The Star-Crossed Bummers Are Still Feuding: On Monday, Elon said he would fund the future political campaigns of anyone running against any Republican who votes for Trump’s shitty bill. “They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he said. Trump fired back, threatening on Truth Social to cut Elon’s government subsidies, adding, “Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.” Then Elon said that was, “so wrong” and “disappointing,” which are kind of weak sauce retorts, tbh, and then the bell rang and they all had to run back to class because Mr. McConnell said if either of them are tardy one more time, they can’t buy a ticket to prom.
Speaking of the Bill I Refuse to Call Big and/or Beautiful: CNN has a pretty good breakdown of the Senate’s version. Some “highlights”: Millions will lose Medicaid coverage due to a new work requirement and less federal funding; millions will find it harder to get food stamps and SNAP benefits, including parents and veterans; immigrants will no longer qualify for benefits; hospitals will probably have to close due to lack of funding, but Trump’s wall will get a $45 BILLION WITH A B budget; and new babies get $1,000 because sure, why not, babies are famously good with money. According to the Seattle Times, Washington is likely to take the biggest hit of any state from the Medicaid cuts, because we did the right thing and leaned into Obamacare a decade ago. The House is currently debating the bill, and C-SPAN is streaming live if rage is your kink.
Now Tesla’s Stock Is Sinking: Tesla’s stock took tumble Tuesday after the Senate passed Trump’s bill. Why? Because one of the changes the Senate made includes eliminating electric vehicle tax credits sooner, cutting somewhere around $1.2 billion from Tesla’s annual profit. It recovered this morning, though, after delivering more electric vehicles than expected in the second quarter. Trump’s gonna be so mad.
Trump Visited Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz”: It wasn’t a fever dream. Florida officials really did build a deportation holding facility in the fucking Everglades. According to Al Jazeera, when Trump arrived at the site, he said, “This is what you need. A lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators.” Twenty bucks says that big dummy digs a moat around the White House and fills it with alligators by the end of the year.
Fourth of July Fun: All this bullshit got you feeling less than patriotic? Sure, you could grill hot dogs and blow shit up to mark America’s 249th birthday this Friday, or you could gather with your fellow disenfranchised Seattleites at Push/Pull in Ballard for F#ck the Fourth, a “voter registration, postcard writing, and rage release.” They’ll have postcards and postage if you want to tell elected officials how you really feel, or you can create your own info-packed zine, and they’ll print and distribute it!
Musicians Are Dumping Spotify (Again): Artists are pulling their music off Spotify after the company’s CEO Daniel Ek made a $700 million investment in “AI battle tech” company Prima Materia. Deerhoof started the new wave, announcing on Instagram, “We don’t want our music killing people.” Artists also left en masse in 2022 after Neil Young criticized the platform for hosting Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Former Stranger Genius Award Winner Erik Blood, Everybody:
You won’t find my music on Spotify anymore and I couldn’t be happier about it
— Erik Blood (@erikblood.bsky.social) July 2, 2025 at 8:51 AM
More Microsoft Layoffs: The company confirmed this morning that they’re cutting 9,000 more jobs. DOES ANYONE EVEN WORK THERE ANYMORE?
We Got a New Police Chief: Yesterday, the Seattle City Council unanimously confirmed Shon Barnes as Seattle’s new police chief. Barnes has been the interim police chief since January, after Adrian Diaz was fired. (Related: Diaz is suing the city for “unlawful termination.”)
The Diddy Verdicts Are In: He was found not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, and convicted of transporting people for prostitution. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Is the Plural Winnies-the-Pooh or Winnie-the-Poohs? “2 bears escape wildlife park enclosure, devour a 7-day supply of honey, then fall asleep.” Delightful.
I Love This Goofy City: Next week, Metro lovers and haters are invited to Race Route 8. “It’s easy to outwalk the L8, but can we still beat it while doing the cha-cha slide, hopscotching, or in a conga line? Join one of our race activities or bring your own creative things you can do while still beating the bus!” Someone should see if they can read the July issue of The Stranger (out today!) in its entirety while racing the bus.
Join us next Thursday, July 10th at 5 PM at Denny / Dexter to race Route 8! It’s easy to outwalk the L8, but can we still beat it while doing the cha-cha slide, hopscotching, or in a conga line? Join one of our race activities or bring your own creative things you can do while still beating the bus!
— Fix the L8 (@fixthel8.bsky.social) June 30, 2025 at 4:53 PM
And With That: I leave you with the appropriate song, “F.U. #8,” by Seattle’s own Tacocat. (Featuring Stranger Arts Editor Emily Nokes!)
