Comments

1

So Trump is evil. His rally was an abomination. But you cannot support free speech and want to fire people for jus being there. And good riddance to the lawbreakers.

2

@ 1

And John Wilkes Booth was just expressing his 2nd Amendment rights.

3

@2 The ACLU defended the right of Nazi's to march in Skokie. You cannot only support free speech when you agree with it.
And really dumb comparison. The right to bear arms is not the same as the right to use them criminally.

5

Free speech does not mean unlimited speech. There are restrictions placed on the first amendment all the time, especially when there is the possibility of danger to the public. People who want to overthrow the government are a danger, and there was no other reason for these people to be anywhere near the Capitol on that day at that time. It was not a rally. It was not a protest. It was an attempted coup by domestic terrorists. Fuck their speech.

6

@1 KEK55, spot on, and this is a perfect example of what I've said about the extreme left being scary and dangerous in their thinking, as if on cue, immediately displayed by @2 OA.

7

@3: Police and prosecutors routinely violate the 1st amendment rights of regular citizens who are not part the law enforcement. Please see police reaction to protectors last Summer if you need an education.

Good to know the SPD honors the 1st amendment rights of their own while showing absolute contempt for the 1st amendment rights of those who are not a part of the thin blue line of no accountability.

8

Very John Hinckley of that poet.

9

@1 If cops flew 3000 miles to attend a KKK rally, should they be fired?

11

@2 Original Andrew, @5 Brent Gumbo, and @10 Professor_Hiztory for the WIN!
Agreed, seconded, thirded, and fourthed.
Sympathizers of Trump and its domestic terrorists can just sit down and STFU.
What happened on January 6, 2021 SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED AT ALL.
It was an attempted coup, ordered by Trump, to illegally overthrow an otherwise peaceful transfer of authority after a FAIR AND JUST GENERAL ELECTION.
And now we have the glaring proof.
Adrian Diaz is a pathetic chickenshit for letting four of the six SPD officers who attended the "Stop the Steal" coup attempt off the hook and still keep their jobs.

12

If there's an upside, prior to Jan. 6 many of my friends did not share my opinion of the SPD. After Jan. 6 about half of them realized what I had been talking about.

Today with only 2 of 6 officers fired, they understand the SPD has no interest in reform. Most people intuitively fall back on the few bad apples argument when they see something like this. When they see a decision designed to protect those bad apples they realize the problem is the whole bunch.

The council needs to remember this when the next SPD contract comes up, but if history is any guide they won't.

13

Rich and Dr. Jeff Duchin: when will booster shots for those of us vaccinated be made available to fend off against the dangerously spreading Delta variant of COVID-19?

14

@9: Same answer If cops flew 3000 miles to attend a BLM rally.

15

@6 is correct, @10 is incorrect.

16

They weren't fired for having opinions but for breaking various laws. "scary and dangerous" eyeroll.

17

Nearly one million deaths in this country was not enough to convince people that COVID is a real public health threat. let alone the millions worldwide. So now it's mutated and Delta is going to try to take out every single unvaccinated person. And huge swaths of the world population don't even have access to the vaccine like Americans who are refusing it.

When all of the children who cannot be vaccinated start to die en masse from Delta, we have all of the unvaccinated assholes to blame. But this country has made it clear that death is the ultimate freedumb. This is the beginning of a mass extinction event. COVID is not going to wipe out humanity, but it's going to kill enough people to start. The next virus will be worse. Wipe out more and more of the population every time the next one comes along and how long will it take? Delta isn't hospitalizing or killing the vaccinated. Will the next strain? Will the next virus?

People don't want to get vaccinated because they do not want to live. Period. Watch every single video of people dying from COVID right now and how they beg for the vaccine or cry and blubber and whine and scream about how stupid they were not to get vaccinated (if they haven't already been intubated).

The ONLY thing people in this country care about is money.
If you don't want to get vaccinated, then you should have to pay your hospital bills (or your family have to pay your hospital bills) at 100%. NO INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO REFUSE. I mean if you are going to stand by your beliefs, stand by them!!! Stay home, be sick, die. That is the ultimate in owning whoever you think you are owning by refusing to get vaccinated.

Enough bullshit.

18

@12: There's a difference between the crowd that stormed the capitol in violence and the crowd that never entered the building and weren't violent. That's the difference between the two and the four.

