Happy Solstice! And welcome to the longest night. The sun will set at 4:20 pm today, and won’t come back until 7:55 am tomorrow morning. Solstice “day” is officially tomorrow. Build a bonfire, light candles, get witchy. (The Seattle Times has a roundup of nighttime walks in the woods). And after we celebrate our longest night, the days start getting longer again.
Harrell’s war on taggers: Lol. King County prosecutors filed more than 30 criminal cases against 16 taggers around Seattle. Most of the charges are for first- and second-degree malicious mischief (which all sounds very festive). The charges focused mostly on two big crews that you’ve probably seen on onramps around town: MSP, or “Making Suckas Panic” and BTM, “Big Time Mobb.” DOTCOM also got a shoutout. At a press conference, Prosecutor Leesa Manion called it “felony-level behavior,” and Seattle police Detective Robert Belshay called it “basically organized crime.” Prosecutors said that they’re only looking for restitution in these cases, so at least they admit that they’re in it for the cash.
Update from Ashley at 9:15 am!
Seattle’s new top hog: Mayor Bruce Harrell announced Shon Barnes as Seattle’s new chief of police Friday. Barnes currently leads the police department in Madison, Wisconsin. Unlike in Harrell’s last police chief search, he held absolutely zero public forums to solicit public input. If Harrell had, people might have brought up accusations that Barnes mishandled police accountability cases and asked an officer about her sexual orientation in their exit interview. I’d want to avoid that if I was Harrell. Barnes still needs to be confirmed by City Council.
Obeying (and profiting) in advance: The ACLU announced yesterday that through a FOIA request, they obtained records that revealed that “ICE is actively considering proposals to expand immigration detention in California, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington state.” One of the proposals is from GEO Group Inc., which already operates Washington’s only for-profit prison: the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which according to La Resistencia, has seen 13 hunger strikes this year alone.
Get your flu shots, kids: Vaccination rates are down across the country, but we’re really taking the cake here in Washington. Child flu vaccination rates are down 15.9 percentage points—more than double the nationwide decline. King County’s mostly keeping it together (we only dipped by a few percentage points) but the state numbers are concerning: So far this flu season, the CDC has reported 200 pediatric flu deaths, a record high for a non-pandemic flu year. I know it sucks for like, a second, but get your shot.
Birds and Cows and Cougars, Oh My: Farmers are calling the bird flu “Covid for Cows.” The virus has hit California dairy farms hard—impacting more than 600 of them in the last four months. Meanwhile here in Washington, two wild cougars died of the same flu. (TIL that our cougar population is small and pretty inbred, so they’re especially vulnerable to disease. The more you know!) So far we’ve had 14 confirmed and probable cases in humans in the state. The CDC still maintains that the risk to humans is low, but cougars and California dairy farmers are feeling anxious.
Justice for Ayşenur: The family of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Seattlite who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, met with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week to demand a U.S. investigation into her killing. Eygi’s widower, Hamid Ali, told the Seattle Times that even their “low expectations were not met.” Her sister told the paper that Blinken “essentially said he wouldn’t be doing anything.” The family is trying to talk to members of Congress who might be willing to put pressure on the administration.
ICYMI: Got a uterus? Got good news for you. Yesterday, Stranger contributor Megan Burbank reported on a new bill that was introduced into the Washington state legislature that would require medical professionals to discuss pain management options before inserting an IUD. From Megan: “If you’ve ever gotten an IUD—or talked to a fellow drunk girl in a bathroom line for just a little too long—the pain that can accompany an insertion is not new information. When I surveyed IUD users—or would-be users—about their experiences most recently, I was immediately flooded with responses describing ‘mind-bending pain,’ prolonged failed insertion attempts, repeated uses of the word ‘brutal,’ and comparisons to things like ‘a small dragon … trying to claw out of my body for 24-36 hours.’” The cervixes of Washington state thank you, Rep. Amy Walen.