Pro Life (up until that life can no longer be weaponized to control people’s bodies, then no food, no healthcare, you’re on your own but you still owe us income taxes in 18 years if you survive. Sooner than that if we can help it)
You guys did exactly what the NYT did this morning, and it pissed me off: “Diddy not guilty of…” as the opening line. He sure as fuck was found guilty of some horrible shit, just weaseled out of some shit that was more horrible. Fuck that scumbag, he’s guilty.
Big Music always ruins everything, not shocked Spotify is on the naughty list again. Cmon people, off yer butts, go enjoy/support some local venues. It’s much more satisfying to see real humans play real instruments than sit at home alone listening to “content” created with business analytics for the profit of creepy billionaires.
What, nothing from The Stranger on the $6 million the City will pay to the family of Manuel Ellis?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/tacoma-agrees-to-6m-settlement-in-manuel-ellis-police-custody-death/
This is after the officers involved were criminally acquitted and the City of Tacoma paid them $1.5 million to resign, rather than pay more employment lawsuit damages if they fired them.
Welcome to the world of public employment.
Welcome to the change in editorial focus of Noisy Creek.
@4 Wish you’d change your focus and complain about something other people actually care about instead of thinking an art and food focused newspaper run by a bunch of queer kids and music writers should cover every single thing that happens every single day.
I ❤️the #8 bus, from Rainier Ave S all the way to Queen Anne and Mercer St!
More like Alligator Auschwitz. Also, Tesla stock is up about 5% today, so that paragraph is out of date.
Yeah. Eventually the people who are working hard and barely scraping by will grow tired of paying for people, many of whom could be working.
Disenfranchised…who in Seattle is disenfranchised?
@5, If Noisy Creek wants The Stranger to return to those roots fine.
But it used to be all over stories like civil judgements against police, like flies on shit.
So was The Stranger wrong when it changed its focus on just arts and food to expand into jumping on civil judgments against cops and other Progressive causes, or is it wrong now to change course yet again and return to its roots? What does it’s publisher stand for?
Is it based on principle and intellectually arrived at truth, or is there aren’t enough ACAB readers out there to make such stories appealing to The Stranger’s advertisers? Are The Stranger’s new publishers acknowledging that they really aren’t about principle’s and a point of view, but they are just capitalists that are amorally just after money, JUST like the capitalists they regularly criticize?
A patriotic republican needs to remove healthcare from the poorest 5-10% of our population, take food from the poor, jail large portions of the population, lavish massive subsidies on those who poison our land air and water, and spiral the national debt. Doing otherwise is considered too extreme for the GOP (gullible operatives of putin)… in summary, if it causes their soul to go straight to hell the GOP is adamantly in favor.
I have a family and friends that support republicans and their flimsy excuse is to argue despite the terrible policies republicans support the up-side is all our taxes will go down in a major way. My bet is increased taxes for them yet they remain just as gullible to these self-defeating republican policies.
@8:
That’s bullshit and I suspect you well know it. 64% of Medicaid recipients under age 65 who do not otherwise receive SSA/SSI disability benefits or Medicare work full or part-time (44% & 20% respectively), with another 28% not working due to disability, school attendance or providing care-giving for other family members. That’s 92% of all recipients. Of the remaining 8%, most are either retired or unable to find work, with only a very small number not actively seeking work for other reasons.
So, just go and fuck right off with your “these people need to be WORKING!” – most of them already ARE WORKING, fuckwit, and nearly all of the remainder CAN’T WORK, unless you’re proposing they stop attending school, stop caring for sick or disabled family members, or just toss away those crutches, walkers, wheel chairs, whatever and find some low-wage manual labor warehouse job – that may not even exist where they happen to live.
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/understanding-the-intersection-of-medicaid-and-work-an-update/
@7. No kidding. These are all for profit concentration camps to enrich Geo Group and CoreCivic shareholders. They don’t give a fuck about actual crime and dangerous immigrants, but pleasing the bean counters trying to stuff as many brown folks as possible into cages in order to get their BBB windfall from our tax dollars. Once they inevitably deport all the chattel in decades, they will fill it with political enemies and anyone else whose citizenship they arbitrarily snatch away for nonsense. It is pure evil and these people who are engaging in modern day slavery truly believe in the tenets of Aryan supremacy and are surreptitiously reinstating the same infrastructure. The more we take our eyes off and permit them to do this, the more depraved, cruel, and inhumane their methods and the lower their standards until mass fatalities become the norm. This is an existential crisis for all Americans, not just undocumented folks. Once they have run out of folks to deport, they will be coming for everyone else othered in the LBGT+ and democrats, as well as disloyal Republicans. We have opened Pandora’s Box and we will all suffer. Trump will not go away even after his death, his fascit keepers have entrenched themselves and he is their useful idiot.
May God have mercy on us all. We are on the way to extinction.
@11 FTW!
As long as we have unchecked capitalism and the ancestors of nazis and apartheid loving technocrats hoarding all that wealth, we are fucked. A peace-loving socialist commune sounds pretty good to me right now. Anybody else hear that there is evidence that DHS and ICE detention centers in south Texas are dumping bodies of people who have died in their custody on the beaches?
