Good morning! Today’s your day to kick your Seasonal Affective Disorder in the ass. Mostly sunny, highs in the upper 60s. It’s all the best of spring, and better yet, the sun’s not going down til 7:30, which means you probably don’t have an excuse to miss this beautiful day. Put some SPF on your pale ass, soak up some sun, and tell your SADs to suck it.
Okay, on Tuesdays, we start with Trump. And man did he kick the week off strong.
You think texting your ex is bad. According to an article by the Editor-in-Chief of the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg yesterday, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz mistakenly included him in a Signal chat detailing war plans against the Houthi militia in Yemen, two hours before they were launched. Goldberg said he followed along for a conversation among senior members of Trump’s national security team for two whole days before the strikes in Yemen. The group included the CIA director, VP Vance, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and “SM,” who is believed to be Steven Miller. The White House confirmed the error to the New York Times. Meanwhile, Hedseth denied that any plans were discussed via text. Trump first denied any knowledge of it at all, then came to Waltz’s defense, saying he was a “good man” who’d learned his lesson. Next, Waltz is gonna text, “Oops, butt dial, lol. Hope ur good.”
It’s not just absurd, though. NYT described the incident as “an extraordinary breach of American national security intelligence. Not only was the journalist inadvertently included in the group, but the conversation also took place outside the secure government channels that would normally be used for classified and highly sensitive war planning.” According to screenshots of the conversation, they discussed how “Europe” and Egypt should compensate the US for the operation, called European “freeloading” “PATHETIC,” and used literal fucking EMOJIS while planning a WAR STRIKE.
One Step Closer to a Constitutional Crisis: Last night, the Trump administration refused to share any more information with US District Judge James E. Boasberg about the two flights of Venezuelan migrants it sent to El Salvador this month—claiming that doing so would jeopardize state secrets. The judge has been fighting with the administration for 10 days, trying to determine if the admin violated a court order to have them return to the US. Typically, in a situation like this, the executive branch would confidentially provide a detailed explanation for why it’s too sensitive to be openly discussed in court. In this case, the admin has just stamped their feet and said no. The Trump administration claims they’re protecting their “counterterrorism” operations; the court says they’re violating the separation of powers that keeps our checks and balances system working; and experts are worried this could be the beginning of the breakdown of our separation of powers. Big same.
Okay, Time to Shake Off the Trump Section: Here’s some new footage of Bowie the Sloth Bear at Woodland Park Zoo. He’s not eating solid foods yet, but his caretakers say he’s already a fan of watermelon.
A Different Kind of Exec: Sound Transit has a new CEO. The only catch—he already has a job. News broke yesterday that King County Executive Dow Constantine will be the new head of the agency. His starting annual salary is expected to be $450,000, which the Sound Transit spokesperson told the Seattle Times was “at the low end” of the advertised CEO pay that could’ve gone as high as $650,000. (In case you were wondering, his current salary as county exec is $296,028.) The details of his contract—including his start date—will be announced on Thursday. Chances are he won’t be finishing out his term, so he should be announcing an interim exec shortly, who will fill in until a replacement is elected in November. There’s a good chance it could be Deputy Executive Shannon Braddock, who would be the first woman in the role.
More From Delridge Cop Shooting: Last week, an SPD officer shot and killed a man who was clearly in the midst of a mental health crisis. His name was Urban Andrew Sheay, and shortly before he encountered the officers, his wife called 911 to tell police that he was making suicidal statements from the Home Depot parking lot next to the police station in Delridge. According to video released on Friday by SPD, Sheay hopped the fence into the SPD parking lot, and after officers observed that he “might be a little bit off,” he pulled out a small pocket knife. One officer did try to use a 40mm launcher, a less lethal weapon that fires either a large sponge-tipped slug or a number of smaller rubber pellets. According to The Stranger’s analysis, though, another officer fired a burst of four shots from a handgun just 600 milliseconds after the 40mm—a literal split-second decision that quickly ended Sheay’s life. It’s easy to describe this as “suicide by cop,” but that shouldn’t be possible. We deserve a mental health apparatus that doesn’t respond with violence.
New Budget Just Dropped: There will be weeks of analysis to come, but state Democrats in both the Senate and the House have dropped their iterations of the budget. In the Senate, they released a $78.5 billion plan that, among many other things, includes increased funding for K-12 special education for the next two years and raises for state workers. How are they gonna pay for it? Taxing the wealthy! Plus, taxing our largest corporations, and raising the cap on our property tax. Let’s fucking go.