The Strike Before Christmas: Get your peppermint mocha somewhere else, Starbucks is going on strike today. Stranger Contributor Conor Kelley reported that their bitter negotiations have reached a breaking point. Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) said that the company has failed to bargain in earnest, so they’re launching 5 days of escalating walkouts, starting today. Read more about it here.
We did it! Remember when murder hornets were one of the seven plagues visited upon us in 2020? Well officials announced that we’ve eradicated them from the United States. “It is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects,” said Sven Spichiger, an entomologist with the Washington state Department of Agriculture, to KUOW.
Keeping the lights on? For the 20-somethingth time since 1976, the government could shutdown tonight. Looming shutdowns always feel like political theater, but this time, the President-elect is trying to swing his dick around before he’s even in office, attempting to shoehorn in a two-year suspension of the federal debt limit. House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected that proposal, but now we’re back to where we started. If the government shuts down, a reminder that it’s a huge worker issue. Many will be furloughed, and their work will halt (which already sucks) but workers that are considered “essential”—including 59,000 TSA workers—will be forced to work through the shutdown without pay.
Mangione could face the death penalty: Luigi Mangione, who’s charged with the fatal shooting of the UHC CEO, was already charged in New York, where the death penalty is illegal—meaning the most severe punishment he could receive would be life without parole. But yesterday, prosecutors added four federal charges for stalking across state lines and murder. The majority of states (27 of ‘em) have stopped using the death penalty, including New York and Washington state. Cuz maybe the government shouldn’t kill people.
A little treat: A touch of very lesbian country for your morning. Julien Baker (who, at the very least, you know as one third of boygenius) and indie singer-songwriter TORRES teamed up for the queer country album of your dreams, and “Sugar in the Tank” is their first single. It’s been stuck in my head for days and I’m not mad at it.
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Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
tho I
Heard
it might
be Taken.
@ab
jinx. get
me some Coke
@93 — “This right here is the whole problem. Dems couldn’t campaign on an economic plan that helps working people because they don’t actually care about working people just corporate profits–just like Republicans.”
This is insane, totally deranged stuff. Biden’s economic policy was almost entirely driven by the Warren wing of the Democratic Party and was laser focused on working people. Working people didn’t care! And they didn’t care because they cared more about cultural stuff than actual economic policy that has provided material benefits to them, and the left side of the Democratic Party (and leftists too) hold cultural positions that are totally toxic to the working class.
That’s a really tough nut to crack, but you can’t do it by lying to yourself about what the Democratic Party did. I get that you’re lying, though, because the alternative is that your worldview is completely invalidated by the facts on the ground. And that’s just too difficult for you to deal with, so instead you bullshit yourself.
“facts on the ground”
Like 60% of Americans going from paycheck to paycheck while Democrats keep saying “the economy is great”
Germany has a history of strict gun control. What is the murder rate there, over the last 100 years ?
“And they didn’t care because they cared more about cultural stuff than actual economic policy that has provided material benefits to them…”
–@Bax
not to say
they don’t have
Agency but our masses’re
fed hubris hate and whatever
the boys at America Inc’re selling
look at MUX’s Following Billions and
zucky’s they know how to make us want
what we want whilst what we Need is never
Mentioned. we’re here to be farmed
& harvested and wrung out to dry
the profiteeers’ve Bought this
place — but how tF do We
the peeps get it back?
it Worked HERE
in the Fifties
and Sixties
do We not
Deserve it?
@100,
Student loan relief was for elites, not working people.
The funding of technology factories was for elites, not working people.
Biden energy funding sought to get rid of fossil fuel extraction jobs that pay six figures to high school drop outs, in favor of fewer jobs, at lower wages, making windmills, to high school and college grads.
He is pushing EV’s that cost 35% more, putting cars out of financial reach if all but the elite.
All the while driving up the cost at the pump.
