Comments

2

Pretty cool that the entire federal government is hiding information about the pandemic and force-marching the economy and schools open to salvage President Trump's reelection prospects. Very normal timeline.

5

And our state's second coronavirus wave has gotten bad enough, it's gotten the attention of The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/us/coronavirus-washington-yakima.html

P.S. Maybe this does not reflect well on me, but I just loathe Ben Affleck.

7

Just a reminder that the Bubonic Plague is easily treatable with antibiotics.

10

@4: Well, one thing they're plainly thinking is that if they handle all COVID reporting through a no-bid private contractor they can get control of the narrative. Now that the totally legit private company TeleTracking is handling the data, I predict we will very soon see a dramatic improvement in death statistics! In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see COVID death stats beginning to trend negative, meaning some of the people who already died as a result of Trump's callous incompetence have come back to life and gotten better-paying jobs than the ones they lost!

13

If the city wants to tangle with a railroad, forget the Burke-Gilman "missing link" and tell the damn Union Pacific to allow the city access to fix the Fourth Ave S viaduct.

15

@14:

Only a complete idiot would start popping corn NOW for an election that's nearly four months away. Hope you like the taste of Styrofoam and ashes.

Also, I think we can safely assume you're our regular/resident account hopping troll - the inappropriate and pathological use of the "royal we" always gives you away.

16

@6 Were too busy watching old episodes of "Muppet Babies" looking for hiden messages from Q in the heartland to care about some china flu.

18

At some level, I feel kind of sorry for Durkan - the circumstances of June were extraordinarily difficult to navigate for any elected politician. Maybe she'll recover, maybe he career is over but it just goes to show how much luck is involved in outcomes. One of our worse impieties in this modern world is giving praise to Fate for the works of Fortune.

21

@17/19: Then which city council member do you prefer become an interim mayor until the next election? State your reasons why.

22

@18 Well, sure - that's what I'm saying. No politician wants to deal with a natural disaster or civil strife. If they had their way, their whole time in office would be nothing but routine punctuated by ribbon cuttings. Some of them get that outcome and some do not. Its all in the hands of Fortune. When crisis comes, they take their guess at what will happen (maybe it'll be the Summer of Love!, or "someday it will all disappear") and then it either works out or it doesn't - again, Fortune's doing.

The ancients understood this but the pernicious influences of Christianity and Modernism have made us forget.

23

Marmot? What’s next, nihilists?

25

I called Murray, Cantwell, and Smith's office this morning about the CDC data theft. They probably can't do much, but it's important to let your feelings be heard.

27

@6: It's a relatively cool 102 degrees in Phoenix now. The city morgue has run out of space from covid deaths so they're storing cadavers in refrigerated trucks idling along in parking lots.

You call that hype?

28

The only thing to say to someone who insists Trump is sure to win in is "what odds will you take and for how much?". Anything else is a waste of electrons.

Someone really certain would go 100 to 1, right?

29

Is there any reliable polling on Mayor Durkan's favorability?
My guess is she gets re-elected handily.
she is one tough, skilled politician and, as 21 asks, who is the alternative?
I don't see any of the obvious candidates being able to muster city-wide support. Progressives are most likely to have their usual internecine cat-fights in the primary and then you have some weakened Cary Moon type candidate.
Durkan won by 15 percentage points last time, that is a lot of ground to make up.

33

30/31: Durkan was a US attorney, so I'd suspect she had her eye on a Dept. of Justice job in DC rather than anything in Olympia. If Inslee gets a promotion, there are too many other people in line for that job. Whoever wins the Lieutenant Governor election in the fall will be the first person promoted, but there are others with their eyes on the job in 2024, notably Bob Ferguson. It's really hard for politicians to go from a City of Seattle elected office direct to a statewide one.

34

@32 I don't claim to know what's going to happen - you're the one who's so sure it'll be Trump.

But I wouldn't actually bet with you - you have the reek of a welcher.