Rogue Vessels: In unsettling medical news, the FDA OK’d new artificial blood vessels despite FDA scientists’ serious concerns with their safety. According to the New York Times, among the 54 patients it was tested on, “Doctors lost track of one. Four died. Four more had a limb amputated, including one who developed a clot and infection in the artificial vessel, Food and Drug Administration records show.” The FDA approved it anyway. At least one doctor retired in the fall in protest. Meanwhile, the company is starting to market their product to hospitals. Turns out our health system’s issues with science might have predated RFK.
Speaking of Medicine: Have you been wondering if you should get your measles shot? According to the CDC, there have been 378 confirmed cases of measles this year as of March 20. For comparison, there were 285 total in 2024. Which honestly, with a readily accessible, effective vaccine is still way too many. Most of the cases appear to be unvaccinated kids, but it’s making vaxxed adults wonder if they need to take action. So WaPo offered a rundown of who might want to hop to it: A very small percentage of adults who received the vaccine between 1963 and 1967 may have received a version of the measles vaccine that isn’t as effective, so you might want a booster. If you were born between 1968 and 1989, it’s possible you got one dose of the measles vaccine instead of the two given to children these days, and if you’re traveling internationally soon, you might want to get the second one.
Step Aside, Lockheed: In case you missed it, Seattle now has the dubious honor of being the birthplace of the company making America’s newest generation of fighter jets. Yay? The jet is being called the F-47, which appears to be (nauseatingly) named after our 47th president. Not much is known about the new jets, but according to the AP the Pentagon said they’ll have “stealth and penetration capabilities that far exceed those of its current fleet” and that the jets are essential in a possible war with China. (Let’s not?) On the bright side, Boeing stock immediately went up by 5 percent on Friday, and the deal is expected to be in the hundreds of billions. So Boeing no longer has an excuse to lay off machinists and engineers who’ve gone on strike to try to get a fair contract.
Looking for something to do tonight? Stranger contributor Dave Segal has a rec: Michael Rother at the Neptune. Rother was an early member of Kraftwerk and a leading man behind the krautrock genre, and he’s swinging into Seattle for a rare solo performance. It’s a vibe. Tickets are still available, don’t miss out.
The Stranger, along with many media outlets, keep tiptoeing around what’s happening with statements like “gee, we’re getting close to a constitutional crisis!” when the reality is we have an unelected official undoing years of congressional authority before our eyes as well as slow walking and even ignoring judicial rulings on other topics. Why so shy?
@1: Because we’re all spaghetti noodles slowly getting submerged into boiling water and there’s still a little time to savor denial.
Yup The Stranger, under the new owner, has definitely softened their stance on police shootings.
The article gives us empathy for the person killed.
The article on the shooting linked in the summary (but not the summary) in the Southwest Precinct Parking lot both paints substantial reasonable doubt that a crime was committed and legal justification for the homicide, while simultaneously casting it as a tragedy that everyone wants to see avoidable in a perfect world. We don’t live in a perfect world.
Just right.
Nuance from The Stranger. Who’d a thunk it?
@1: Because, to the Stranger at least, what you described is all better than having “Genocide Joe” or “Killer Kamala” in office.
Duh.
😉
Regarding “The jet is being called the F-47, which appears to be (nauseatingly) named after our 47th president.”
F 47 is right. F 45 too while you’re at it, but especially 47.
Regarding the Signal messaging scandal, I turned on NPR yesterday afternoon, and I heard this guy being interviewed. He made this little sly statement with just the right tone, and I thought, “Oh gosh, who is this comedian they’re interviewing now? He’s so familiar.” I thought for a moment, and then I thought, “Jim Gaffigan. Yes!” So then I actually started getting the context of the interview, and I realized it wasn’t a comedian; it was Jeffrey Goldberg. Hey, for all I know, the JG these doofuses thought they were including could have been Jim Gaffigan; Goldberg sure could have passed for him in a phone call.
Hannah – you forgot to put the “Continue reading…” link.
@1, seems like tiptoeing around a constitutional crisis is all that can happen now. Is it a Constitutional crisis if the legislative and executive branches are in lock step to delay, ignore, and overrule the judiciary? As long as House and Senate R’s continue to kowtow to this president seems they sidestep a moment of crisis – that would require Rs showing backbone to stand up for the rule of law and there is zero evidence of that. At least gullible old people (GOP) voters get what they voted for: lawlessness, inability to govern, and lots more drama!