So how was the Biden policy for the working-class? If it was, the working claas didn’t see it that way.
look at the backlash
at Ins Corps post-
‘the Adjuster’~is
he a Hero to
many for no
Apparent
reason?
he started a Massive conversation
that is seldom if Ever given the
Attention “sports” is given
or “reality teevee” — if
it Were, we’d NEVER
be having this de-
lightful little con-
versation. so
there’s that.
these comments’re not
showing up. I may
hafta Rethink my
Membership
here @ts.
@96: Step one in any peace process for Gaza is to convince Hamas they can never win by force. Unfortunately, simply telling Hamas will not persuade them. They have to learn it the hard way, and even then the lesson may have to be repeated. 😃
@91
“Morons like
you [wormmy] have
been laughing at people
who were telling you that supporting
genocide would be very costly to Democrats
and now you still deny it.
You
chose to
support Israel
in spite of public
opinion and now you
blame public opinion for
holding Democrats accountable.
Your crass stupidity
is the problem
here.” –@ab
thnx ab.
Rumor has it you’re
stumping for
Pooty
it seems the
ire is sorely
misplaced.
@93
“Harris lost because Sawant was saying what millions of voters were thinking and it shows in the dramatically decreased turnout. Tensorna and them are ranting at the canary in the coal mine for lying down on the job.”
thank you 13twelve
deflecting criticism Away
from themselves is their Art
nyt:
Trump
Previews
Second Term
in Sprawling Speech
to Conservative Conference
President-elect Donald J. Trump repeated false claims about immigration and the border, slammed diversity initiatives and discussed the Panama Canal in the 90-minute address.
The president-elect’s speech was a familiar mash-up of false assertions, self-praise, fierce attacks on his adversaries and promises about how his return to power would change the country for the better.
He also targeted diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public institutions and private companies. He promised to ban such programs because “we believe in the merit system” in the United States.
“We’re going to stop woke,”
he vowed, referring to such
initiatives with a profanity.
The president-elect
lashed out repeatedly
at transgender people to
the delight of the audience,
which roared with approval.
Mr. Trump said that with a stroke of his pen, “we are going to end the transgender lunacy” and the mutilation of children, an apparent reference to gender-affirming surgery.
“We will keep men out of women’s sports,” he said. He added that “it will be the policy of the United States that there are only two genders: men and women.”
there’s More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/us/politics/trump-speech-turning-point-arizona.html
later when they came for
me I hollered out But
there was no one left
yep ~ all’s we gotta do
is appease appease
appease~nip here
a wee tuck there
per-
haps
they’ll
give the
Survivors
if there are
Scandinavia.
Nice peek-a-boo
cum patterns &
weiner pic
Megan.
@110
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/us/politics/trump-speech-turning-point-arizona.html
–by Michael D. Shear
reporting from Phoenix
Dec. 22, 2024, 3:30 p.m. ET
@91: “Which party has been overseeing and abetting genocide in Gaza when most of their supporters are anti-war?”
The immortal words, “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes,” appeared in the Stranger’s recap of Democratic primary results in the state of Washington. This was after the Stranger had spent most of a year trying as hard as it possibly could to make Gaza drive votes in Washington. You can quote your carefully cherry-picked surveys all you like, but the real behavior of real voters in real Democratic elections had already flatly contradicted your lead assertion. (And, of course, in the rest of your lead ‘graph, Hamas does not even appear, did not use civilians for human shields, and most certainly did not use civilians as human shields with the intent of driving up the body count. These points have all been explained to you repeatedly, supported by sources as diverse as NATO and the Wall Street Journal, and you simply do not care; these facts do not exist in your world. And yet, you expect adults to take your criticisms seriously! Good luck with that.)
‘“Kamala Harris deserves to lose 1,000 times over,” Sawant said, blaming her for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.’
‘Morons like you have been laughing at people who were telling you that supporting genocide would be very costly to Democrats and now you still deny it.’
If you bothered to read that in context, she spoke it to 150 persons in Seattle. How did Seattle vote, again? Was it overwhelmingly for Harris? Do tell.
“You chose to support Israel in spite of public opinion and now you blame public opinion for holding Democrats accountable.”
“Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.”