If you are able bodied (obesity is no excuse) then it shouldn’t be any problem working 20 hours per week to secure Medicaid benefits. If you are too lazy to do your part, you can go without healthcare. Your choice.
The Wall will pay for itself in a matter of years. 45 billion today saves us hundreds of billions of dollars in future expenses for illegal immigrants. The Wall also saves lives, making it more difficult to smuggle fentanyl into this country. Unless we are going to bomb the cartels in Mexico, the wall is a necessity.
Alligator Alcatraz was thrown together in a matter of weeks by America’s best Governor. It doesn’t have to be the most secure facility in the world as you’d be a fool to try and escape. Great work Governor DeSantis!
You guys are going to be filled with rage on the 4th? Not this patriot. I’ll be lighting off fireworks, eating brats and blasting God Bless The USA all day.
@11 – yes, I expect those who are taking care of family members to work at least 20 hours per week. There is an exemption for students and volunteer work counts toward the work requirement if one can’t find a job.
@12 – with 20 million illegals deport, I think you can relax, it will be many years before Trump or Vance get serious about deporting ungrateful Americans.
@8 “Eventually the people who are working hard and barely scraping by will grow tired of paying for people”
No, they’ll die first when they’re unable to afford critical medical care
@11
@17
Life is hard.
In the 40 years I’ve been in the workforce, I’ve worked through chronic pain, severe depression and a wife that I have had to care for.
Government assistance was a luxury I was never afforded. We were told we’d have to divorce, sell our car and move in with family.
We counted our pennies at the grocery store while others whipped out their SNAP cards to buy more and better food than we could afford.
We skipped meals so our kids would eat.
Now that we’re in a much better situation we donate money and time to different charities. I have sympathy for those in need, but I want the freedom to choose where my money goes. I don’t trust either party to use funds wisely or efficiently.
I know that as a good progressive you don’t believe in the ‘pull yourself up by your boot straps’ method, but we did it.
Anyway, I enjoyed your little tirade and I look forward to your follow up. If you’re open to some feedback, the names you called me showed a lack of creativity. Put a little more effort into it.
This whole “I survived shitty circumstances so everyone else should too” attitude is pretty gross and weird.
@18. It’s ironic that instead of wanting to make things easier for yourself and others when you were in hard times, you instead double down on going through them and expect everyone else to as well. You would think it would give you empathy to those who are suffering instead of telling them to work harder. You’re like a cartoon.
I’m reading this comment @18 by ASaxman5537, and who knows if any of this touching life story is true or if it’s just a fabricated tall tale designed to appeal to gullible Americans who understand their own lives but don’t really understand how industrialized societies function to keep us at bay from a Hobbesian existence that is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”? Hey, if this is the tale you’ve got to tell to justify cutting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the billionaires, hey, people have fallen for far less.
Keep in mind that the ASaxman5537 character only ever shows up on these threads to trash the libs. It’s like they have no other interests in life. They have absolutely nothing else worth sharing while they feel compelled to share this.
Hey ASaxman5537, I’d love to hear what charitable organizations you donated to in 2024. I’ll show mine if you show yours. Just gotta dig up the spreadsheet.
me @21: “Hey ASaxman5537, I’d love to hear what charitable organizations you donated to in 2024. I’ll show mine if you show yours. Just gotta dig up the spreadsheet.”
I suppose ASaxman5537 will respond that it’s none of our damned business. Never mind that he felt compelled to tell us what he claims to be such intimate life details @18.
@18 sounds like you and your family really could have used some help from your community. Too bad this country is rapaciously capitalistic as evidenced by… the very bill we’re discussing. If you had the opportunity to go back in time, would you support your younger self having access to the government assistance you say you were never afforded, or would you tell your younger self “life is hard” so suck it up buttercup?
@23, Noisy Creek is apparently “rapaciously capitalistic as evidenced by,” shifting away from coverage that appeals to the ACAB crowd, and returning to being art and food focused (see @5), where they can actually generate ad revenue and ticket sales.
The cuts to medicaid will be felt by everyone, not just those of us unfortunate enough to be uninsured. It keeps your premiums down and your small town hospitals from either shuttering the ER or closing entirely. You cannot contain the cost of illness and injury by pretending it’s a luxury. We all have to pay one way or another.
@15 so long as we have large coastal areas, we will have desperate people coming to our country (not to mention folks like Elon, Melania, etc overstaying visas) – the (imaginarily effective) wall will simply alter the mode of entry.
And as for drugs, if you think a wall on the southern border will materially slow the flow of drugs, you’re a bigger idiot than I thought (and that’s already a low bar). Go to any correctional facility in this country and you’ll find illegal drugs – if we can’t stop the flow in a situation where we literally have full control over an incarcerated populace, a wall won’t stop shit.
