleveland need to resurrect their racist team names is just evidence of how freaked out he is by the Epstein file release.
Washington Orangeskins—yes yes yes!!!
@16, Before Noisy Creek bought The Stranger, they used be all over every local crime where a gun was involved to snark about needing gun control.
Not anymore.
@14, Thank you. Apparently so is The Stranger. At this rates they will have less arts coverage than The Seattle Times.
@17, You are on to something.
@4 Hahaha… your arguing that the Democratic party should let be like the Republican Party and let the extremists run the asylum. JFC…
Yes, you are stupid. But nice persecution complex you got going there. You’re such a poor, misunderstood victim!
@20
So extremists are NOT running the democrat asylum?
@15
Name calling. Looks as though that’s something you have in common with DJT.
@19 I’ve been lurking on this blog as long as its been around and they were NEVER a comprehensive list of every crime that was committed every night or a comprehensive list of every art/music thing that happened here. It was always the writers picking and choosing what they wanted to write about that day.
Do progressives cover violent crime like their lives depend on it or do they pretend it never happens? Both can’t be true, but both can be a bunch of whiny ass bullshit.
@20: Which extremists? The ones who always give billions in military aid to genocidal maniacs and religious fundamentalist regimes? Are you referring to Obama, Clinton, Biden, & Co. – the ones who paid a proxy jihadist militia to lay waste to Syria (which had a secular government at the time) – the same militia that went on to form ISIS?
Are those the extremists to whom you refer?
JFC, Slog comments are just zero fun now.
@24: Wow, defending Assad’s “secularism”. I’m sure the prisoners in Sednaya appreciate that distinction.
@25: Having actually traveled in Syria – which I’m going to go ahead and assume you haven’t – I can assure you that the populace would much rather have had Bashir than any American-led regime, let alone a jihadist one. Stop being a dumbshit.
I don’t expect anything interesting from the primary – you’ll get both the establishment and the far left / progressives moving onto the general (like usual). Another Pete Holmes surprise would be interesting but I suspect unlikely.
@23, Before Noisy Creek, just about every shooting that made the news got weaponized in the SLOG so they could say something to the effect of , “We need the repeal the 2nd Amendment”.
That’s my point. They aren’t doing that anymore. So have they gone soft on so called gun control?
@23, Kind of like they are going soft on Gaza. They are now omitting mention and coverage, when they used to jump at nearly every opportunity that appeared in the news.
@28 – Sorry, that’s not true.
28 i know you believe this because you never shut up about it but you have no evidence to back your claim, and now you have a competing nitwit who is insisting — also without evidence — that progressives never talk about violent crime
And why would Washington DC team represent the Blackfoot confederacy? They are nowhere near their ancestral lands and have no ties to them.
With no historical or cultural ties, it tends to be appropriation.
Notmyopic, are you okay?
@4: If someone politely said “No,” and you heard, “…are stupid and wrong for caring about things…”, then perhaps that’s a you problem?
“…then cries when those people don’t nonetheless vote for their candidate.”
On pretty much every issue, I’d rather have Pres. Harris than another round of Trump, but then again, I’m not the one doggedly insisting Trump is “not worse than” Biden & Harris on the Middle East, even after Trump BOMBED IRAN in support of the IDF.
@5 Sure, some people who are targets of racist insults cope with them by interpreting them ironically or humorously in an attempt to drain those words of their power to hurt (at least in their own mind). That doesn’t give the rest of us a license to use them, especially if far more members of the targeted group find them offensive than not, which is surely the case with Native Americans and the r-word. If you asked around enough, you probably could find a few Blacks who have no problem with whites using the n-word — but does that make it perfectly OK to use it for a team name?
The 150k signatures are not necessarily signatures of indigenous people.
Also NAGA is a dubious organization of people often not of indigenous ancestry that was created for the single purpose to fight against any name changes of any organization with okd and tired racist or misappropriated indigenous names.
They are by no means any sort of authority or cultural collective of indigenous people akin to NAACP for black Americans. They are a joke and more similar to the Westboro Baptist Church.
Neale Frothingham @ 29, “Kind of like they are going soft on Gaza. They are now omitting mention and coverage…”
Hannah Murphy Winter @ Slog AM, “The episode was the latest in a string of episodes in which the Israeli military slaughtered starving Gazans while they tried to access humanitarian aid, after explicitly committing to stay away from aid missions.”
Is Neale stupid as fucking shit? You make the call!
He would like you to spend another couple years arguing about the names of sports teams because by the time that argument is done the camps will already be built.
@35: It’s a fluid issue because culture is fluid. The “politically correct” label ‘LatinX’ is not well received, considering the masculine and feminine constructs in Romance languages, and Latinos apparently are endeared by the cartoon character “Speedy Gonzalez”. Better for these renames come from the grass roots rather than bureaucrats.
re:34: Actually, I can’t even recall how many times Tensorna has berated other commenters for their failure to support DNC candidates. I didn’t hear a “no,” I heard “wrong and stupid,” and a whole lot worse. So it’s not surprising that they would feel prickly reading #4’s comment – I’m sure it hit a little too close to home.