I’m amazed that people are just non plussed about what is going on in Olympia right now. In the face of a massive deficit caused by their own overspending the legislature has not only refused to examine whether programs are effective they are proposing to increase spending by another $4B. The Senate proposal increases taxes $20B and the House $17B. It’s insane and it’s all being done under the guise of “tax the wealthy” and “fairness”. Newsflash, no other taxes are being reduced. In addition to their spending plans, not mentioned in SLOG is the proposal to raise the gas tax another 6 cents to fund the transportation budget another $1B. This is on top of the 50 cent increase people are already paying due to the CCA. I guess everyone seems to think these taxes will effect the other guy but you are woefully wrong if you feel that way.
How is it that a committee of people who were all appointed to their positions by Dow and are now turning around and handing him the executive role with a massive pay package not complete cronyism? How he is remotely qualified to run a large transportation organization? Are you telling me he is the best they can find in the entire country? It’s a complete disgrace that Dow is even being considered and again no one cares and then we’ll wonder in another few years why ST is still way behind schedule and way over budget.
Re: “The jet is being called the F-47, which appears to be (nauseatingly) named after our 47th president.”
Stephen Colbert hit the nail on the head: #F47 is my new favorite hashtag. Insert your favorite F-word.
@8:
As County Executive, Constantine has been responsible for creating multi-billion dollar budgets, including some $10.2 in total for FY 2025, of which approximately $2.12 B is allocated for transportation expenditures. Compare this to the total Sound Transit budget of $3.1 B in expenses and outlays for the same period, and it becomes clear he’s eminently qualified to preside over an agency with only 30% of the same amount of expenditures as what he currently deals with.
Plus, I’ll bet good money he doesn’t trash talk entire countries or post fist-bump emojis while discussing classified national intelligence on Signal in the presence of an uncleared journalist, which makes him eminently more qualified to do just about anything, as opposed to the clown-car full of inmates currently running the asylum in Washington D.C. who shouldn’t be allowed to get their grubby, greasy fingers anywhere near a child’s piggy bank, let alone the entire federal budget.
“literal fucking EMOJIS while planning a WAR STRIKE.”
you gotta love what you do 😗
@10 what has DC got to do with Sound Transit? Are you telling me there isn’t a qualified applicant that has actually run a transportation network? Last time I checked King County had a massive deficit as well so I don’t know that Dow can hang his hat on the brilliant job he has done around here. The fact that he also appointed the board that is now rewarding him with this fat paycheck job still stinks as well. If Dow starts to underperform what is your confidence level the board full of people he appointed is going to do anything?
Raising the cap on property tax increases? How about a big fuck no, or do non-property owning Slog writers not understand that this will increase rent costs as well? In the three years I’ve owned my house, my property taxes have gone up $700 since we bought it. The 1% increase cap exists to protect property owners that are already barely able to afford the housing they own as it is. My mortgage is already $3300/mo and my employer has decided that salary increases aren’t happening this year because “the stock price is doing well” (newsflash: the stock market is currently tanking thanks to our idiot-in-chief and the stock has been down all year). Where am I getting the extra money to pay for MORE property tax increases???
Given the plane’s advertised stealth penetration abilities it probably is appropriate to name it after 47
This is for you @14: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2025/03/seattle-city-council-resolution-would-acknowledge-failure-of-defund-movement/
have at it
“Oops.”
~Rick Perry.
Fix the glitch.
@15 wow Saka found something to do that’s even more useless than spending millions to remove a curb that inconveniences him
@17, I too deplore these purely virtue signalling resolutions by the Council.
You want a social worker with a butterfly net to respond to a suicidal man with a knife (see @3) then fund social workers.
You want an armed officer that can respond to that suicidal knife wielder, in case he advances on the responder with it, then fund that.
You want both to respond then fund both
Don’t waste finite Legislative capacity on a resolution that merely states a preference, without force of law, or funding an outcone.
@7
Yes, yes it is.
“Hundreds join Gaza’s largest anti-Hamas protest since war began”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g71lk09npo.amp
Videos shared widely on social media by activists typically critical of Hamas showed young men marching through the streets of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza on Tuesday, chanting “out, out, out, Hamas out”.