If you don't bequeath that difference, then you don't love this country or democracy.

19

@13, after the rest of the world gets their first jabs. I would hope, anyway.

20

@17: Let me get this straight. You want the grieving family to absorb 100% of the medical costs even though there was a valid insurance policy just because the one who died of covid (let's say the husband) wasn't vaccinated?

And let's say the wife is undergoing breast cancer treatment. Still a no?

21

@16 Alden, no one here has suggested that the officers who broke laws shouldn't have been fired. That you can't make a distinction (or lack such basic reading comprehension) between those who broke laws and those who didn't makes you a scary individual.

For the four remaining officers, if you want to discuss specific documented conduct that you feel is grounds for being fired, let's have a discussion about it. But under the Constitution, attending a lawful rally ("speech") by the sitting POTUS is not grounds for firing people.

22

@1 Cops have been fired for posting on M4M forums/being on Grindr/whatever because it "impacts public trust," apparently, to know that there are gay cops who fuck. But attending a violent white supremacist insurrection? NP, "freeze peach," it's all good.

24

There's a difference between being unvaccinated due to lack of access and getting COVID and being unvaccinated due to refusal to be vaccinated when full access is available.

So yes, those that REFUSE to be vaccinated, who believe they have a RIGHT to sicken and kill other people (which they don't, already ruled on by the Supreme Court during the state smallpox vaccination mandates), those people ABSOLUTELY should be held 100% responsible for all costs of their hospital care if they get COVID.

LIFE does not motivate these assholes. MONEY will.

Here in Oregon they passed some obscure law back in the '80s that prevents them from mandating health care workers get vaccinated. So the Governor is requiring they get vaccinated or they get tested weekly. Guess what is motivating the holdouts to get vaccinated. They don't want to pay for the weekly testing and their employers are not going to pay for their weekly testing because their employers want them to get vaccinated.

Imagine the nerve to work with sick people and believe you have a right to NOT get vaccinated during a worldwide pandemic.

People want to die. Let them die. And let them pay for it. Fuck them. Every last one of them.

25

@1 I would not expect any intelligence from someone who references KEK in their username, so I totally understand why you think "Free Speech" protects the rights of people attempting to overthrow the government of the United States.

26

@12: "There's a difference between the crowd that stormed the capitol in violence and the crowd that never entered the building and weren't violent."

My comment was about growing mistrust of the police. I believe that view is still protected speech in King County for the time being.

Your point is correct and misses the point. Those who stormed the capital should be both fired and criminally charged. The first amendment does not protect people who commit acts of violence. Hell, here is King Country the first amendment doesn't even protect being who say and write unpopular things.

Those who attended a rally called "stop the steal" and did not attack the capital showed unbelievably bad judgement, but did not commit a crime. The 1st amendment has nothing to do with keeping your job. People are fired for doing and saying far less than attending a "stop the steal" rally all the time.

It's a point @Morty has made and he's correct. I simply don't see how the SPD can maintain any credibility with the public when we know they have active "stop the steal" members within their ranks.

27

@17 & @24 xina +1: Agreed and seconded. Rock on, xina! :)

@20: Let me guess, Elmer. You're forever sulking in your mother's basement hide-y-hole 24/7, hyper-trolling without once coming up for air. Is this simply because you're still unvaccinated by choice, despite readily available COVID vaccine access?

The verdict, Your Honor: We can lead MAGA-stupidified anti-vaxxers to enlightenment, but we can't make them think. I agree with xina. If they're so stubbornly hellbent on dying fahting fer their Free Dumbs, let them die. Good riddance.

28

@26 Casino Royale (and Morty): +2. Well said and summarized. Bravo! :)
Speaking of Morty, I'm surprised he hasn't yet jumped into the comment thread.

29

@22 E, true, the injustice and hypocrisy is tragic, but what does that have to do with #1's comment?

@25 GB, speaking of intelligence, you do realize that "kek" pre-dates some fringe alt-right association that 99% have never heard of, and their comment is something that of course a member of the "alt-right" would say - I guess they're playing the long-game on the username. Also, #1 never suggested anything of the sort.

Scary indeed.