@25 as runner up FTW!
15: “Alligator Alcatraz was thrown together in a matter of weeks by America’s best Governor. It doesn’t have to be the most secure facility in the world as you’d be a fool to try and escape.”
Let me guess, you probably freaked out when you heard the rumors of FEMA camps built by Obama.
@21: “and who knows if any of this touching life story is true “
As if trying to negate the validity of someone elevates your own credibility.
@18 Was the chronic pain caused by your head being up your ass? That story is total bullshit. “We were told we’d have to divorce, sell our car and move in with family.” Yeah, right.
I’m really surprised that Slog isn’t whining about Lia Thomas being stripped of “her” titles and medals. It seems odd that was overlooked.
@18: But I dare say you didn’t skip means because your kids would eat. You had beer and pretzels instead is more like it.
@31: Viv might write something up.
@26 – of course there are drugs in prison, but their availability is significantly reduced compared to the free world. The ability to score fentanyl in Walla Walla is considerably less than on the streets of Seattle. To say that walls don’t “materially” reduce the flow of drugs is stupidty or wanton ignorance.
@25 – some small town hospitals likely should be closed if they don’t have a population large enough to support them.
@15: the key is to hold the firecrackers in your hand.
if nothing else, a border wall is an ecosystem disaster.
@18 Don’t you know that “lived experience” only counts when it comes from an oppressed minority?
33 lol of course you think that
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/02/immigration-trump-big-beautiful-bill
How Trump’s bill will supercharge mass deportations by funneling $170bn to Ice
$170 fucking BILLION to ICE
In March of 2024, whiny virtue signaller Neil Young brought his music back to Spotify after a two-year boycott. Rogan was still on the platform.
For those of you who think cops get special treatment, this Seattle Public Schools high school teacher has been on paid administrative leave for over a year. Finally, the Seattle Public Schools decided to fire him. He is appealing that and Seattle Public Schools is keeping him on paid administrative leave while the teacher appeals.
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattle-public-schools-to-terminate-teacher-after-israel-hamas-comments/
It is very difficult and costly to discipline public employees because they are also citizens, with INDIVIDUAL rights under the 14th and 5th Amendments and the government is trying to take away something from them.
@39 “look this teacher who said anti-Israel stuff is getting the same treatment as cops who kill innocent people” isn’t the flex you seem to think it is
@40, It disproves that the issue of cops get special treatment because they are cops. They get the treatment that all public employees are entitled to because they aren’t just employees of an at-will employer, they are citizens with rights under the 5th and 14th Amendment, and the employer that is attempting to deprive them of something is the government created to protect them, not deprive them.
That doesn’t mean public employees can’t or shouldn’t be disciplined or fired, but it means they can only be fired for cause (not at will), after extensive due process, for violating a clearly written policy, when the policy is narrowly tailored, and necessary, for the government to get what it hired the employee to do.
Public employers have a nasty history of not only making sure a librarian puts books on a shelf correctly, manages check-out, and directs people to the correct place to find the material they are looking for, but making sure librarians pass a litmus test that aligns with the social values of the 80% of voters that elected the Town Council. Then they fire them for not adhering to the policy requiring the employee to not just be a good librarian, but to support abortion rights (or oppose them). The Court will uphold the policy requirement that they re-shelve books within 72 hours of return, because its essential to the library being the resource intended for the community. It won’t uphold the policy that they pass the political or social litmus test, because its not essential to the Librarian making sure citizens have a functioning library.
So off-duty cops are free to falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen. They are free to march to the Capitol. They aren’t free to break the law.
A teacher is free to believe that Palestinians should resist Israel all they want, even engaging in warfare, and publicly hold that position. That rape and other war crimes are OK can be believed privately, but to espouse that publicly crosses the line. Parents aren’t going to feel comfortable sending their kids to be in close contact with someone that believe that the means of rape justifies the end. Kids are going to be comfortable learning from such a person.
The teacher can hold and espouse all kinds of controversial views, provided they are lawful (e.g. not unlawful if implemented). They can be controversial, polarizing, and even wrong, but not unlawful if implemented.
I won’t bet against you, Megan. I think you’re spot on—-that Felon Mu$k’s Mein Trumpf truly is stupid enough to dig a moat around the White Trash House and fill it with alligators. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mu$k’s Mein Trumpf appoints these reptiles to its grossly incompetent KKKabinet of KKKrooks.
I have said it before, and will say it again: I predict that Mu$k’s Mein Trumpf’s demise will be alligator involved.
Trumpf’s Floridian Mal-a-Tardo hidey hole, with the GOP hellbent on speeding up climate change, will come back to haunt him, biting him in his ugly fascist lil ‘shroom. And I hope it hurts.