35

@32: The only reason anyone could be for Trump at this point is to spite the democrats or a preference for chaos governance. Forget politics, Trump is too mentally ill to implement policies driven by ideology so essentially to be for Trump is to be for chaos.

His reelection would continue to be an administration driven perhaps only by Jared and a few others who must continuously scramble to get and hold the president's stream-of-conciousness attention.

37

@32 Can't help but notice you didn't offer any odds of your own there, Luka.

I suppose if you keep living in the past like that, you never have to contemplate your future risks and rewards, eh?

39

Will the Trump MAGAt clan really give up their children to their leader? Are they truly willing to do that? Are they truly willing to let that happen? I would like to believe not, but I am truly not certain.

40

@35 Trump still has the support of your party's base, as the polls clearly show. Your party stands for the status quo, even or especially in the face of events that shift the ground the status quo rests on.

The convulsions in the base of your party -- the conspiracy theories, the politicization of masks and closures, the rejection of medical expertise -- all point in the same direction: "keep the social order the way it used to be, at any cost."

This is because the base of your party is something you have found in a crisis that you yourself are not: conservative.

41

@38 As a troll and all-around online asshole myself, I think you're underestimating the ability of people like me and Feebles to build and sustain the coping mechanisms that allow us to live with ourselves.

Hell, after all these years it should probably be regarded as a vocation, or at least a skill, rather than a pathology. Personally all I'm missing at this point is someone willing to pay me to keep at it, and I'll admit to being a bit envious of anyone who's managed to land a position like that.

42

The trolly troll is certainly triggered today, isn't he?

44

@27 Is the right wing talking point about the seasonal flu being more lethal than COVID no longer in use? Or did I just never notice the refrigerated trucks for all the people who died from the flu in years past?

But don't worry, once the White House gets hold of all the data from the hospitals they're gonna fix those numbers so they can be all "Mission Accomplished" at the RNC. The decades long con of the WHO, CDC and Fauci has finally been exposed! Take off your masks and party like it's 2016!

45

Donald Trump wants you to hurt your own child for his re-election. Join the fight and say #NotMyChild. https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1283785952586895360

46

Florida will be #1 (new cases) in a week. What will it be like by the RNC clan rally? After?
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

The GOP wanna kill kill kill.

47

@40: Your trolling doesn't warrant a response (besides this).

48

@44 Hospitalizations and funerals might turn out to be a little harder to cover up than that, I think. My guess is that the CDC data theft will be yet another overreach that gets walked back within three news cycles. But I probably shouldn't try to predict the behavior of a cornered rat, eh?

As for the flu, that stopped being a thing when worldwide COVID-19 deaths surpassed the lower bound for annual influenza mortality estimates a couple months ago, and now that we're above the upper bound as well there's nothing left to shout about.

The new thing is "but nobody's dying in Florida." We know how that will turn out, of course, but the point of these things isn't to be right about their predictions or anything else, the point is to keep shouting at top volume, forever.

49

raindrop @47: You misspelled "I have no adequate remaining defense of my party."

50

Fuck Donald Trump and his science-denying White House. All of these fuckers want to kill you and your kids for another buck.

51

FLU-S-A , we’re number 1

53

@29 -- I think a recall election for Durkan will fail (she will be retained). There are simply too many people (like me) that don't think this calls for a recall. You recall people when they have done something illegal, not when they are just bad at their job or piss off the city council.

On the other hand, I think Durkan will lose her reelection bid, probably to Gonzalez. The main reason Durkan won the election last time was because she ran against an extremely weak candidate. In comparison, she looked qualified. In contrast, Lorena Gonzalez is head of the city council, which means she would be the most qualified person to become mayor since Norm Rice. While in general Seattle is tired of electing new mayors every four years, Durkan has pissed off too many people, even before this latest debacle.

55

@52 The 7-day rolling average of daily deaths bottomed out at about 515 on July 5. As of yesterday, it's up to 760. So a 50% increase in deaths per day over the last 10 days. So yeah, the media interested in accuracy don't mention that deaths are dropping because ... they aren't.