Everyone here can remember when Gaza was half the SLOG. Have things improved that much for Gazans that it isn’t anymore?
No but we are over tenny and ahab and others constant circle jerk for the IDF. Also there becomes a certain point where news becomes less covered bc nothing new is happening, look at Ukraine.
Also again, you realize this is a blog, not CNN or Al Jazeera. They have like 4 people staffed. If they miss coverage in a shooting, stabbing or Gaza, it happens.
You are obsessed with what they didn’t get to cover in a small blog. You need help.
Meet up with Barth outside of the comments section, it will be good for you.
The new food-distribution plan exists because of Hamas’ long-standing practice of stealing humanitarian aid from Gaza, and either weaponizing it directly, or selling it for money to buy weapons. And Hamas is none too happy about this new system, either:
“Hamas has repeatedly threatened Palestinians who cooperate with the plan with violence. Last month, GHF [the newbie American contractor tasked with distributing food] said Hamas militants attacked a busload of its Palestinian staff, killing at least eight. This month, GHF and the Israeli military said they suspected that Hamas militants had injured two American security staffers with grenades.”
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/us-israel-gaza-aid-deaths-12d3fb35?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1)
@40: If you want to provide a quote from me, wherein I actually use those words you put in quotes (and a whole lot worse) — and the URL to it, of course — please go right ahead. Short of that, no, I don’t feel “prickly” about @4. (Heck, I wasn’t even the first commenter here to have some fun with it. @20 actually used the word, “stupid,” so perhaps your beef is with that commenter?)
@41,
Even Phoebe repeatedly points out how full of fucking shit you are. You’re an idiot and your spamming up the comments with your idiocy is exactly what Max is referencing @25 when he notes that our comments section is full of spam and shit these days. We’re back baby is a repugnant human as well, but he’s at least posting from a position of repugnant and generally on-topic ideological consistency, whereas you’re just a pointless strawman generating AI facsimile who contributes nothing whatsoever toward any sort of engaging discourse.
Everyone should report Neale’s profile to be banned and hope the mods finally respond the way they did with raindrop and a couple others. He’ll no doubt create a new one ad infitum, but it’s the right thing to do regardless as he’s an obnoxious troll which is explicitly banned per the posting guidelines.
@25 – “JFC, Slog comments are just zero fun now.”
Haha good one, were they ever “fun”?
Oops I helped ruin your naive white-guilt “progressive” circle-jerk echo-chamber.
It would probably do you most of you a lot more good if you actually paid more attention to local violent crime instead of constantly whining about IsraelPalestine.
@45: Actually they were. People argued but it was over the issues of the day, and no matter how vulgar and obnoxious some of the comments were, they were at least engaged in a topic or news event of something interesting.
But these same old tired juxtapositions of what The Stranger covers or doesn’t cover compared with statistics of gun deaths, crime, wars, or whatever — are excruciatingly exasperating to everyone on the political spectrum here.
Just accept the fact that it’s a small liberal sleepy staff that should be creating more content. But instead of complaining about circle jerk echo chambers, simply provide your own opinion on the news items. Wouldn’t that be refreshing?
In other words, angry sarcastic jabs are dreadfully boring.
Naming sports teams after racist tropes of Native Americans is a continuation of a widespread practice that reduced Native American identity in all its complexity and variation into a vase reductive commodity, a form of cultural genocide on top of actual genocide from settler colonialism.
Take one step into the National Museum of the American Indian in DC and you will better understand why this move is deliberate pandering to white supremacism.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/native-american-imagery-is-everywhere-but-understanding-lags-behind
The video in the article above:
https://youtu.be/ws3ZI9_XSKY?
For once, I wholeheartedly agree with Phoebe @46.
Brava, madame…
But above all, this sports team renaming is a desperate ploy by Trump to distract and deflect from the Trump/Epstein scandal.
https://youtu.be/TwOLo_U6bTw?
Speaking of which, here’s the latest Daily Shown and it’s on fire:
https://youtu.be/TwOLo_U6bTw?
Also, *base reductive commodity.
I’d love to see Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trump get swallowed whole and crapped out by an invasive Burmese python.
But can you imagine how painful that would be—-for that poor, brave python?
And what a horrifically bad taste in its mouth, too. Swallowing a nauseating pile of orange shit is a big ask.
Of course, in the height of Florida’s hurricane season–NOT to be taken lightly—Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trumpf could wake up to discover that its Mal-a-Turdo mafia lair has become Alligator Auschwitz! All it takes is one Category 5 and a really major league septic tidal wave. Wally Gator comes with a vengeance!
Time to drain the swamp.
@20 “your arguing that the Democratic party should let be like the Republican Party”
The party that currently runs everything? Electorally, yes, 100%. You prefer the Dems keep losing?
@52: “You prefer the Dems keep losing?”
Yeah, who do you think you are, Sawant?
(We know that you’re not, because if you were, then 1312 wouldn’t dare to criticize you.)
Correction: The pythons got out in the wild in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida. It damaged a handful of illegal snake breeder’s homes, which resulted in pythons getting out in the wild. Some do think others did purposely release them when they got too big to safely keep.