You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Til It’s Gone: Today is the last day before our next heatwave that Seattle was never built for. So enjoy the perfect, mid-70s weather before a string of 85 degree days. Go outside and stand in the shade, in the sweet spot where the breeze smells a little bit like spring.
But first, the news.
School’s on Schedule: The teacher’s union settled on a contract before the August 31 deadline, so school’s starting on time this year (sorry kids). The union and the district decided to push forward with a short-term, one-year contract (it’s usually three) because Seattle Schools don’t need yet another thing throwing them into disarray. It’s already short on cash, doesn’t have a permanent superintendent, and the federal government is giving them the wedgie of a lifetime. The new contract includes a 2.5 percent raise, new protocols for student discipline, and additional safeguarding for teachers. The first bell rings on September 3. Like the nice weather, enjoy the public education while we still have it!
“Severe Emotional Distress”: The Tacoma City Council authorized the city to pay $600,000 to Timothy Rankine, one of the former police officers that killed Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was walking home from a convenience store. On March 3, 2020, almost three months before George Floyd was killed, Rankine and two other officers pinned Ellis to the ground and took turns kneeling on him while he told them repeatedly that he couldn’t breathe. They struck him in the head, tied his legs together, and put a mesh spit hood over his face. He died on the street. Rankine and his fellow officers were cleared of any criminal charges in 2023, and now Rankine and his wife, Katherine Chinn, are claiming that Tacoma elected officials and city employees made “politically motivated, false accusations” that Rankine and two other officers were criminally racially biased when they killed Ellis. Chinn argued the city’s actions damaged their marriage and led to “severe emotional distress.” At least some of the Tacoma City Council feels gross about this settlement. Councilmember Jamika Scott told the Seattle Times: “When we’re facing something like this, sometimes the best choice for us, and the fiscally responsible choice for us, is not always the choice that feels good for us as council members or you all as community members.”
We’re Having a COVID Spike: Didn’t know that? Yeah, that’s what happens when you dismantle our public health infrastructure and put anti-vaxxers in charge. Fortunately, according to wastewater data at least, it looks like this wave is milder than we had this time last year, but it’s still bad enough that you probably know someone who’s got it right now. We all know how to avoid getting COVID: mask in crowds, stay in well ventilated spaces, get vaccinated.
18 Arrested at Microsoft Protest: This week, a group for current and former Microsoft employees, No Azure for Apartheid, built a small encampment at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters to protest the company’s work with the Israeli military. On Tuesday, police shut it down pretty quietly, but on Wednesday, they arrested at least 18 people at the encampment. Microsoft has insisted that Israel is only using their technology for the stuff that isn’t war crimes, but following an investigation by The Guardian, they committed to formally investigating how Israel is using their technology for surveillance. “Microsoft will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others,” said the spokesperson for a company that clearly has its priorities in order.
Bob Ferguson Found His Spine: Maybe it was in the drawer with his letterhead, because on Tuesday, he spat fire in a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Last week, Bondi sent threatening letters to 32 mayors and 7 governors of “sanctuary” cities and states, demanding, rather unspecifically, that they, well, stop it. She told them they had until this Tuesday to respond. So on Tuesday, Fergie shot back. “You are hereby notified that Washington State will not be bullied or intimidated by threats and legally baseless accusations,” he wrote in a two-page letter. “Your threat to criminally prosecute state officials embarrasses and disgraces the office of the United States Attorney General.” He said that he is “prepared to defend Washington” from any lawsuit Bondi throws our way. “You seek to have Washington State bend the knee to a Trump Administration that, day by day, drags us closer to authoritarianism. Never,” he wrote. “I am not intimidated by you or the President. I will defend our democracy, the rule of law, and the people of my state.” Here’s to hoping that stiff spine doesn’t bend.
SPOG Is Back in City Politics: For the first time since the Defund SPD movement, the city’s police union is getting its money back in city politics. And naturally, they’re putting their money on Republican City Attorney Ann Davison. We’ve got more on the money they’re throwing around here.