58

@54 A complete reshaping of our economy and society is inevitable, sober or no, but either way it will by definition result in something other than what anyone currently considers "normality."

62

I want Kshama Sawant to become mayor so I can pick up some cheap property.

63

@49: Even as a Republican, why do you think I have the duty to defend the Republican party in its current state? As a Democrat, you don't have that obligation for your insufferably arrogant party either.

It's like just because you're married doesn't mean you have to defend the transgressions of your spouse.

As John Boehner said way back in 2015, it's the Trump party now.

65

@61: I was using worldometers (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/), but OK, I'll play along. Your data shows we bottomed out at 1.76 deaths/million/day on July 8, and we're up to 2.15 deaths/million/day today. You might notice that 2.15 is larger than 1.76, which indicates an increase in deaths over the last week. So yeah that's probably why the lamestream media isn't saying deaths are decreasing.

70

A fine illustration of what I've been saying.

The point with Feebles and his kind is never to make accurate predictions or to be factually correct, the point is always to keep shouting, as loudly as possible.

73

FDtRump, Sunday night 7Dec41,
"People die, ships burn and sink, the Emperor of Japan sends me love cards, The USS Arizona will come roaring back tomorrow better than ever."

74

72

That's been the Repub slogan for awhile now. The last R administration brought us 9/11 and Iraq/Afghanistan. Also, see their never ending battle against accessible healthcare.

They could also go with " Fuck you, pay me."

But anyway, Feebs isn't even from the US and doesn't know shit about "the heartland" or fantasy "real Americans".

75

Err, 74 is @71

77

@63 The Democratic party certainly has its flaws, but I have no problem understanding and defending the beliefs and behaviors of the people who comprise its base.

Do you have anything in particular you'd like me to defend? Perhaps a specific instance of insufferable arrogance in the party's base? I think I can at least muster a reasonable apologia for the core supporters, tedious though it may be.

But you are incapable of doing the same for your party.

80

In hindsight, I'm kinda surprised we managed to stack up 77 comments in here before we got an "I know you are but what am I?"

81

@79 I hate to break this to you, but if Micah Xavier Johnson didn't make Black Lives Matter shut up and go away and stop bothering you, this isn't going to make much of a dent either.

85

@83 Odd, then that support for Black Lives Matter is stronger than it's ever been, isn't it?

How on earth could this happen when you and your fellow travelers have been energetically pointing out all these things that you know for a fact will erode public support for Black Lives Matter?

89

@87 If there's one thing Americans aren't afraid of, it's telling you what they really think.

But if you want to project your own personal cowardice onto all of your countrymen, have at it I guess?

90

@89:
The MAGA'ts live in terror of living in a society without a militarized police force to protect them from,; brown people, women gays, pretty much everyone, sad, and pathetic, but there it is.

91

79

Nobody hates Officer Schoop or his family. Well, except maybe GermanSausage.

86

Social workers respond to scary, violent situations all the time. Ask anyone who's been in the field for DSHS -- especially CPS. They walk right into full tilt meth houses and remove kids.

92

86

And ya'all are always working to belittle them and defund them. Come on.

93

@90 Perhaps, but boy howdy are they ever ready to lay it all out for you when you ask them about it, aren't they?

95

(Spoiler alert)
WWW3 is When When When he keeps his temporary job for now...peace will be When he doesn't and we get to see what the country's like after he takes all the creepy skin crawling trolls down with him like the last scene of Jason Goes to Hell.

98

@93: MAGA'ts think Rambo .ovies are documentaries, sad pathetic wanna-be's sitting on a couch, terrified of the world around them, watching Walker Yexas Ranger and saying to themselves, "I could do that"

100

@94 David, I'm not sure you realize this but what you're suggesting is that there's a whole lot of Americans out there who don't think Black Lives Matter, but are also a bunch of chickenshits.

Those are your people? That's the totally-not-imaginary throng who've got your back on this?

If they're out there, you can have 'em, buddy. But from what I've seen, the people who don't think Black Lives Matter aren't exactly shy about in our present day and age.

