Good morning! It’s grey, and the rain is waking up all of the green stuff: the moss, the grass, even the trees look happier. The drizzle is only supposed to last through the morning. After that, we’ll have a low-70s, partly cloudy day.
Let’s do the news.
The election results are still rolling in, and they just keep getting better. In yesterday’s 4:30 p.m. ballot drop, everyone who could help pull our city out of this logjam was moving on up. With 23 percent of the vote counted, City Attorney candidate Erika Evans is now a full 17 points ahead of republican City Attorney Ann Davison, City Council candidate Dionne Foster has an almost 18-point lead on Council President Sara Nelson, and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson is 4.5 points ahead of Mayor Bruce Harrell. We’ve seen some incredible comebacks in our days in local politics, but Davison and Nelson look like they’re cooked. And Harrell? Parboiled, at least. We’ll do another ballot drop analysis after 4:30 today, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, Harrell is being really normal about this. In his first fundraising email after his devastating primary night, Harrell warned supporters that “this race is close, and if we don’t act immediately, we risk losing this campaign and the progress we’ve made together for Seattle.” He made a half-assed attempt at calling Wilson disingenuous, and then took a wild swing and tried to blame the democracy voucher program for his performance: “Unfortunately, while we were capped at raising $450,000 in the primary until the final week, our opponent was able to stock up on Democracy Vouchers for the General Election,” the campaign wrote. “Due to that fact, we start this race with a fundraising deficit of almost $62,000.” Boo hoo.
No idea what I’m talking about? Catch up! You can read our real-time reporting on election night here, and our next-day analysis here.
ICYMI: The day before the election, Seattle City Council passed the Shield Tax—Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s plan to bring some progressive revenue into the city, and Harrell’s panicked attempt at looking progressive before the election. The council voted on it just in time, so it’ll be headed to the November ballot. Stranger Staff Writer Nathalie Graham explained what it all means.
Our newest issue is on the streets! Our beautiful, blue Transit Issue is making its way to your local coffee shop or newsstand as you read this. In this issue, we answer some key questions: What is the culture of our light rail system? (Our writers spent 20 consecutive hours on the 1 Line to find out.) What’s the difference between 0.08% blood alcohol content and 0.05%? (We turned ourselves into lab rats for an unscientific science experiment that includes Mario Kart, breathalyzers, and too much booze.) Why don’t we use more of our waterways for public transit? (It’s complicated, but Nathalie Graham is your guide.) There’s something for everyone.
SPD Pays Out: The City is settling a lawsuit brought by Deanna Nollette, a nearly 30-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department, who says she experienced discrimination under then-Chief Adrian Diaz. She’ll get $3 million. And that’s not the only case against the department because of Diaz: four female officers, two Black officers, a lieutenant, a veteran detective, and a former candidate for chief have all filed discrimination suits after working under him. Tell me again why we need a bigger police budget?
The Data Is In: And we can now confidently say that ICE arrests are up in Washington state. The Seattle Times crunched the numbers, and while our immigration enforcement didn’t match the nationwide escalation, we’ve definitely seen an increase. And worse, all of the people who’ve been arrested are being held in detention, which wasn’t typical before Trump.
No One Likes a Rat: Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said that the FBI has agreed to his request to help track down the dozens of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on Trump’s election-rigging redistricting plan. Most of the lawmakers have taken shelter in Illinois, where they plan to hide out until the end of the session. The senator argues that by soliciting funds while they’re trying to protect their state (and the country) from electoral corruption, they could be participating in “bribery.” You know this, dear reader, but let’s say it again. This shit doesn’t happen in a healthy democracy. This is authoritarianism.
Speaking of the FBI and the Fall of Democracy: The administration just announced that it’s pushing out two more FBI agents: one who was involved in investigations into Trump, and one who defended the agency from Trump’s attacks early in his term.
A New Census? In This Autocracy? This morning, Trump ordered a new census that doesn’t include undocumented immigrants which, by all accounts, is unconstitutional. He already tried this in his first term, and a judge found that it was illegal. Because it is. Illegal.
Remember when Trump shuttered USAID to save money? The shutdown left a stockpile of contraceptives in Belgium with no place to go. The agency supposedly considered trying to sell the pills, IUDs, and hormonal implants to other organizations, but decided to go a way more unhinged route: burning them. The department claims that the contraceptives are “abortifacients,” meaning that they work by inducing abortion. Which they don’t. Because science says so.
Tariff Time: Trump’s tariffs took effect today for 90 countries—some as high as 50 percent. The New York Times called it an “audacious gamble” and says that his ego-driven trade war is “without parallel in modern history.”