Uncle Sam Wants YOU for the US Gestapo: Apparently offering student loan forgiveness and $50,000 bonuses to new ICE recruits wasn’t enough. ICE is now recruiting from the Department of Defense. 404 media obtained an email sent to civilian employees on Wednesday asking them to sign up for a “volunteer force” that will help Trump’s mass deportation campaign in both Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The application page says that they would be deployed to ICE and CBP sites, possibly in “austere” locations, for 180-day deployments.
Texas Gerrymandering at Its Fineest: After Texas Democrats literally fled the state to avoid redistricting their congressional map to Trump’s exacting specifications, the Texas House passed what the New York Times called “an aggressively partisan” (read: voter disenfranchising) map on Wednesday, possibly giving Trump the five new Republican seats in the US House in next year’s midterms. The state senate could vote on it as soon as this evening, and then it would head straight to Governor Abbott’s desk, who can barely contain his excitement for the little pat on the head he’s about to get from Trump. We assume.
Stephen Miller Tries to Look Like a Human; Fails: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller went to a Shake Shack in a DC train station with VP JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to try to have a burger with the boys (the Feds currently occupying DC). Apparently they didn’t realize that DC residents don’t like them, and when they were mercilessly heckled by commuters, Miller promised “thousands more resources” in the federal crackdown in the city. “All these demonstrators that you’ve seen out here in recent days, all these elderly white hippies, they’re not part of the city and never have been,” Mr. Miller said, insisting that he was doing it for the Black residents of DC. Sure, bud. Sure. A reminder that this is all happening because some youths beat up a DOGE staffer known as “Big Balls.”
Known Extremist Netanyahu Bends to Other Extremists: On Wednesday, despite growing international criticism for their ongoing genocide, Israel approved new settlements in the West Bank and announced that it would move forward with their plan to take over Gaza City, which was home to more than a million Palestinians. Israel has already established a foothold outside the city, and Palestinians are already fleeing. Experts told the New York Times that these two moves suggest that Netanyahu is bending to the even more extreme factions in Israel in order to maintain power. It’s unclear whether a new cease-fire proposal—which officials have said is similar to terms that Israel previously endorsed—has any chance of moving forward.
A Bag of Cold Hard Gratitude: Winnie Greco, a now disgraced, now former, longtime adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, did her best House of Cards impression when she pressed a potato chip bag full of money into the hands of a local reporter in New York City. The reporter, Katie Honan, had been critical of Greco in the past. Greco’s attorney said that the bag of cash “was not a bag of cash,” and definitely wasn’t a bribe. It was a “gesture of friendship and gratitude.”
I’ll Send You Off With a Song: I first fell in love with Jay Som when she released her 2018 single, “Pirouette.” Now she’s out with a new single ahead of her October album release, and it’s worth having stuck in your head today.
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Manuel Ellis was “killed” by his own actions by fighting with police trying to arrest him while he was high on meth, just as he had fought with the police while on meth several times before, which is why the officers were completely exonerated by a jury. Although the phrasing here omits all that and seems to dishonestly imply he was being arrested for being black and “walking home from a convenience store”, there is absolutely no evidence of racial profiling, which is why the defamation suit is completely reasonable.
Cop is cleared of criminal wrongdoing. City Council insists on calling him a criminal anyway. Yes, of course he should be entitled to damages.
Fucking give it up already with the Covid masking. There will never again be a mask on my face voluntarily. Masks were useless in preventing transmission. Scientific studies both prior to and following Covid have confirmed masks don’t help. The vaccine doesn’t reduce transmissibility either.
This bullshit where people think they are going to occupy public (or now private land) in order to force people to change their opinions, business decisions, etc, must come to an end. Every encampment dweller must be arrested, convicted and jailed. This is way beyond harassment and is starting to border on domestic terrorism.
If I were Trump and Bondi, I would slap big giant CBP Immigration Checkpoints on I-5 (WA, OR, CA) and stop every single driver. The Supreme Court has already ruled on the legality of these checkpoints within 100 miles of a US land or sea border. Pretty sure we’d see sanctuary policies evaporate within a week.
Ya done good Abbott, finding five more seats for Republicans. If it werent for the 20-30 million illegal immigrants counted in the census, Republicans would already have a much strong majority.