103

@99: All of the Democratic proposals are entirely defendable on their merits, but other than trying to stop wi dmill cancer, what are the Republican proposals?
Balanced budget?
Better economy?
Safer streets?
Safer world?

Democrats won WW2
Ended the great depression
Presidents Clinton and Obama reduced both the debt and the deficit
Crime was lower duri g the Obama years
The economy was much better under Obama.

106

@102 Sounds like that Red Scare you mention is still kinda hard to let go of, eh?

107

105

Everyone does. That's why so many people are trying to make our country finally live up to them.

109

@108 Oh no! The commies are gonna getcha! Halp halp!

Come on David, stop being such a fucking pussy. Nobody's trying to throw you in jail for thinking Black Lives don't Matter, or open your mail, or even put you on a little government blacklist for God's sake.

110

Copied from a friend

On May 24th, several hundred protesters stood on the porch of the Kentucky Governor's mansion, many of whom were armed with rifles and demanding for him to come outside. This took place for nearly two hours while many beat on the glass windows of his home. The same group later that day hung an effigy of Governor Beshear from a tree. This group was made up primarily of middle-aged white males and they were protesting over COVID-19 restrictions. In response to this protest, they are now building a fence around the Governor's Mansion. ZERO ARRESTS WERE MADE.

On July 14th, 87 protestors sat in the front lawn in front of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's house. They were sitting in lines with their hands in their laps. This group was unarmed and made up of mostly young people both white and of color who were demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. Other than his grass no part of the Attorney General's home was touched. ALL 87 WERE ARRESTED AND CHARGED WITH A FELONY. They face a sentence of 1-5 years.

This is the story you need to be sharing today. Copy and paste.

111

@102. We're just asking them to practice what they preach, which they don't and you wouldn't even know that anyway. The people who wrote that owned slaves and slaughtered Native Americans, you know, whose lives matter. And it took a damn civil war and a million lives and millions more unjust lynchings and terrorism and assassinated leaders and protesters to even scratch an iota of what those words mean, which you betray and speak without comprehension, like a duck.

112

And again, people spreading the virus think they are practicing eugenics, but they are really practicing slow suicide and passive aggressive negligent homicide. Darwinian fitness has nothing to do with how strong or smart or fast you are, or you skin color. That is isolating phenotypes and reducing the chance to have characteristics fit for your environment.

Not only is the premise of 'fitness' in the mindset of racial supremacists inherently flawed as singularly adapted to one common phenotype, but it is also non-Darwinian because it is deterministic and Lamarckian. Darwinian evolution favors having the right adaptations evolved through pure chance and having the particular expressive phenotype to respond to a changing world and survive is based on genetic diversity. The more variance in the organism, the higher likelyhood to survive changes caused by weather and natural disaster and ecosystem and food chain. Thus, even attempts to form designer babies and genetically modify CRISPR kids will ultimately result in Idiocracy (if we don't beat it there with devolution first).

Speaking of Devolution, our rivals around the world are positively beaming like Borat at the Great Success of how much we shot ourselves in the foot this time. Like nobody could hope to kill this many of our people in a war as we are doing through our own stupidity. Under Trump's nihilistic cabinet and DeVos and all the other shitheads, we have in four years charted a course straight for the dark ages and we're racking up the achievements.

Vote or die you stupid idiots.

113

@111: I would like to buy you a drink, but I'm in the western Pacific, and ports aren't allowing crew to go ashore, , at Merchants Saloon in O-Town you could pay for a drink and leave it on the chalk board for when your friend showed up, but the hipster-yuppie-gentrifing-techie trash ruined rhat.

But I ahould be in Sea-Town this fall, hit up the Ballard Smoke Shop, and a Bourbon is on me.

114

@113. I sincerely appreciate the gesture, bon voyage, and I may yet accept if I am not yet starring in my own snakes on a plane disaster movie by then. When things open up I'll clink one down and get your name on the chalkboard, yupsters be damned. Cheers! Happy days.


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