When visiting Tacoma, dont make any sudden moves.
When visiting Tacoma, don't make any sudden moves. ChrisBoswell / Getty Images

Tacoma cops drove through a crowd of people this weekend. Responding to reports of drivers doing donuts in an intersection, cops descended on an intersection in Tacoma. In upsetting videos of the incident, a crowd forms around one cop car, and then the driver guns the engine and accelerates, knocking some people to the ground and driving over others. The Tacoma PD’s excuse is that the crowd was pounding on the car and the cop was afraid they’d break the windows — as if driving over dozens of people is a proportionate response??? — and there’s no word on what the driver might have done to draw the crowd’s ire in the first place.

It’s been nearly a year since Tacoma police were implicated in the death of Manuel Ellis. Video shot in March of 2020 shows Tacoma cops beating Ellis and aggressively restraining him; Ellis died at the scene of what the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office found was “hypoxia due to physical restraint.”

A new variant of COVID has been found in Snohomish County. It’s the same highly contagious variant that was recently identified in the UK, and it’s shown up in nearly two dozen other states. Wash your hands, wear your masks, stay home — you know what you need to do. I know it’s tempting to go out to bars and to shop and to visit friends and to take off those INFURIATING straps around your ears, but just don’t, just don’t, just don’t.

Watch out, vandals. There is surely no greater crisis facing the Seattle Police Department than vandalism, which is why they have announced tougher prosecution for people arrested for vandalising buildings. Last week, police claim, various windows were broken at the federal courthouse and mega-corp stores downtown. "There was no discussion about what they were fighting for, what type of social justice message,” said Interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz, although police also posted pics on twitter of anti-cop spray paint which seems like a pretty clear message to me.

Thousands arrested in anti-corruption protests. Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets in Russia this weekend, protesting the recent arrest of anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. I can’t stop watching this clip of Russian protesters pelting security forces with snowballs:

The president of Mexico has COVID. Mexican President AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador tested positive this weekend. He’s 67, which is not great! But his symptoms are mild, he says. Mexico has seen around 150,000 deaths from the pandemic, with 7.4 million doses of the vaccine scheduled to be administered by the end of March. (Speaking of March, it’s just five weeks away. Jesus Christ.)

The House will deliver impeachment articles to the Senate tonight. Trump’s trial is set to begin the week of February 8. Two thirds of the Senate must vote in favor of conviction; and then there could be a second vote on whether he’s allowed to run for office again. I’m not feeling super optimistic that Republicans will have the spine to stand up to Trump, even after he’s gone, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess.

Trump fired the White House staff on his way out the door. According to anonymous sources (so, you know, it might not be true), all of the household staff was sent home Wednesday morning so there would be nobody to help the Bidens move in. That includes the chief usher Timothy Harleth, who had been hired by the Trump administration after working at Trump properties for years — he was fired riiiiiight before the inauguration, which explains why they stood on the steps with the doors closed for awhile when they first arrived.

Colleen Echohawk has entered the Mayoral chat: Kroman offers an introduction to the nonprofit leader over at Crosscut.


There is a person named JoJo Siwa. For years, I resisted learning anything about Justin Bieber, Jenna Marbles, Tyler Oakley, and Caylen Walrus, but the willful ignorance of the old cannot stop the young from taking over. Apparently JoJo Siwa is the person we need to acknowledge now, because she just came out as 
 well it’s not really clear what, exactly, but some flavor of LGBTQ+??? This put other queer celebrities in an inadvertently hilarious position of having to construct oblique ways of congratulating her without knowing exactly what they were congratulating her for. Anyway, she has 42 million followers, which is more than you ever will.

A lawsuit by an anti-porn group could result in a ban on sexy tweets & sex workers. The religiously-founded group known as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is using SESTA-FOSTA to go after Twitter for hosting material that exploits minors. Obviously that type of material should be taken down immediately, but adult industry observers are sounding the alarm over the lawsuit, noting that the NCSE has a long history of trying to suppress sexual expression even among adults.

Which is your favorite Himbo Angel? Illustrator Josh Cornillon has been drawing himbo versions of Angel from X-Men for the last few days and I am eagerly awaiting more.

Remembering Larry King. Such a strange, fascinating man. Here are some of my favorite Larry moments.