“Thousands more resources”… Yes, Stephen Miller, a thousand times yes. The American people are sick of the crime epidemic in our major cities.
@2:
Okay, Fascist.
The City of Tacoma has now paid $2.1 million to officers involved in the arrest where Ellis died, but a jury acquitted officers of criminal wrongdoing. It paid $6 million to the Ellis family.
So much for civil awards telling us anything about public employee misconduct. If the awards are to be believed, the only wrong doing was by elected officials that run the City of Tacoma. They wronged both their employees and Ellis.
@3 which part was fascist? Maybe with enough re-education I can become a comrade in good standing.
@2….? Scientific studies? like push polls? Maybe both, conducted by your unmoved mover? But then why when I went into covid positive patients, extremely sick with covid, did I not get sick (before the vaccine)? Oh was it because I was wearing a highly affective mask as I worked over the patient who was breathing on me? And why did I finally get Covid when I was around an infected family member when I wasn’t wearing a mask (they hadn’t posed symptoms yet, hence the no mask choice). And I have read PLENTY of REAL scientific studies that actually follow the scientific method for such studies that validate and PROVE masking works.
And yes you’re a fascist. But also you are SOOOOOO stupid. Oregon is not within 100 miles of a border with another country. And that’s just one reason. There are so many more but I am short on time.
@5…
How about all of it?
I would never consider you a “comrade”, but I do agree you certainly need some more education.
@6 – Portland is within 70 miles of an international border, otherwise known as the coastline. Fair game for immigration checkpoints.
Who knows why you did or did not get sick with Covid? Because you aren’t obese? Because your vitamin D levels are sufficient?
I sure as hell know it wasn’t due to masks with pore sizes larger than Covid virus particles.
Masks work exactly as advertised. One-way surgical masks protect others from the wearer and N95s also protect the wearer through a combination of size exclusion and electrostatic charge. These masks must be certified to prove they meet the appropriate standards, a process that existed without controversy until covid became a wedge issue. What studies have shown is that mask mandates don’t work because they are unenforceable. Masks work.
The vaccines mitigate transmission primarily by preventing infection in vaccinees. They do not confer sterilizing immunity, but that is never guaranteed because you can’t test for it in a clinical trial. But they reduce transmission rates and hospitalization/death.
If people don’t want to take the vaccines or wear masks for whatever reason that’s their problem. But for everyone else, do not get your information about vaccines and masks from people who don’t know what they’re talking about because they have been pre-programmed to believe things that are detrimental to their own wellbeing, but perhaps beneficial to the political party/politicians/propagandists who are exploiting their followers’ ignorance for political gain.
Vaccination did not prevent infection in vaccinated individuals. We all know many people who were infected with Covid after having been vaccinated. Myself and my father both experienced this.
I believe it was a Stanford study that found it required 1 million vaccinations in the 20-40 year age cohort to save a single life.
@10 Did you get all this from your unmoved mover friend again? Tell you what, the next time we have a pandemic lets meet up somewhere. I’ll bring you to work with me and we can go hang out in an infected person’s room. I’ll wear the N95 and you can sit there in a sweat suit eating vitamin D. I bet a few other commenters on this page would sit outside eating popcorn as they watch you bleed out your eyeballs.
Vaccine efficacy naturally wanes over time as circulating antibody titers decline. Over this same period, the virus continues to mutate away from the strains in the vaccine, increasing susceptibility to infection. People may still get infected but their cases will be far less severe as immune-naive people, as demonstrated by countless population-based studies.
You misread that study, or rather you were misinformed about the study by someone with a vested interest in your ignorance because there is no way you read it yourself.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2836434
@9, “The vaccines mitigate transmission primarily by preventing infection in vaccinees.”
Got a citation from a high quality study for that?
There are any number of studies, including one by the CDC that strongly suggest your assertion may be false, but don’t categorically prove that.
So I’ll wait for the citation from a study that shows what you assert. Please provide a link. Thanks.
There are good studies that show COVID vaccines do prevent symptoms or greatly reduce them which makes voluntary vaccination prudent. But that is not the same as showing reduced rates of infection and spread because of the vaccine.
