Comments

1

Stupid’s gonna stupid. Let Darwin do his job.

2

White privilege is a shitty vaccine.

4

So, thanks to this astro-turfed "movement," workers facing genuine economic hardship have been convinced to turn their animus against experts in public health and the politicians who trust their expertise, and not against the robber barons who keep them perpetually one paycheck away from penury.

I think that answers the question of why this movement exists.

5

@1 Catalina Vel-DuRay, @2 DOUG, @3 CatRidingRoombas, and @4 Pox News: I nominate you all for the WIN! Well said, all of you, and Bravo! I couldn't say it any better--you nailed it.

6

I am really disappointed the WSP didn't issue citations; less from any desire to punish these idiots, but more to document attendees for transmission tracing and to send the less committed home early, hopefully virus-free.

7

I'm at the point now of saying open all the churches, gun shows and Trump rallies and let natural selection run its course.

8

Any word yet if Jay's gonna resign so that guy in the pic can get his job, back? He's an Excellent speller! I bet he'd make a vasty better Governor than Chairman Timmy!

Any word if those scndmndmt dudes bagged any stray Viruses? I bet if they fired into -- emptied out into -- a sneeze, they could cull down a passel of 'em! Get it on the Utubes, retire! Beat the Bug!

@6 -- nah -- they were all White
& from the so-called 'right' so
Obviously they get a Pass.

9

@7 -- while I can Seriously appreciate the sentiment, they'll still Demand Medical Care and, with the utterly Incompetent trumpfy 'at the helm,' take down some of those por souls, too, and their God only knows how many more...

10

But it's OK to attend an organic farmers market? The hypocrisy is pretty thick in Seattle. Anyone running around in public with a weapon is generally insane, COVID-19 has nothing to do with it.

11

Thank you for bringing these folks' voices into the press. It's important because if they are totally absent, it just feeds the conspiracy fire.

I don't support this movement to open up, but this nationalist brouhaha masks some real grievances that people have.

There is room for a positive, science-based, evidence-based discussion about whether or not we are missing to many non-COVID-related illnesses, for example, and this has been brought up in national papers as well. Too bad people like Beth Jones don't have access to another outlet for their real concerns.

12

@6 LouChe: I wondered about that, too. Good point.
@7: I agree with you and xina (in another related thread). Let's just let these brainless MAGA idiots die. Now if only Trumpty Dumpty, Dencey Pencey, Mitch McDumbbell, Babyface Kavanaigh, Bill Barf and their RepubliKKKan Evil Empire die off, too.
@8 kristofarian: No way should Governor Jay Inslee resign over this idiocy!

13

I am less curious about the personal motivations of people who wave Confederate and Nazi flags (along with the US flag). I am curious, however, to know where the terrorist organizers are getting funds to hold their rallies. That would be useful journalism.

14

Cartoon fantasies and Darwin do help to relieve stress among liberals it seems.

15

All in all, it was a good piece except, "...a woman's reproductive rights and a man's right to own a weapon to mow down large numbers of people do not seem like the same thing."

That's because it isn't the same thing. Just disingenuous bullshit on your part.

16

15

hmmm....
which kills a million people a year in this country?

17

@1, 3 unfortunately stupidity doesnt exist in a vacuum. If they get sick or get into accidents on their way to/from these Klan rallies then that puts more stress on the healthcare system.

These people should all be thrown in jail, and if they get sick, medical care should be denied.

18

It is a positive sign that the responsible adults in Washington state have done a sufficient job social distancing and brought down our infection rate enough so these tantrum-throwing children don't fear dying a gruesome death in a tent and being buried in a mass grave. That said, the list of "essential" and "non-essential" is rather random throughout the country, and we should adopt a procedure that has more transparency and input so people have more belief in the determinations. We are in a marathon, not a sprint, we need to think of long-term processes.

19

Logan Haylor, 24, is an apprentice ironworker from Kent who lives with his grandparents...“My goal was to move out by the end of this year,” he said. “Jay Inslee took that away from me.”

LOL you can't make this stuff up. I thought these people considered themselves bootstrappy, rugged individualists? The Party of Personal Responsibility and all that.

20

@16, what do abortions have to do with the deaths of people?

21

Amazing so many people believe they will have jobs when hundreds of thousands of people get sick and die because they refuse to stay home. I cannot even begin to comprehend the stupidity.