With Friends Like These…: Speaking of junk science, assimilationist gay Pete Buttigieg doubled down on his claims that trans women in sports introduce “serious fairness issues. He first said it last week on NPR, and then this week, he went on Substack Live with Aaron Parnas, and parroted the same thing. He told Parnas that he had compassion for trans people and their families, who he said are “being used as a political football,” before using them as a political football. “[People are] wondering, ‘Wait a minute. I got a daughter in a sports league. Is she going to be competing with boys right now?’” Buttigieg told NPR. “Just taking everybody seriously.” As a reminder: the NCAA president testified in December 2024 that he knows of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes among 510,000 athletes total. And there’s no evidence that trans athletes introduce any fairness issues in athletics.
In Other Gay News: “JD Vance’s Leaked Spotify Playlist Is Bafflingly Full of Gay Anthems.”
I’ll send you off with a taste of the weekend. Lucy Dacus will be at Remlinger Farms on Sunday, so let’s start the day with this celebration of masc dykes (and Cara Delavingne, for some reason).
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Just shows that Pete Buttigieg is someone who can empathize with all of his constituents, has moral clarity, and is a true humanitarian.
Pete’s got my vote if he ever runs for pres. A voice of reason in this crazy world!
@1
Just shows that Hannah Murphy Winter and so many progressives refuse to learn the lesson of the 2024 election.
We got seriously trounced and too many people on the extreme left only want to double down on the issues that led to our losses.
If Hannah, et al, had their way Trump might not need to gerrymander Texas to keep the House* after the midterms.
*Note: thanks to the extremists the Senate is out of reach and it’s not unlikely the Democrats will lose a Senate seat or two.
Thank you President Trump for not ignoring WA state in your illegal immigration crackdown. The law respecting citizens of WA appreciate your efforts.
It would be pretty damn awesome to see those Texas Democrats arrested and hauled back home. And when they finally get back to Texas, maybe they’ll be stripped of their elected positions as well. A boy can dream.
Of course a new census is in order. The Democrats don’t just get to import 10 million illegal immigrants to boost their numbers in Congress. CA is already over-represented.
Trump’s audacious gamble on tarrifs is bringing in tens of billions of dollars in tax revenue every month. Prices haven’t increased because foreign manufacturers don’t want to lose business to American upstarts. This trade war has been one of the greatest American victories in the past 40 years.
I’m liking Booty-judge more and more these days. It’s absolutely scientifically correct to note that the average male is stronger and faster than the average female. In fact, men at the bottom ranks of speed and strength are still faster and stronger than most women. That is why the American women’s world cup soccer team trained against 15 year old boys and still lost every match. Reminder: Over 600 men and boys have stolen over 850 1st, 2nd or 3rd place trophies from women and girls over the past few years.
Eventually democrats will learn that letting republicans set the terms of debate never works out well for them. For years they retreated on gay marriage until biden forced the issue and public opinion soon followed. They have science, reason, and fairness on their side now just like they did back then and eventually someone in the party will have the guts to take the lead but today is not that day.
@4, trans rights rank dead last in 2024 election issue polling. Voters care about things that impact their lives, not what drives blog clicks and podcast streams.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/651719/eco
@3 i mean
OH NO PETE BUTTEGIEG IS THE REAL PROBLEM!!! Give me a break.
According to #7, we’d live in a Trump-free world if we just gave a pass to all of the so-called “liberals” who espouse MAGA political views.
Democracy vouchers:
The ability to use the coercive power of the state to take money from your fellow City resident’s bank account and give it to a candidate you support and that they may not support.
@5, No, Democrats have the science they like on their side. They ignore the science they don’t like.
If you are truly science and evidence-based you reach conclusions on public policy you don’t like, or even find personally abhorrent, if that is where the evidence leads.
@9 It’s called taxes. The state/city has the power to coercively take money for things that a random resident may not support. They always have had that power, regardless of whether they’re funding transit, libraries, parks, schools, transit, EMS, or whatever.
It’s kinda funny how you switch from “It was the will of the majority so it must have been right!” to “Coercive state!” as soon as the votes go against your personal opinions.
@5: Since when does the frequency of an issue or the polling of an issue determine the importance and relevance of an issue?
“everyone who could help pull our city out of this logjam was moving on up”
maybe I’m jaded but I haven’t seen anything that indicates these candidates will do anything to improve Seattle’s fortunes. You have a mayor whose only plan seems to be taxing the shit out of everything in a time when job growth is slowing and revenues are declining. There was an article today about Uber looking to grow their footprint in the Northwest in either Seattle or Bellevue. I wonder what they’ll choose if Wilson wins. The mayor absolutely needs to grow the economy by convincing companies to grow their presence in Seattle. Maybe one of the progressives on this board can explain to me how Wilson is going to accomplish this?