One of the protesters, Beit Lahia resident Mohammed Diab, had his home destroyed in the war and lost his brother in an Israeli airstrike a year ago.
“We refuse to die for anyone, for any party’s agenda or the interests of foreign states,” he said.
“Hamas must step down and listen to the voice of the grieving, the voice that rises from beneath the rubble – it is the most truthful voice.”
Footage from the town also showed protesters shouting “down with Hamas rule, down with the Muslim Brotherhood rule”.
Right on, ya ikhwati! Free Palestine from Hamas! 🔥🔥🔥
@21: Ha ha ha, Al Jazeera Arabic is being super bitchy about the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza!
https://archive.ph/OJlmX
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera English hasn’t even touched it yet! Palestinians demanding that Hamas end the Gaza war for the sake of Palestinian lives?! Al Jazeera has nightmares about a story like this! 😂 The Qatari government must be in full-on panic mode over how to present this to English-speaking audiences! 🤣
@20, @21: Folks who’ve upheld the Palestinian cause here, both headline posters and their sympathetic commenters, will no doubt now deliver full-throated praise, for the extraordinary courage shown by ordinary Palestinians who’ve defied Hamas. Not only will such praise show deep respect for human rights by the progressive crowd here, it will make for an excellent opportunity to show they are NOT actually “pro-Hamas.” Let their cheers flow, and loudly!
.
.
.
(crickets)
@the Lurker
posting his
vile projections
& Observations
whilst everyone’s
Long Gone pretty
much & Demanding
succor fucking INSTANTLY
o.k.
Hamas
the Terrorist
Org that’s Ruled
Gaza since their LAST
Fucking Election~in 2007!
with an IRON fucking FIST
won’t Hesitate to Punish any-
one Brazen enough to speak out
to punish Gazans. it’s a fucking Miracle
they’re Protesting NOW.
GO, Palestine!
& bugger OFF
wormmy
Hamas
begins brutal crackdown
on Gaza protests with torture, executions
Residents
in the enclave
say terror group
executed at least
six organizers; Gaza City
resident returned to his family
after four hours of torture and died
shortly afterward, while others reported missing
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjl5xnua1x
my
Gott
butchyur
a Tedious
fawker. do us
All a big fucking
Favor & Stay tf in PA:
they
can Have
your miserable
whining unaware ass
and quit
promoting
this Genocide.
wormmy
and his ai
sockpuppet
doing his best
to put an
End to
tS.
sad
af.
from Caitlin’s Newsletter:
“Free Gaza From Hamas”
Really Means “Free Gaza
From All Palestinians”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist that Israel will carry out Trump’s ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza, saying the following on Sunday about “the final stage” of his agenda:
“Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will see to the general security in the Gaza Strip and will allow the realization of the Trump plan for voluntary migration. This is the plan. We are not hiding this and are ready to discuss it at any time.”
Netanyahu’s suggestion that Trump’s plan for the migration of Palestinians out of Gaza would be “voluntary” is misleading in two separate ways.
Firstly, it is nonsensical to deliberately and systematically make a place uninhabitable and then claim that anyone who leaves that place would be leaving voluntarily.
Israeli spinmeisters have been pushing this narrative since the early days of the onslaught, and it’s transparently bogus; telling people they can leave or starve to death is exactly the same as forcing them out at gunpoint.
Secondly, Trump’s plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza is not “voluntary” on its face. Trump has explicitly said “all” Palestinians are to be removed from the enclave and would not be allowed to return, which of course necessarily means that anyone who wants to stay will not be permitted to.
Netanyahu says he wants to realize Trump’s plan,
and Trump’s plan is forcible ethnic cleansing.
A Knesset member from Netanyahu’s Likud party named Amit Halevi was just on Israeli radio saying that the plan is “to occupy the territory to cleanse it of the enemy,” adding that Israel needs “to return to Gaza permanently and control this space, because it is part of our homeland.”
I mean, how much more explicit do they need to be?
When Israel apologists respond to chants of “Free Gaza” with “Free Gaza from Hamas,” what they really mean is “Free Gaza from all Palestinians.”
The agenda they are cheerleading has ultimately nothing to do with Hamas — it’s about purging a Palestinian territory of Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli Jews.
It’s yet another Israeli land grab
and yet another drive to eliminate
Palestinians from their historic homeland.