Meanwhile: Harvard report: US will need to do 20 Million Tests A DAY by mid-Summer to re-open the Economy

23

@17 Brent Gumbo: If any of these protesting MAGA idiots become ill from coronavirus, there is a very good chance they won't have sufficient medical supplies, or even testing equipment. Hopefully 2020 is the year of Make America Think Again, the Democratic Party prevails in a fresh blue wave, and the entire Trump / Pence neofascist regime rots in prison. MAGA followers blindsided by hate politics and propaganda have nobody to blame but themselves for choosing so vile, destructive, and incompetent a leader.
@18 Incredulity: Agreed.
@19 Brent Gumbo: I know, right? We really need a vaccine for MAGA stupidity. The deeply red Southeastern United States
@20 Brent Gumbo: That 404 troll is already dying of TRUMPVID-19, while affirming your point.

24

@21 xina: I agree-- the level of MAGA stupidity is beyond mind-boggling.

25

Look at these numbers. Are they just abstractions to the idiots who want to reopen everything? THESE ARE HUMAN LIVES.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

26

Gotta be tough to have your own personal armory and not be able to shoot this virus right between the eyes. To the justifiably pessimistic author, I'd submit that an overlooked commonality that's somehow persevered across political viewpoints is the perception that the virus is real. Still, in this hyper-individualistic and atomized society, it's seemingly every woman and man for themselves in terms of how to manage it. The shit may really hit the fan as blue collar types, who loathe liberalism but are dependent upon its capital, are simply unable to gain employment as investment dries up. Meanwhile, I'll say again that as long as moderate and progressive people fail to question in good faith the societal changes underway, we'll continue to cede the narrative to the far right.

27

@23, continued: ...."The deeply red Southern United States..." and communities voting Republican are in a food desert. This is largely because of lack of funding for healthcare, refusal to expand on Medicaid, and lack of fresh, healthy meats, produce, and other food sources found in grocery stores due to the regional takeover of Wal*Marts and other big convenience store conglomerates, pizza deliveries, and fast food. Diabetes, heart disease, and preventable cancers are on the rise in this part of the country. Women' s health issues are being fully ignored.
MAGAs are so blindsided that they're already killing themselves and each other---even without the spread of the TRUMPVID-19 pandemic.

30

Virus cases outside of densely populated areas have been a trickle so far. It would be the height of irony if these protests are the vector that brings it to small town and rural America. Judging by the rounded and late-middle-aged physiques of many of the participants, it's doubtful that catching it will be a walk in the park for many of them. Good luck praying it away.

32

A reminder that there's no shortage of idiots in the world. With numb nuts like these we're sure to have a new surge and an extended period of social distancing and lockdown for non-essential businesses.

Meanwhile, my nephew's wife found a new job within a week of being laid off from her retailing job. And I've seen and heard plenty of commercials and ads from organizations that are hiring. A trip to the pharmacy today took me past places that had "now hiring"
signs in the window including an Ace and Lowe's.

Inslee could let freedom ring tomorrow and there's still a very wide range of former activities that I would NOT return to. I'd continue to avoid eating in restaurants now being hyper-aware of how dangerously unsanitary these can be or going to movies, clubs, bars, theaters or other crowded venues where you're usually breathing in others' exhalations.

When there's a proven effective, widely available vaccine against coronavirus, I'll go back to the old normal. So, if some of these protesters are counting on the return of patrons like me and my family they're shit out of luck.

If there are other sane and sober people like my family (I know for a fact we're not alone), things won't go back to the way they were even if we throw open all the doors tomorrow.

To think everything everywhere will return to the old normal is indeed delusional.

34

@trolling trolly Troll

"xina pleads and
shows faux-concern
in depth report at 11."

like a wee yipper dog
always doggin the
Womenfolk

Just curious -- when are you going
back to your Fantasy
Island?

Or your
Ski Resort
in the Alps?

36

Fucking idiot Trumptardians and gun nuts... The only reason you need a fuckin' AR-15 is 'cause you have a 3" dick... Setting all that shit aside, fuck the fishing ban! Why? Because people will travel and spread fucking virus... Bullshit, go to your nearest Safeway if ya wanna see some people passing virus... Washington is one of only two states that banned fishing - it's healthy outdoor activity AWAY FROM OTHER PEOPLE. And WDFW is still planting trout my license paid for except the only people getting them are the eagles, osprey, herons and cormorants. I can do my own protest by going and fishing ALL BY MYSELF...