30

@10: 'It was titled “stop the steal."'
@26: 'Those who attended a rally called "stop the steal" and did not attack the capital showed unbelievably bad judgement, but did not commit a crime. The 1st amendment has nothing to do with keeping your job. People are fired for doing and saying far less than attending a "stop the steal" rally all the time. '

Bingo. Everyone attending from Seattle had traveled across the continent, in conditions of personal danger not seen in one hundred years, to our bleak and cold capital, so they could listen to a known and proven liar repeat his known and proven lies -- lies told with the bald intent of destroying confidence in our democratic government. We should fire all of them from any position of public trust they hold, on the grounds we need to keep anyone that foolishly gullible out of our public service. (And that goes triple if we pay them to carry guns.)

31

@24: You act like vaccine resistance is new to covid, it isn't. It happened 100 years ago and practically with every epidemic before and after. Nothing new.

So I suggest you elevate your disposition to be something slightly more humanitarian than:
"People want to die. Let them die. And let them pay for it. F**k them. Every last one of them."

33

@31:"So I suggest you elevate your disposition to be something slightly more humanitarian", Elmer? Uh-huh. Tell that to Trump, its fossil fuel gluttonous KKKorporate RepubliKKKan crime syndicate, hired QAnon thugs, Proud Boys, Patriot Players, and MAGA-stupidified non-vaxxers hellbent on destroying the Earth and all her inhabitants.
"Thank you, Amerwica--it was fun being twicked by an asshole posing as a Pwesident."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA......

Methinks it's past your nap time, ya ultra maroon.

34

@33: Let me illustrate. I have two male friends, lib as much as you are, hate Trump as much as you do, fully aware of the science, but who are playing the cavalier invisible it-will-never-get-me card and and steadfastly refuse to get the vaccine. I know they don't want to die.

Any suggestions?

35

@34: So how come, if your two male friends supposedly understand science, support democracy instead of corporate tyranny, and hate Trump, why are they still refusing to get their shots?

If these buddies of yours are still stubborn anti-vaxxers after a year and seven months, for whatever their rationalization(s) (What?? ---you had a wicked stepmother for a school nurse back in K-8?, Too much Fox TeeVee and other forms of willful misinformation turned your brains to mush? Space aliens will threaten to abduct the three of you if you get jabbed? Pfizer will "accidentally"get Uncle Ed pregnant? Rover, your beloved Golden Retriever will suddenly mutate and grow three radioactive heads?), I have this suggestion: Get over your stubborn fear / anger / rage that your rights are being "violated". Man up and get your shots--the three of you. And lay off the high fructose corn syrup. It's also a deadly silent killer.

If the three of you still choose to remain stubbornly anti-vaxxers, Elmer, you can do a great service to our country by isolating yourselves. I recommend relocating to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And you'd be so close to Florida!

36

@31 No. I will not. Trump didn't give a fuck and let hundreds of thousands of people die ON PURPOSE. These assholes want to refuse to get vaccinated, fuck them, I hope they die. They are now solely responsible for all subsequent deaths and variants and further extension of all protocols like wearing masks, social distancing, being unable to be out and about in society.

You don't give a fuck about ANYONE. You ALWAYS defend the assholes, the fucktards, the white supremacist terrorists, the worst of the worst.

Average cost of COVID related hospital stay: $73,000
Average cost of COVID vaccination $0

37

@35: I'm vaccinated. I have two friends who aren't. Far more who are. I guess I know a wider range of people than you. My situation is not unique. But that doesn't mean I have to stop caring for them, and will still try to convince them.

I took a chance and asked you for your input and I thought you had enough adult in you to return the courtesy. Sigh. I guess we'll all get another unhinged cartoon angry spew in response to this. But who knows? Maybe you got it out of your system and you can be pleasant and respectful for a change.

38

@37: See comment @36. I am in agreement with xina.
I'll be more respectful toward you when you're more respectful towards me.
Respect is a two way street, not a Trumpian one-way thoroughfare, Elmer.
Tell Fidel Castro I said hi.

39

That was better than expected

40

Please spare me, raindrop. You are a nasty piece of work. I only know one person who refused to get vaccinated and in the end she got vaccinated. Why? Because her marriage was going to END. I went to college with her and her husband. I could not fucking believe someone supposedly intelligent, educated, and not mentally ill was refusing to get vaccinated.