–by Caitlin Johnstone; Mar 30, 2025
Oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/free-gaza-from-hamas-really-means
some comments on Caitlin’s
brilliant article on this On-
Going fucking Genocide
~ on YOUR Tax Dollar$$$ !!! ~
For Israel, ethnic cleansing has ALWAYS been the plan since 1947 (maybe even much before that). Netanyahu found a very pliable Zionist (Biden) and an authoritarian Zionist (Trump) to finally attempt to complete the ‘long-ago planned goal’ of ethnic cleansing (by any means).
I can understand how Israeli society creates the likes of Netanyahu, but is no one asking how American society creates the likes of Biden, Trump, and all such genociders?
–@Chang Chokaski; Chang’s Substack
America has had a long history of genocide, from the1600’s onward.Look at the indigenous tribes history. They are still fighting for their rights to exist.
Then there is the Black history in America, the plantation era. Each knew immigrant was looked down upon arrival. It’s not an honorable history.
–@Patricia Blair
sadly they had good teachers in britain and the other colonizing countries in europe – and our leaders still support this genocide.
–@jill chambers
Chang, I have so many questions after reading Caitlin today. But I am dumbstruck by the sheer stupidity if not the violence of the western ethos.
Ethnic cleansing and land theft was always the plan. It has rolled on unimpeded by the rulers, the establishment and the media, culminating in todays unrelenting bombardment, genocide, murder, hypocrisy, lies and racism which has found fertile ground with US/West and their vicious proxy Israel.
The world watches and waits while
the Palestinians become disposable.
–@Indu Abeysekara
oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/free-gaza-from-hamas-really-means/comments
our
Cheerleaders
here all suck Ass.
I have a different perspective: the last and only election that put Hamas in charge of Gaza was 19 years ago, when they giained power short of a majority vote.
Half the residents of Gaza were not even born when they took power, and 3/4 were not of voting age during their 19 yr tenure. It is likely, in my view, that Hama would have collapsed long ago if not propped up by Israel, for 14 yrs, funneling billions in cash to Hamas to keep it in power, as a stratgy to keep the Palestinians divided in a classic case of divide, conequer….and loot.
The loot of course is the Gaza and West Bank land plus the hundreds of billions in oil and gas.
So it is my view that without Israel supporting and funding Gaza ($ from Quatar but authorized and encouraged by Israel), Hamas would have lost power to another party, as it never had majority support but has only been strengthened by Israeli attacks, after the deal between HAMAS AND Netanyahu collapsed as of Oct 7.
The insane genocidal rage of Netanyahu, which insists of the “total victory” which his own top military leaders have calledI impossible and a fantasy, “throwing sand in the eyes of the public,” is less to make Israel secure than to cover up the fact that if Hamas is a terrorist organization, he is the one who made it so.
So this is classical denial/projection, in which the evil one has caused is blamed on the party that revoked the deal with the Devil.
The most ironic part of this strange psychodrama, which has erupted into a genocidal operation, is that in order for Netanyahu to stay in power and out of prison (facing 3 corruption trials with one having over 300 adverse witnesses),
he must have war as his shield, and to have war he must have an enemy, and the only enemy (he can take side shots at Lebenon, Iran, and Syria, but the public will not allow him to rule based on that)he can use to stay at perpetual war is the very enemy he has vowed to totally eradicate.
That is why, his 500 day extermination program, has failed, not because Hamas is strong but because Hamas is needed as an enemy and defeating it would end Netanyahu’s career, not in a blaze of glory but more likely a prison sentence.
This is my view, partly fact, party hunch, partly speculation,
[mine, too! –@kristo
tho Never as well
Articulated as
Right Here.
BRAVO!]
but it makes sense. I can recall a similar event, which is when Nato blew off Russia’s request to join Nato (3 times)….which would have secured peace in Europe for the foreseeable future but would deprive NATO of its raison d’etre, for without an enemy, NATO would have no reason to exist and swallow up hundreds of billions in cash and assemble a military force of 30 nations…and so Russia was needed, not as a member to secure the peace, but as an enemy to justify the existence of NATO as a supreme military force. And so it does . . .
–@ dale ruff; dale’s Substack
ok
wormmy
pick out a
non sequitur
pretend It’s IM-
PORTANT & totes
IGNORE the Meat of
my comments, above
your std
M.fucking Oh
&
don’t
‘Forget’
🛴🔨 ai
gets Annoyed
if/when left out.