37

@34: kris means YOU, Buzzy Nutz. lol Try to keep up, even if your TRUMPVID-19 addled pea brain hurts.
You're not good at this trolling thing, are you?

38

@37: To clarify, the comment @37 was meant for @35.

39

You hate the Womenfolk
Why buzzy nutz?
Too Strong
4 U?

42

Gregory, you'll prolly live despite your harrowing adventure among the unmasked undesirables.

Results from a new test for coronavirus antibodies among randomly selected subjects in LA show that the coronavirus infection is vastly more widespread and its mortality rate is much, much lower than previously believed—by a full order of magnitude.

LA County Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said the much higher estimate of cases puts the coronavirus mortality rate around .1% or .2%. The mortality rate for the seasonal flu is around .1%.

Previous antibody tests in Copenhagen and Santa Clara County CA estimated the coronavirus mortality rate at .16% and .14%, respectively.

But despite the greatly diminishing viral danger, your bravery remains admirable, nonetheless.

https://bit.ly/2Kjwe6O

43

For WTO 1999 they trucked in the MPs from Fort Lewis (I remember overhearing one trying to impress a woman in a laundromat afterwards with how he'd used his "dummy-be-good stick"). It was made illegal to own a gas mask, lest it interfere with the police's ability to deploy chemical warfare on the populace. Many of you have your own memories of disgust and outrage at acts committed so multimillionaires could gather and eat shrimp undisturbed. My how things change. Now gather you for the right to become a vector of pandemic, with a firearm strapped to your fat ass: but please shower first out of consideration for the police who'll lovingly kiss it.

45

This talking head keeps saying he genuinely wanted to understand why people were there and said nothing about the violation of our inalienable natural rights under the constitutions..... not much of a journalist. Just a sad, pathetic opinion piece.

46

Well Buzz, in case there's one person reading these comments who's so unclear on 20 year old history as to fall for your blatant distortion of the facts: there were vastly more law-abiding working class union members marching at WTO that the small number of Portland anarchist collective members who smashed windows and lit trashcans, giving the SPD the green light to wade in with tea gas and rubber bullets. It's almost as if they were paid agent provocateurs straight out of the Czar's Okhrana, but unlike some, I won't make assertions not grounded in documented fact. however, as an olive branch to you, I will repeat the observation that the Left stupidly and selfishly abandoned its working class base to embrace the managerial elites, expecting them to die off instead of dumb down and fall into the hands of right-wing demagogues.

49

"Loftis explained to me their strategy is engagement and education over enforcement."

Oh, barf. I imagine if the crowd had been mostly African-American males, the "engagement and education" would've gone out the window.

52

2,500 people rallied for a variety of different issues... and this is cause for concern because... why? Very small number of people, mostly just angry cranks and assorted losers. Now, if it were 250,000 we could talk.

53

Dear everyone attending this rally, please die from COVID and kindly take your families with you. <3

55

@53 Nope. Just wishing for the deaths of the already terminally stupid that bungee jump into an abyss self-imposed Darwinism. May they all lick door handles and drift in the sweet embrace of respiratory failure.

56

51

Cool, maybe you'll get to vote for Dino, Tim Eyman, or Matt Shea. Enjoy yourself!

Inslee (and most Washingtonians) have done an awesome job saving lives here.

58

What a sanctimonious piece of garbage...I'm sure if this snowflake lost her livelihood (probably in Mommy's basement so not much of a monthly nut) she may change her virtuous opinion.

Love how the Left always poses as "believers in science" yet disavow scientists and white papers proving this expensive and harmful one size fits all does zero to mitigate the spread. The curves peaked months ago and from one poorly run Seattle nursing home we get libtards like Inslee and Gates demanding to tell the plebes what to do. Authoritarianism masked as compassion.

Those who would give up their liberty for security wind up with neither-B. Franklin

59

What a sanctimonious piece of garbage...I'm sure if this snowflake lost her livelihood (probably in Mommy's basement so not much of a monthly nut) she may change her virtuous opinion.

Love how the Left always poses as "believers in science" yet disavow scientists and white papers proving this expensive and harmful one size fits all does zero to mitigate the spread. The curves peaked months ago and from one poorly run Seattle nursing home we get libtards like Inslee and Gates demanding to tell the plebes what to do. Authoritarianism masked as compassion.

Those who would give up their liberty for security wind up with neither-B. Franklin

60

Follow the neo-Nazi money funding the right-wingers who push this seditionist propaganda.