The others have all committed to let encampments grow unchecked and go back to the days of pretending these are people who are being driven by poverty not addiction. We tried that for 10 years and things only got worse. If this slate holds I predict we will see an even bigger moderate backlash during the next cycle for council and mayor.
LOL the “progressives” are mad at Pete Buttplug now
@13: Judging from the comments from over the past few years, even from some of our showcase progressives, the readership of ‘The Stranger’ is more in line with your take. You’re not jaded.
@8 PETE BUTTEGIEG IS MAGA!!!
@1
Just shows that Hannah Murphy Winter and so many progressives refuse to learn the lesson of the 2024 election.
We got seriously trounced and too many people on the extreme left only want to double down on the issues that led to our losses.
If Hannah, et al, had their way Trump might not need to gerrymander Texas to keep the House* after the midterms.
*Note: thanks to the extremists the Senate is out of reach and it’s not unlikely the Democrats will lose a Senate seat or two.
@11, All the more reason taxes should be on many, many, many things and activities with relatively low rates on things, INCLUDING INCOME (I see you Washington Voters).
They also should not be for things like funding candidate or cause political speech.
Ideally they would be like European taxes (or Oregon) where every income group devotes the same percentage of income to the state. They hit the wealthy with progressive income taxes so they pay the same percentage of income as other income groups and hit the poor and middle with punitive excise taxes that make Washington’s 10% sales tax look humane, so those income groups pay the same percentage as the wealthy to the state.
@12 polling that shows voters don’t really care about trans issues is a pretty strong refutation of an argument that the Dems lost because the public disagreed with their stance on trans issues, which is what’s being presented by Aguecheek and others.
More generally: progressives want to make the economy, and society in general, more fair for working people. Moderates want to protect the capitalist status quo, but since that’s not popular they–like Republicans–have to hide behind culture war issues. Progressives want health care and a living wage for everyone, moderates want better representation of trans people among military drone operators. It’s not progressives who are the problem.
@12: And second to dead last is “climate change”. Yet we’re told it’s the number one threat to our planet, but the polling refutes that. Good to know.
@12, Not entirely sure what you’re trying to communicate with this comment but I was responding to someone who said democrats lost in 2024 because of trans rights when polling says the economy was the top issue and trans rights ranked dead last. Whichever side you fall on, trans rights is a niche issue that is not driving voter behavior.
@16, Obviously no but dems are letting maga set the tone on trans rights instead of standing firm on principle. Flip-flopping is loser behavior and voters are less likely to support a party if they don’t think they stand for anything.
@11 Anyone can imagine what taxes ought to be. In a representative democracy, it’s far, far more important to think about what taxes the majority of the electorate/legislature will support, and how one might build coalitions to shift the electorate and/or legislature.
The fact is that a solid majority of Seattle voters think that public funding of elections (even in a very small degree) is a worthwhile endeavor for their tax money. Sorry, but you’re outnumbered. Again. But go ahead and shake your fist at the clouds if that makes you feel better.
How do public policy questions that involve between 10-40 citizens become marquee grist for tony dinner club convos, political rags such as TS, let alone a focus of 10s of millions of dollars for political campaigns?
It most certainly began soon after Obergefell, when the victory left an enormous political infrastructure bereft of purpose, and so they took up the new cause. NPR actually reported on the delimma same sex marriage rights groups faced in 2015, and hinted that salvation might lay in migrating to trans issues.
As a regular attendee of Moth story events, I can vividly recall the dramatic shift in audience reaction when one of the regular hosts frequently used the platform to share the new gender truth bombs. The mostly liberal crowd would sit silently at first, raised eyebrows and murmuring into each other’s ears. That was 2016. Within a year the same shares were met with thunderous applause. 206 was all in. Dinner club events in pricey eateries in Ballard devolved into races for who could declare something, anything, that demonstrated one’s allyship with a set a ideas that were only adopted 3 seconds ago. TransTime swept progressive culture like a California wildfire, and when combined with another shoe that was dropping at the time, the censor pose (known to adherents affectionately as opposing misinformation and disinformation) you found this force of petulant scolds accusing the vast majority of the population for being those precious 3 seconds behind schedule.
Indeed when the general public slowly began encountering TransTime Express, their reaction was not “oh how automatically wonderful.” Even among democrat voters there was uh, some “transtruth hesitancy.” And so the 206 scolds went to work. All these new cultural enforcement mechanisms; deplatforming, normalizing, dead naming, pronoun pins, yadayadayada.