@6, What you assert about masks suggests that there should be a permanent mask mandate. If the we must reduce COVID transmission at any cost, then what is the rational for stopping the mandate?
@11 – you don’t need to mock Aristotle when you mean to mock me. He didn’t do anything to you, and he’s contributed more to the conversation than you or I ever will.
I also see you have no competing argument. So maybe just drop it.
@14… Not only are you stoooopid but also you are chicken. Perhaps a chicken taco? Bam!
13 i don’t care what you think
“the city’s actions damaged their marriage and led to “severe emotional distress.””
Just go ahead and say the stress of being accused made your cop husband extra domestic violence-y. Idiots will say it’s your own fault for not submitting to his authority on command but the majority of us sympathize.
WereBackBaby, are you OK with the pigs from ICE wearing face diapers?
@18, those are more like klan hoods than covid masks, at least based on the function they serve
@16, You who follows the science, where is your link to study of COVID 19 vaccine showing it slows or reduces spread?
Nice deflection from you’ve got nothing.
@17, That is not what the complaint said. You are putting words in Plaintiff’s mouth.
The City agreed that there was enough merit to the complaint that they agreed that a jury would likely find 600,000 dollars worth of merit to it.
So far they have agreed to $2.1 million in payouts to the officers involved and $6 million in payouts to the relatives of Ellis. So much for civil suits settling the merit of the matter.
The only jury ruling we have so far is one by a criminal jury asserting the officer’s actions were justifiable homicide.
I’m reluctant to Nazisplain, but I think ICE is probably more analogous to the Shutzstaffel than to the Gestapo.
@2 Friend, a single virus particle can’t make you sick. But a droplet of snot carrying millions of them can. And that’s something a mask will block. Thanks for the blast from the past, though – I feel 5 years younger.
@20, Oh no, the guy who never changes his mind about anything no matter how much information you spoon feed him is accusing me of deflection because I refuse to do research for him? Dear god no. Anything but that.
I could not possibly care less what you believe. You’re too dumb to understand a scientific paper anyway, and too self-impressed to admit you’re wrong. You’ll be back here tomorrow making the same tired arguments like they’re brand new, demanding others put in labor to prove you wrong, only to repeat the cycle all over again like it never happened. You’re a tedious, boring loser and you can eat shit for all i care.
Funny, in my recent shopping jaunts to such Brahmin retail sanctuaries as the Admiral districts PCC or Westlake Aves Whole Foods, I can count the number of people wearing masks on one hand. Those that are being either; working the registers, elderly, or your teenage Indigo Children shuffling around in pajama bottoms doing a lazy Yuumi Kawaii as escaped mental patients.
I suspect those beating up on WBB neither wear masks themselves nor tsk tsk unmasked shoppers while out and about, where such public shaming actually might matter.
Nationally, we are down to something like 4% reporting using masks frequently, for better or worse. So what a perfect subject for petulant scolding by a demographic that has already achieved Olympian heights in being insufferable.
Only speaking for myself but I don’t wear a mask because I don’t need one. I’m vaccinated, at low risk for complications, and rarely get sick anyway. 2020 was a different story but that was 5 years ago. I would assume most people wearing masks in 2025 have health risks or high exposure jobs like public service workers but it has no bearing on my life so i don’t give it much thought. Masks are just not useful for most of us these days but they’re an extremely helpful and potentially life saving resource for those who need them.
@21 “That is not what the complaint said”
If you’ve seen the actual complaint could you share it here?
“The only jury ruling we have so far is one by a criminal jury asserting the officer’s actions were justifiable homicide”
No, a criminal jury simply asserted the prosecution didn’t prove their allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
@23, If you had done the research, you would be able to find the study that lead you to write the vaccines for COVID reduce spread. So you admit your opinion isn’t based on a study you have seen. What you wrote isn’t based on a scientific study.
27 do you think i keep a rolodex of studies to pull up at the demand of some random idiot on the internet? I read lots of papers bc it’s my job and my personal interest. I don’t keep them at the ready and I wouldn’t pull one for you even if i did bc you’re not qualified to evaluate a scientific paper and you’re not going to change your mind even if you were. If you want to learn about how vaccines work you can find a website that dumbs it down to your level but that’s going to have to be on your own time bc your ignorance is not my problem.