61

59: What Franklin actually said was "Those who would give up ESSENTIAL Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Social distancing doesn't deprive any of us of "ESSENTIAL liberty". There's a difference between freedom of speech or NOT being forced to let soldiers sleep in your house-that's when you've given up ESSENTIAL liberty-and hitting the bars, getting tattoos or eating a King Dog at a Mariners' game-those are just things we'd LIKE to do but that it's not safe to do until we get a proper testing regimen in place.

We all have a moral obligation to take this seriously and to make sure that nothing any of us do causes a massive spike in infections. It's not the fucking flu.

62

Trump and the GOP have done all they could to stoke these sentiments by delaying the stimulus checks for ordinary working-class people, by fighting to make those checks as pitifully small as possible, and by allowing creditors to cheat the people who need the stimulus funds more than anybody else-working class people of all races, ages, genders, identities and orientations-by letting the creditors attach the checks for back debts.

If the Ro Khanna proposal to give all working-class people a $2,000 a month check through the end of the pandemic had been passed by now, hardly anyone would turn up for these events.

And no, it's not elitist or privileged to say social distancing has to go on and that we can't "re-open the country"-or to call bullshit on Trump's implication that the shutdown is an injustice against the country and- the only thing he cares about-an injustice against him-because we all know there was no alternative to doing a shutdown. Nothing else was going to flatten the curve, Covid-19 was never just going to stop on its own, and Covid-19 was NEVER something you could truly call "no big deal". Most of those who have died from Covid-19 have been working people...the privileged-the ones who actually fund Trump-are all in their luxury bunkers just like Trump is. And Trump, despite all his endless fake comments about how much he allegedly "loves" the working stiff, doesn't care if any of you live or die-ok, he'd like to see you live long enough to vote for him in November, but beyond that, he has never fought for you and never been on your side. To Trump, all of you are the folks who work for the contractors he always stiffs on his bills-nothing more.

While we're on the subject...

It was never going to make any real difference to "ban travel from China", and Trump never actually imposed a travel ban on China, and Covid-19 wasn't something China DID to us or intentionally created. It was a sickness that spread by accident and could just as easily have spread from anywhere else. Nothing China could have done could have kept Covid-19 from simply happening.

In addition, no country has ever "powered through" a pandemic through the sheer force of will of its "Great Leader"-and can we please have a freaking moratorium on the use of the word "great"? We're a country which is a mix of good and bad things like...oh I dunno...virtually every other country, and it's not as if the place was in the shitter before January 2017. Why does anybody NEED to keep being told the country is "great"? What does "great" even mean anymore? It's not as though we're obligated to worship the country simply for existing, and proclaiming the "greatness" of a nation 24/7 is the kind of thing Hilter, Stalin, and the Kimocracy of the DPRK demand of their populations.

A healthy country, secure in itself, doesn't need to pressure its citizens to shout its alleged "greatness" to the rooftops.

63

I'm betting this writer doesn't claim to be an objective reporter. This is a beautiful example of bigotry and paranoia. I wonder if he reads research and actual data on what he reports. My guess is the goal is not accuracy, but to demean those that don't share in his delusion. Was he going about his business this past December and January wearing a mask? Was he living in fear of death from viral infections and upset about the harm he and others were doing to the elderly? You realize the virus was in Seattle at least by Nov '19. Did he care about it then? Why don't you care about all the death from nosocomial infections every year and have outrage that we don't shut down the state for every wave of infection? Do you know the true fatality rate for COVID-19? Do you drive and go to the grocery store? If so, you and those around you are at a higher risk of dying from accidents, prescribed medications, cancer, heart disease, and living. Perhaps you were misinformed that living doesn't carry risk. 
This is hate speech and not based on any constructive truth. "...a woman's reproductive rights and a man's right to own a weapon to mow down large numbers of people do not seem like the same thing." Wow, what a genius. Those aren't the same thing! If you think gun owners believe in mowing people down you should seek professional help. Do you really think those protesting are pushing for the right to massacre? Idiotic. He quotes the commonsense thoughts of some at the rally, then adds his own deranged commentary. It's quite the dichotomy. 
I agree with him about one thing... "we are fucked," but not from this virus. It's from all the physical harm that has and will come from this destructive unscientific shutdown. I'd invite you to visit rural WA where the poor and middle income live, including healthcare providers and small business owners and their employees who now have no means to provide for their families and are suffering actual detriments to health.

64

@63: We know that's you, Mr. Trump.


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.