The backlash was inevitable. And it did impact the election despite some here claiming otherwise. NYT summed it succinctly shortly after the election;
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/us/politics/democrats-transgender-rights.html
The problem now is fending off those who deny it is a liability for the party, who play this funny game of citing the tiny number of subject individuals involved as a reason not to obsess about them all while themselves obsessing about it as a kind of virtue signal, and defend promoting policies to be marquee political litmus tests while simultaneously claiming voters don’t actually care about said positions.
You have to be educated beyond your intelligence for that kind of twister.
Re #16: Sigh…everyone’s a comedian these days, even the unfunny ones.
The Progressive left of the Democratic coalition is letting the GOP set the tone on trans rights because they shout down any Democratic who questions the left’s position on trans rights. Mayor Pete is establishing a permission structure for those Dem’s who don’t agree to be able to do so. I’d rather have 15 year olds getting neo-vaginas than have the Ten Commandments in schools.
The fairness in sports is a genuine issue, as is the quality of evidence for youth gender transition. That being said, trans should have employment and housing protections and access to healthcare over the age of 18 and access to mental healthcare prior to then.
Allowing trans kids to compete in sports and seek age appropriate medical care has been the status quo for decades. If you’re just coming to this issue today with concerns you didn’t have 10 or 20 years ago you could just as easily be persuaded to leave the issue alone and focus on things that actually affect your life if the democratic party had message discipline and a spine. You are only concerned about this now because republicans are very good at turning minorities into pariahs.
@25 Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were joking.
@27: “Allowing trans kids to compete in sports and seek age appropriate medical care has been the status quo for decades.”
I don’t agree. First of all, there is no such thing as a trans child. Children are not mini-adults and do not have the capabilities to fully understand the gender fluid concepts that some trans activists espouse. Hence any “appropriate” medical care must be reserved until adulthood.
What I’m saying is fully echoed by transsexuals themselves, notably Buck Angel and others you can find on YouTube. You can’t play the “it’s only coming from Republicans” card anymore.
Who asked of you agree? Your opinion about trans kids is completely independent of the fact that kids have been medically transitioning for decades and socially transitioning for decades prior. They exist whether or not you believe in them.
People say the exact same thing about gay kids but I know for a fact i was a gay from my earliest memories and i know trans people who say the same. I also know everyone else knew i was queer because i was bullied for being “a girl” long before i even understood what sexuality was. I didn’t need to know any of that to know i liked boys because it was intrinsic to my entire identity. But you don’t need anecdotal evidence to prove that people are always themselves because your argument is so absurd it refutes itself. You don’t magically convert to a different person on your 18th birthday.
Also, dude, you ARE a republican, or at very least a conservative. The values you espouse here certainly are, and you still get touchy when people call trump a conservative. Not sure what you think you’re achieving by pretending you’re a liberal who has just seen the light on trans issues but you’re not fooling me.
Re 29, para 2 – Children fully understand their gender dysphoria – which is different – and its gender affirming care can wait till adulthood.
@31 Suicide rates disagree.
@30: I’m not trying to be a liberal, good lord no. How did you get that idea? I like a lot of liberal policies however, but that doesn’t make me one.
“You don’t magically convert to a different person on your 18th birthday.”
That’s not the point. Childhood should be a time when wrong decisions that are made are not permanent.
@32: Don’t play that card. It’s unquantifiable conjecture shunned by psychiatrists and is a blackmail tactic. You should know better.
Of course you’re a conservative because you think everyone else’s personal choices require your consent, but if you’re not trying to pretend otherwise then what are you trying to achieve by saying it’s not “only coming from republicans?”
@23, In other representative democracies (at least the European ones) they tax everyone the same proportion of their income, using a broad variety of taxes to achieve that outcome. As a result, they avoid the moral pitfall of robbery.
Only in America, does one taxpayer, or group of taxpayers, try and game the system to steal another group of taxpayer’s money for their benefit. Instead of doing it mob-rule style and marching down to the other group’s houses and taking what they want by force, they win an election, and have the government hire Treasury Agents to do the coercion, for them. Same act, different means.
Europe avoids that moral pitfall by taxing everyone the same, or with as much sameness is as practical on a proportional basis, by adjusting the tax code so that the math, when dividing total taxes paid into income, of any income segmented group of taxpayers, gets the same percentage.
One group isn’t stealing from another for the cost of government services. (If you put an election and government agents as the middlemen, it just changes the means of one group coercing another not the fact of it. It seems problematic to allege that changing the means of accomplishing the same act, somehow no longer makes it robbery). Europe solves the moral pitfall because they all have the same proportional skin in the game.