Anyone refusing to get vaccinated or talking any anti-vaxx nut bag bullshit would not be in my life and they would be cut out quickly. See, I have a serious progressive, degenerative neuromuscular disease. I am considered at high risk of dying from COVID even if I get a "mild" case as I am 100% vaccinated. So fuck you and fuck everyone who can't be bothered to give a fuck about other people. We'll be coming around to two years soon. Two years of this insanity. And all children under 12 cannot be vaccinated yet.

When children are dying en masse, I guess you'll make excuses for that bullshit, too. I mean how much money was spent using a helicopter to transport an infant girl out of Texas this weekend because she has COVID and all pediatric hospitals are full and Texas and Florida are fighting it out for worst state regarding COVID? I mean FFS even Louisiana's Governor has come around and is begging people to get vaccinated. All of the suffering, sickness, and death being caused by people refusing to get vaccinated needs accountability. They need to be held responsible. They need to pay. They don't get to run around society doing as they please while everyone else who exists has stepped up for the greater good.

Every single asshole refusing to get vaccinated had to get vaccinated to go to school so they would not spread disease. This is no different.

41

Good night xina

42

@34: If they live near you, emphasize you will not share a room with them. Any meeting will be outdoors, after each has furnished paperwork showing multiple recent negative test results. Maintain social distancing, with your large mask worn very prominently. Explain that you value their company (you do, or you would not be meeting with them at all!) but you cannot in good conscience allow any possibility for them to infect anyone else you know.

43

@39: Yeah, well, I'm not here to impress you, Elmer, or any of your ilk. If you're among those hellbent on dying of COVID from stubbornly fahtin' fer yer Free Dumbs, oh well. Good riddance.

@40: Agreed and seconded, xina. I am sorry to learn that despite your being fully vaccinated your health condition leaves you especially vulnerable to all strains of COVID.

44

@24 so all of the african americans who are vaccine hesitant because of america's history with e.g. the tuskegee experiments, you actively want them to die. it's your call as to how they should feel and who is right in this situation, and the price is their life instead of yours. OK, just so we're clear as to who's the monster here.

45

My grandson is dragging his feet getting the jab. We're all at wit's end over it.

46

lol everybody's mad this weekend.
cancel the loans tho, Biden.

47

nyt: What to Do With Our Covid Rage

by Sarah Smarsh, author of “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke In the Richest Country on Earth.

[one brief quote:]

Most importantly, we can direct our rage not at lost individuals but at systems of power that made our grim national death count the only plausible outcome.

Is it so shocking that a caste-based society that exalts individualism and prioritizes profit above wellness — one of the only industrialized nations without universal health care — would fail to rise to the challenges of a collective health crisis?

more at
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/07/opinion/sunday/covid-unvaccinated-anger.html

some comments on the article:

Every day I am confronted with seriously ill people, most of whom are unvaccinated, and have no one but themselves to blame for their battle with COVID.

In no uncertain terms, I make it abundantly clear to their loved one that this was a life threatening crisis they could have avoided. If their hospital charges bankrupt them, they could have avoided it.

If their kids cannot go to college because their parents spent their life savings on COVID medical bills, they could have avoided it. If my patients live thru the disease, I urge them to make sure that everyone they know does not make the same mistake they did.

Second, and equally important, if they live long enough to vote in the next election, I urge them to hold Florida Gov DeSantis for much of this crisis.

His failure to mandate masks was inexcusable. He should not be a resident of the Governor's mansion, rather, he should be a resident of the Florida State Prison.

--Nurse Conny; Miami

"uninsured Americans had the lowest vaccination rate of 22 subgroups examined by Kaiser."

And who has fought day and night to insure all Americans for basic healthcare ?

Who has single-handedly made health insurance and healthcare the most expensive rip-off in the world by demanding "free-market" 17% of GDP healthcare ?

Who has made healthcare a Kafkaesque obstacle course instead of a simple human right.....all so the rich could eat better ?

Who has caused tens of millions of Americans to be uninsured, underinsured and afraid of medical sticker shock and practically divorced from the idea of regular healthcare that every other rich nation's citizen enjoys as a birthright ?

The Greed Over People party will do anything to save a dollar for millionaires while millions of Americans waste away without affordable and accessible healthcare.

Yes, there some on the left and in the middle who won't get vaccinated, but we all know who perfected American healthcare unaffordability, inaccessibility, contempt for science, government and facts.