@26, The criminal juries finding makes the killing lawful. I.e. Justifiable homicide. Innocent until the state proves a crime, and all that stuff. The act of the accused was either non-criminal (default) or criminal. The jury did not find the latter, so its the default.
https://linxonline.co.pierce.wa.us/linxweb/Case/CivilCase.cfm?cause_num=23-2-04437-7
@29 “justifiable homicide” is a legal term of art defined in RCW 9A.16.040, and if a jury is asked to and does make a finding that facts fit the definition the defendant can be awarded compensation from the state per RCW 9A.16.046. Did the jury make such a finding? Were they even asked to? Or are you just back on your bullshit pretending to be a legal professional, Neale?
“conservatives” can’t mind their own business.
There was a brief moment in the spring of 2020 where I was hopeful that we were going to normalize staying home from work when sick, and also normalize wearing a mask when going out into public when sick, like has been the norm in many Asian countries/cultures.
Then summer of 2020 came and everyone lost their freaking minds….
Regarding the picture at the top: In what universe is the Seattle City Council even remotely “conservative” (in the dismal US political sense of the word)? Do these people even know what conservative means? It’s like when people on the right call liberals Marxists or Communists. And it implies that the people of Seattle are either conservative or really stupid for having elected a bunch of conservatives.
My oft-repeated statement that Republicans are horrible people stands the test of time. An assertion that the Seattle City Council is “conservative” is histrionic.
The show is coming to Seattle – once the ICE pigs learn about the city’s RSJI programs (which have been around since Mayor Nickel’s administration), we’re going to learn the hard way what “conservative” really means.
Republicans are not horrible people. And, amazingly enough, neither are Democrats.
So you are pro-fascist, Phoebe dear?
@33 “conservative” and “liberal” are more relative descriptors than distinct philosophies like “communist,” and context is everything. The current Council, with its law & order and austerity policies, is in fact conservative for this area. What you’re doing is like if someone from say Taliban Afghanistan insisted Trump was not actually conservative because their rulers are much more restrictive. The better analogy to calling a Democrat a “Marxist” is calling a Republican a “Nazi” (aside from the ones who are in fact both).
Thanks for that laugh, thirteen12 dear. But please tell me what “austerity” is the City of Seattle inflicting on the citizens? As for “law and order”, we seem to have a police force that is reluctant to respond to anything other than emergency calls and is (thankfully) not enforcing most traffic laws.
@37 cops being incompetent is a separate issue from what policies the Council chooses to pursue
It’s not incompetence, thirteen12 dear, its churlishness and butthurtedness.
But I’m still eager to find out what “austerity” the council has inflicted on the citizens.
Go, Governor SuperBob, GO, and kick criminally fascist Trumpian ASS!!! Stand firm and prepare to call checkmate. It is SUCH a relief that Ferguson, joining California’s Gavin Newsom, is our governor and, NOT Dave “I caught the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway (only after 43 innocent people had to die first)!” Reichert.
We in Washington State would be so much more exponentially fucked had the MAGA bootlicking Third Reichert taken over Olympia last November.
@11 &@14 Hayduke Forever!, @18 Catalina Vel-DuRay, and @19 barth: +4 For the WIN!!!!
@11 Hayduke Forever!: Let’s bring on the red wine and dark chocolate, too, baybee! It should be quite justifying to see Babybarf and his MAGA ilk squirm and face their long overdue consequences.
@18 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Babybarf eats from the same noxious pig trough as Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trumpfy.
He just doesn’t want to admit that DJT gets the choicest and priciest of billionaire loyalist morsels, while Babybarf and his MAGA ilk wallow in shit and uneducated working class swill.
It amazes me how these idiots are so “proud to take one for the team”. What’ll they do when Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trumpfy’s goon squad comes for them as well, when there’ll most likely be nobody else left by then?
@19 barth: And thank you for beating me to it.
@34: Phoebe dear, what will you do when they come for YOU, too?
Does FOX TeeVee really have you that numbly compliant and obliviously marching in pro-Trumpist lockstep?