Europeans have the flattest tax systems in the world when considering what people actually pay divided by income. It is neither progressive, nor regressive. They are in it together. If they increase the size and scope of government they all have the same proportional increase in pain. If they reduce the size and scope of government, they all get the same proportional windfall.
34 also wrong
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32345113/
@24 direct quote from the NY Times article you linked:
“Although there is no evidence that transgender rights was a top issue for most voters in 2024, Democratic strategists believe that these attacks did have an impact.”
Emphasis on “no evidence”
@35: “then what are you trying to achieve by saying it’s not “only coming from republicans?”
Because you implied in @5 that opposition to transgender biological males in women and girls sports was mainly Republican.
@37: Score one for you if you really think that data proves your points.
Republican and conservative are interchangeable, especially when talking about queer rights. Republicans were actively campaigning against gay rights when you weren’t too ashamed to own your party affiliation and they pivoted to trans rights within months of obergefell. You have never been of a political persuasion that would stereotypically support lgbtq rights, despite what your comment tried to imply.
Re suicide. It’s not so much that the data supports my point because i never made it, but it completely destroys yours.
40: The fact that I don’t align with your political purity tests is fine. These decisions comprise all of society, and should never be just a fight against a political party because peoples’ choices and dispositions, including candidates and party platforms, change over time.
Re: data – You made or tried to make a point by providing its url. Thanks for being honest enough to acknowledge that it’s not so much whether it supports your point, or lack of a point.
Here’s the thing about liberals trying to hitch their wagon to the trans debate: the very definition of being trans is, just like the concept itself, too fluid to put a “proper” definition on and embrace. Isn’t the whole concept of genderfluidity just, “fuck it, today I feel more like a man?” How do you support something that the very definition of changes on a seemingly daily basis? How do you convince anyone that THIS is the cause to throw all of your support behind when all this other fuckery is going on?
Trans people have a right to exist, absolutely. And they always have, despite what MAGA seems to think. Trans kids should have the right to access counseling any any non-permanent gender affirming medical care – puberty blockers being one of them. The percentage of trans adults that detransition is so low that the whole, “well what if they change their mind?!” argument is laughable. What I do have a problem with, and what will get me labeled as a TERF every goddamn time, is what Pete is saying: trans athletes shouldn’t be competing against athletes that are competing in a division that aligns with their biological sex. There are just too many what ifs (and too many assholes alpha bros registering for female divisions and making a mockery of trans athletes) to make it a fair and level playing field. The whole “protect women omg!!!1!” argument of it all is bullshit. I don’t need to be protected from trans women. I’ve met some incredibly kind, compassionate trans women (but fuck you Caitlin Jenner). What I need to be protected from is the assholes that think women are inferior beings and are simply existing on this earth to be fuckable mommy maids.
I’d vote for Buttigeg in a heartbeat for a myriad of reasons outside of his feelings on trans athletes. He’s a solid dude with a good background and gives me Obama vibes. And he’s a veteran who actually understands the heavy implications of sending troops and weaponry off to fight in a political dick measuring contest, which is more than Commander Bonespurs can ever say.
Fine, i made my point that increased rates of suicidality among trans people isn’t unquantifiable conjecture shunned by psychiatrists. Glad we agree.
Also I am not subjecting you to a political purity test, i am pointing out how bad you suck at lying.
@34 Suicide risk factors among trans kids are unquantifiable! Blackmail!
@37 [provides quantification]
@39 I don’t care about data!
Helluva turnaround there, Feebs. Way to demonstrate intellectual consistency! Wanting more trans kids to survive to adulthood may give you terrible feels, but it’s important to many people, especially those (like me) who have trans kids.
@43: Sorry to belabor the point, but you never defined your point as you stated in @40: “It’s not so much that the data supports my point because i never made it”
You can’t then say that that your point is to negate my point. That’s pointless as is asking you what you think I lied about.
@44: Your kid has every reason in the world to survive into adulthood.
45 you lied about your political beliefs @29 and you’re the one who said the data i supplied proves that trans ppl have higher rates of suicidality and/or isn’t unquantifiable conjecture shunned by psychiatrists take ur pick either way you’re still wrong and a bad liar
@47: Put down your phone and drive.
Guys, pheebs is just seriously the worst…
Btw, you called Pete a humanitarian, one that you can get behind. I don’t think you understand what the definition of that word is.
Humanitarians first and foremost believe that no human should suffer and are advocates for human rights. Their core principles are compassion, impartiality, and humanity.