The entire point about symmetry was to refute your unsupported assertion that Sawant’s supposedly equal condemnations of Democrats and Republicans had been doctored “by the partial quote artists.” Your assertion remains unsupported, and for very good reason. Sawant very clearly said she wanted Harris to lose, and she hammered that point home again and again and again. Sawant had already admitted Stein could not win. The only possible outcome from a Harris loss was for Trump to win, and that was exactly what Sawant campaigned to do. Your hand-waving and name-calling detract nothing from what Sawant actually said and did.
“Sawant of course is against everything that Trump stands for,”
Why? Because she told you? Because you want to believe it? She campaigned for a Trump victory. Full stop. And she made it clear, over and over and over, she considered Harris to be worse than Trump, despite your empty claim she was equally critical of both.
“…when there is a lot more pressure on anyone on the left to explain why they aren’t campaigning for Democrats.”
That’s because “people on the left” are supposed to know, and care, and want to prevent, a Trump victory because it will bring disaster for so many innocent persons, in so many places. Denial of that simple and obvious reality by “people on the left” produced another Trump presidency. Little wonder you’re trying so hard to deflect blame onto everyone who told you this would happen.
“You also regurgitated a biased article that failed to cite her comments about Republicans and the GOP”
So, provide sources and quotes for “her comments about Republicans and the GOP.” We’ll wait.
no innuendo
Intended
Megan!
nice
pic!
in our Latin class
it was pronoun-
ced koom so
that’s how I
say or type
the word
tho
maybe it’s
not heard or
read that same way
caveat lector
[no relation
to hannibal]
si vous plait!
dammit
one cannot
get there from here
@104 “So how was the Biden policy for the working-class? If it was, the working class didn’t see it that way.”
Bu-bu-buh the GDP!?!
It’s easier for these people to just believe the working class are all stupid bigots
How Fascism Came
America’s democracy
was destroyed by the two
ruling parties who sold us out
to corporations, militarists and
billionaires. Now we pay the price.
For over two decades, I and a handful of others — Sheldon Wolin, Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Barbara Ehrenreich and Ralph Nader — warned that the expanding social inequality and steady erosion of our democratic institutions, including the media, the Congress, organized labor, academia and the courts, would inevitably lead to an authoritarian or Christian fascist state.
My books — “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” (2007), “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009), “Death of the Liberal Class” (2010), “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” (2012), written with Joe Sacco, “Wages of Rebellion” (2015) and “America: The Farewell Tour” (2018) were a succession of impassioned pleas to take the decay seriously. I take no joy in being correct.
“The rage of those abandoned by the economy, the fears and concerns of a beleaguered and insecure middle class, and the numbing isolation that comes with the loss of community, would be the kindling for a dangerous mass movement,” I wrote in “American Fascists” in 2007.
“If these dispossessed were not reincorporated into mainstream society, if they eventually lost all hope of finding good, stable jobs and opportunities for themselves and their children — in short, the promise of a brighter future — the specter of American fascism would beset the nation.
This despair, this loss of hope, this denial of a future, led the desperate into the arms of those who promised miracles and dreams of apocalyptic glory.”
President-elect Donald Trump does not herald the advent of fascism. He heralds the collapse of the veneer that masked the corruption within the ruling class and their pretense of democracy. He is the symptom, not the disease.
The loss of basic democratic norms began long before Trump, which paved the road to an American totalitarianism.
Deindustrialization, deregulation, austerity, unchecked predatory corporations, including the health-care industry, wholesale surveillance of every American, social inequality,
an electoral system that is plagued by legalized bribery, endless and futile wars, the largest prison population in the world, but most of all feelings of betrayal, stagnation and despair,
are a toxic brew that culminate in an inchoate hatred of the ruling class and the institutions they have deformed to exclusively serve the rich and the powerful.
The Democrats are as guilty as the Republicans.
–by Chris Hedges; Dec 23, 2024
oodles:
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/how-fascism-came/comments
but it’s all
Kshama Sawant’s
Fault. Right, Wormtongue?
fuck off
wormmy
go peddle
your wormoil
somewhere’s else.
