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The movie theater news has me thinking of this great Stranger cover from 2018.
The movie theater news has me thinking of this great Stranger cover from 2018.

We can go to the movies, Seattle: Soon. Maybe. In a news conference today, Gov. Inslee announced that counties in Phase 2 of Washington's reopening strategy can operate movie theaters at 25% capacity. Counties in Phase 3 can open theaters at 50% capacity. It was a little silly that this took so long—many smaller cinemas were running around 25% capacity pre-pandemic—but I'm glad it's happening. We'll have more info on cinema reopenings on Slog soon, although it looks like many locally owned theaters are already planning to stay closed until next year.

There's also a restaurant update today, per Seattle Times:

Restaurants in second- or third-phase counties can serve alcohol now up to 11 p.m. Those establishments will be able to boost their table size to six in the second phase, and to eight in the third phase.

Trump says he won't negotiate COVID relief until after the election: In a tweet thread, the President announced he'd instructed his representatives "to stop negotiating until after the election." But don't worry, THE BEST IS YET TO COME! McConnell told reporters he supports Trump's decision to ignore the needs of the people, and Pelosi said that "once again, President Trump showed his true colors: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress."

Trump says the stock market is booming. The stock market:

Eddie Van Halen is dead.

An excellent street sticker:


The House Judiciary Committee released its antitrust report: It's a blockbuster, reports The Verge, coming in at 449 pages. I'm going to dig into it for a little bit of nighttime reading, but here's a snippet from The Verge today:

The majority’s report lays out a number of concrete policy recommendations, which, taken together, would drastically change how the tech industry operates. It urges Congress to consider passing commercial nondiscrimination rules that would make large companies offer equal terms to companies selling products and services on their platforms. It recommends barring certain dominant platforms from competing in “adjacent lines of business” where they’d have a huge advantage.

Read their overview here.

Facebook bans QAnon from all of its platforms: Better late than never, I suppose. The updated announcement dropped today, with Facebook posting:

Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content. This is an update from the initial policy in August that removed Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon when they discussed potential violence while imposing a series of restrictions to limit the reach of other Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with the movement. Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts that represent an identified Militarized Social Movement are already prohibited. And we will continue to disable the profiles of admins who manage Pages and Groups removed for violating this policy, as we began doing in August.

Axios notes that "the move comes as Facebook, long accused of bending over backward to accommodate the right, looks to take action against harmful rhetoric coming from conservative groups and figures. Just this morning, Facebook took swifter action than Twitter against a post from President Trump falsely claiming COVID-19 is less deadly than the flu."

Ah yes, that post... Here's the fucked up text that got removed by both platforms:

“Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

Can he even count?! You know you've gone too far when Facebook removes something.

A little beauty break: Vulture dropped an epic list of the 100 Best Animation Sequences in History. Do yourself a favor and check-out for a bit by scrolling the list. If you want a quick hit, jump in and search for three of my favorites: Suzan Pitt, Bruno Bozzetto, and Masaaki Yuasa.

Stephen Miller tests positive for COVID-19: I'll save my tears for the families he's terrorized along the US-Mexico border.

Nice timing: The New York Times just dropped this breaking report:

The Justice Department’s top officials were “a driving force” behind the policy that spurred the separation of thousands of families, many of them fleeing violence in Central America and seeking asylum in the United States, before Mr. Trump abandoned it amid global outrage, according to a draft report of the results of the investigation by Michael E. Horowitz, the department’s inspector general.

The separation of migrant children from their parents, sometimes for months, was at the heart of the Trump administration’s assault on immigration. But the fierce backlash when the administration struggled to reunite the children turned it into one of the biggest policy debacles of the president’s term.

Though Mr. Sessions sought to distance himself from the policy, allowing Mr. Trump and Homeland Security Department officials to largely be blamed, he and other top law enforcement officials understood that “zero tolerance” meant that migrant families would be separated and wanted that to happen because they believed it would deter future illegal immigration, Mr. Horowitz wrote.

Among the report's revelations: Border Patrol agents were reportedly stretched so thin detaining and prosecuting misdemeanor illegal entry cases that they missed serious felony cases.

Wanna watch hours of public comment on Mayor Durkan's budget proposal? Well, lucky you, I've got a link right here. Public comment started around 5:30 pm and will last until ~10 pm or until the person who operates Seattle Channel revolts. I hear ~150 people signed up for the meeting, with 2 minutes of speaking time allotted to each.

Biden told reporters this evening that the second debate should be canceled if Trump remains positive. "I think if he still has COVID, we shouldn’t have a debate," Biden said. The debate is scheduled for next Thursday, Oct. 15.

PSA: SMASH (Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare) offers free and local healthcare to Puget Sound musicians. Musicians of all genres can apply here. Here's what they say:

The benefits:

  • Free and low-cost online options for mental health and substance use disorder therapy sessions and telehealth appointments
  • Hearing screening and custom molded earplugs to help prevent hearing loss
  • Connection to free routine and preventive dental services
  • Preventive health visits with traditional and naturopathic providers
  • Community and advocacy for healthcare on behalf of local musicians

    Eligibility:

  • SMASH serves musicians and music teachers living in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Mason, Kitsap or Thurston counties who perform, record or compose music and earn income at or under SMASH’s income guidelines.

    Income Guidelines:

  • Household of 1: $50,696
  • Household of 2: $104,214
  • Household of 3: $126,753
  • Household of 4: $144,961

    • For more information on the nonprofit contact smash@smashseattle.org, or call 206-495-1285.

    My scary movie pick for tonight is Werewolf of Washington (1973). For those just tuning in, I'm working my way through Scarecrow Video's Psychotronic Challenge. Tonight's challenge is "POLL PLOT," you have to pick a psychotronic film that involves elections and/or voting. I grabbed the Elvira's Movie Macabre version of it, cuz why not.

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