The Republican Party...which doesn't care a whit about the lives of average Americans.

American voters ought to wake up and show the Republican Party some and anger and contempt if they want to survive.

--Socrates; Downtown Verona, NJ

Thanks, but no. I will maintain my fury at people who caused our regional hospital to close for all “elective” surgeries - especially when those surgeries would alleviate pain and suffering for people I care about.

I will maintain my fury at people who triggered a local nurse (whose husband is a doctor) to plead, “if you refused the vaccine, don’t come. Our hospital is full. We’re exhausted and scared and worn out and we want to focus on the people who want to be part of the solution.”

Fury is an understandable response. Channeling that fury appropriately is important. I draw people closer who demonstrate empathy for others and draw boundaries to protect myself and our society from people who don’t.

This is a time for people with intellectual drive and energy to figure out ways to keep the self-righteous, selfish people who can’t see beyond their distorted version of “it’s my right to infect other people and waste precious medical resources” from gaining more power and influence.

Mary McCue; Bend, Oregon

tonnes more at
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/07/opinion/sunday/covid-unvaccinated-anger.html#commentsContainer

48

angry discussions...
despite our differences:
stop eating red meat!

51

@47 Beat me to it. I just read it in the NYT.

52

@29 Why yes, I do know that there are uses of KEK that predate its adoption by the Fascist Right. However, only a fucking moron would call the attempted coup on 1/6 a peaceful free speech event. It was a violent attack on Democracy, and only a traitor would defend those who attempted to block the lawful transition of our government. All the Seattle Pigs who went are both Fascists and traitors, and do not belong on the public payroll at all, much less in a job with a badge and a gun.

53

@50 right because any nation
that'd elect a series of Dynastys*
can Never EVER be Caste-based.

bush et trumpf
never Happened.

whew!

54

America has a caste system. A country founded on enslaving other people, stating those people are less than human, and then making a separate set of rules that only apply to them is a caste system. Believing there is no caste system is sheer idiocy. Not surprising giving the source, however.

Read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

'Caste' Argues Its Most Violent Manifestation Is In Treatment Of Black Americans
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/900274938/caste-argues-its-most-violent-manifestation-is-in-treatment-of-black-americans

It's truly incomprehensible the level of stupidity and denial of reality that happens on this forum. Especially on weekends when the trolls come out en masse because the staff isn't on duty to delete their bullshit.

55

@50 - Call it linguistic liberties to morph the religious hereditary classes of Hindu society into any class or group of people who inherit exclusive privileges or are perceived as socially distinct. Such a corruption adds needed spice to stale narratives among elite circles in Western societies.

56

Such a corruption
so Much Corruption
G'bmnt 4 Sale Cheap

all's you
need is
Billions.

58

@47 kristofarian: BINGO! Thank you for sharing the spot on target NYT articles! So well said and summarized. You and all quoted NAILED IT.

@47, @53 & @56 kristofarian, @51 & @54 xina, and GreenwoodBob @52: Spot on, as usual. Bravo to the three of you! Agreed, seconded, thirded, and fourthed.

59

"... we as a society broadly frown on nepotism."

and yet a Third of our 'society'
rabidly Endorse the trumpf*
Crime Fambly, the bush
Crime Fambly and I
spose the Clintons
are right up in
there some-
where too.

forgive my blurring
of Caste and Class
in this Country talking
aout Class is Verboten

just ask the reverend Dr. MLK

oh that's right -- the Fascists
Assassinated him Ages ago.
nevermind

60

Thanks! as per
Usual auntie Gee!

61

Just a reminder that most SPD KCSO PC cops aren't fully vaccinated.

And are really bad at mask discipline.

Take care of the problem cops that way.

62

@Will -- so if they Sneeze on ya
it's Assault [with a Deadly Weapon]?

we best Hope those
tasked with Protecting
and Serving we the
Citizenry aren't
gonna Inflict
the COVID
upon us.

wtf?

END the
Mollycoddle.

63

@61 WIll in Seattle: Holy shit, Batman! Now we have to worry about SPD officers (particularly the six who were in on the Attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021) sneezing Delta variant on us, too? :O

@62 kristofarian: Mollycoddle. Thank you for introducing me to a new word.


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.