“That’s because ‘people on the left’ are supposed to know, and care, and want to prevent, a Trump victory because it will bring disaster for so many innocent persons, in so many places.
Denial of that simple and obvious reality by ‘people on the left’ produced another Trump presidency. Little wonder you’re trying so hard to deflect blame onto everyone who told you this would happen.”
–so sayeth Wormtongue
our denier-of-reality
in chief, desperate
in his attempts at
insidious & un-
relenting de-
flections.
see:
@117,
above.
comments’re
Not showing.
`
@93: “Harris lost because Sawant was saying what millions of voters were thinking and it shows in the dramatically decreased turnout. Tensorna and them are ranting at the canary in the coal mine for lying down on the job.”
Negative campaigning works by driving down turnout. The All Gaza All The Time circus eventually became the Democrats Are The Party Of Genocide circus, which the Stranger and supportive commenters here eagerly embraced. Hence, almost no use of the tag, “Genocide Joe,” since the election. It was a hateful political smear against the Democrsts, and you all know it. You’re the arsonists, loudly complaining about hiring bonuses for applicants to the Fire Department.
And, I know that Sawant’s paucity of accomplishments over her tenure-year Council career has you desperate to show she was right about something, but she couldn’t get even lefty Seattle to listen to her anymore. The idea huge numbers of voters across the country did simply borders on delusion.
yep.
keep
bringing
it Back to
Kshama – She’s
the one, made the
dems and rs derail the
Country. fuck off Wormtongue
just
admit
you work
for either
Pooty or some
filthy rich fucker
or get your
pathilogical hatred
look into and Promptly
@122: Those of us who actually do both the “reading” part and the “comprehension” part noticed that @93 had made the claim about Sawant. (Hence the “@93” and quote with which I started @121.) To respond, I had to mention her as well. See how that works?
@121 “Negative campaigning works by driving down turnout. The All Gaza All The Time circus eventually became the Democrats Are The Party Of Genocide circus”
Damn in that case it sounds like they should have, you know, done anything at all to put an end to the genocide if that’s what cost them the election. I guess they just cared more about arms deals and preserving their military empire. Like Republicans. Like I said.
@124: First, not everyone agrees Gaza is a “genocide.” Just because the Stranger has fed readers that term ad nauseam does not make it true.
Second, US federal law requires the US government to arm Israel. No President can simply order an arms embargo, which is what the All Genocide All the Time crew eventually demanded. So they should not have made promises for despotic behavior as their precondition for supporting Harris.
Third, anyone who considers themselves leftists should have focused on defeating Trump. Full stop. Having any other agenda simply helped Trump.
All of this was explained many times before the election, and you all ignored it then. Continuing to ignore it now does not help you.
@125 — ah, yes,
good ole wormmy!
Lecturing the left whilst
shitting on Progressives
yes by Gawd He’s the one
we oughtta be getting our
battle plans from: Wormtongue
Q. sure ~ but on what planet?
well
obv.
Not
This
One.
@126: So, tell us all about how well your own ‘battle plans’ have worked of late. Stopping the IDF in Gaza, re-electing Bowman in NY-16, and preventing Trump’s re-election should provide enough material for several comments’ worth of success stories. (Well, ok, the maybe ‘the closest you have got to “success” stories,’ might describe them better…)
Have at it!
@127
in Other words
if you didn’t Make
it Happen, then you
NEVER WILL. piss off with
your reich-wing ‘wisdom’ wormmy
save it for The
Great Reckoning.
@128: Instead of focusing on stopping Trump, the Stranger and Pro-Palestinians in Seattle decided to deny VP Harris election to the presidency if she did not promise an (illegal) arms embargo upon Israel. She refused, and they indeed prevented her election. There’s a political success story you could promote!
@21 Sorry for the late response, went outside. Anyhow, unless I’m remembering it wrong BTM was the name of TRED’s crew, early 90’s. Prob whole different group.